CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Joe Biden and I are both celebrating birthdays this week. His was Monday. Mine is coming this Saturday.
We are of different generations. He is 81. I’ll be turning 54.
As we age, there’s always a question of when we “peak”. Now I work in a talent and entertainment based industry. And, admittedly, it’s difficult to judge one’s own talent, but I don’t think we’ve reached “peak Chris” yet. I think I’m a better broadcaster today than I was 10 or 20 years ago when I was in my 30s and 40s. I’m certainly a better writer. (The more you do it, the better you get at it.) Yet I’ve known many life-long broadcasters who’ve been on-air past their peak. Most of them needed the money, so they had to keep working. Others simply didn’t know what else they’d do. If they weren’t on-air, they wouldn’t know how to fill all that time in their lives. As I age, I hope neither applies to me. If I’m no longer good at this, I hope I’ll have the grace to move onto something else.
Now consider Joe Biden. No one can argue that we are long past “peak Joe”. At 81 he obviously struggles in all of his public appearances. He can’t deliver a speech. He appears tired and bumbling. It’s likely he doesn’t design any of the policies of our government, although I believe he’s asked ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the big decisions. Jeff Zients is probably the most powerful person in Washington who no one’s ever heard of. He’s Joe Biden’s chief of staff. And, to point out the obvious, no one’s ever voted for him and yet he has incredible power over the government and over the President himself.
The 81 year old President is no longer a vigorous man. I think of my father, two years younger than Biden, who no longer does his own taxes, or balances his own checkbook, or drives an automobile. I think of Joe Biden much the same way. He is literally one stumble or fall away from no longer being a viable candidate for another term.
Chris Conley
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