Dem Governors: More Gerontocracy Please
By 
Voters long believed that President Biden was too old to seek a second term. The issue torpedoed his campaign and saddled his vice president with an extraordinarily short political runway.
But one month after Democrats lost up and down the ticket, party leaders are already struggling with the next age-related question: How old is too old to be the 2028 Democratic nominee?
“There’s no such thing,” insisted Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, 65, of New Mexico.
“It’s not a time of life, it’s a state of mind,” declared Gov. Gavin Newsom, 57, of California, adding that the idea of broadly defining 80 as too old to run was “absurd.”
“When I was growing up, people who were 65 were almost dead,” Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said. “I’m 65. I’m not almost dead.”
As the nation’s Democratic governors gathered for a winter meeting in Beverly Hills, Calif., this weekend, they lamented their party’s messaging challenges and grappled with the widespread defeats. But in interviews with roughly 10 Democratic governors and candidates for governor, no one offered an explicit age limit for the next nominee. And some said that age was irrelevant altogether if a candidate appeared to be in strong shape and was connecting with voters.
“I don’t have an age test,” said Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, 67, though he allowed that he would be “surprised” if any 80-year-olds ended up in the running. “The question is: Are you in the game? Are you — we have an incredible bench, and the bench is sort of a spectrum of ages.”
The interviews illustrated how discussions of age remain delicate and divisive in Democratic politics — and showed that many leading Democrats remain reluctant to publicly criticize Mr. Biden, 82, even as many in the party fault him for Vice President Kamala Harris’s defeat.
What even is happening here? What is the political goal here? It’s not as if Biden controls the party in any meaningful way. He might be angry about being pushed aside so Democrats didn’t lose Virginia and New Mexico along with all the other states they lost, but he’s hardly a Trumpian figure. Is this some sort of personal ambition issue? I mean, it could be but Gavin Newsom is 57 years old and has at least 15 years before anyone would even being to question his age. Of course Newsom is also an insincere asshole:
“I’ve been the guy who was way too young. Now people are saying I’m too old,” said Mr. Newsom, one of several Democratic governors who could seek the presidency. Pressed further on whether he had really heard people saying that, he replied: “Well, no. The too-young part, for sure.”
God, I hate that guy. Marriage to Kimberly Guilfoyle should be enough to disqualify him from future office.
What I really don’t get is the inability of Democratic leaders to deal with the world as it is. Look, there’s nothing wrong with working until you are old if you can handle it. Of course, being able to handle it is a perspective that we very well might lose as we age. However, there are many ways to work. Each and every one of these governors could make a ton of money lobbying, teaching a class here and there, working with foreign governments or corporations, any number of things. But as a politician, your job is to win. Why won’t Democratic leaders prioritize victory, especially on an issue of having very old people run for the presidency?
As with everything else in the last month, Democratic leadership shows itself to be completely, totally useless.