Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1515420
ON Tuesday, 5 November, this year, US voters will elect a pres- ident and vice president for a term of four years. Although the election is 10 months away, it seems that the two candidates of the main parties are already known. Bar- ring some surprising upset, in- cumbent President Joe Biden, a member of the Democratic Par- ty will face his predecessor Don- ald Trump, of the Republican Party, who would be running for re-election to a second, non- consecutive term. At the same time there will also be elections to the US Senate and the U.S. House of Repesentatives. If – as it seems probable – both Biden and Trump are nominated by their respec- tive parties, it would mark the first presidential rematch since 1956. A number of primary election challengers had also declared their candidacies for the nomination of both major parties but these have already been discarded as non-starters. The winner of this election is scheduled to be inaugurated on 20 January, 2025. If Trump wins, he would become the second president to achieve non-consecutive terms. The main issues on which the election campaign will con- centrate concerns democracy itself, besides border security and immigration, economic is- sues, education, foreign policy, healthcare, including the right to abortion, and LGBT rights. Nearly half of potential voters believe Donald Trump is too old to be president, although significantly more believe the same about President Joe Bid- en, according to a poll. A Reuters/Ipsos survey of 1,250 adults showed 48% of people think that the 77-year- old Trump is too old to work in government. This includes 33% of Republicans, with a to- tal of 56% believing that Trump should not run for president again. In yet another poll suggest- ing that voters are dissatisfied with their potential choice of candidates in 2024, nearly three-quarters (74%) believe that the 81-year-old president is too old to work in govern- ment, and that 70% do not think Biden should run for of- fice again. US voters seem to be destined to face an unpalatable choice between two geriatrics. More than two-thirds of po- tential voters (67%) say they are tired of seeing the same candi- dates in presidential elections, with 18% suggesting they are unlikely to vote in November's election if the two main candi- dates are Biden and Trump. As they both seek a second term in office, concerns about the age and cognitive abilities of both Trump and Biden have been raised throughout the campaign trail. Trump has recently faced questions about his own cogni- tive abilities after he appeared to confuse his last remaining serious challenger in the GOP primary, Nikki Haley, with former House Speaker Nan- cy Pelosi during a campaign event. Trump falsely said that his Republican presidential ri- val was in charge of security at Congress when the complex was stormed by his support- ers on 6 January, 2021. In any case, as Speaker, Pelosi was not in charge of Capitol security. He also suggested that former Democratic president Barack Obama was still in office. During a recent campaign ral- ly in Las Vegas, Trump boast- ed about how he passed a test, which is used to detect cogni- tive impairment or signs of de- cline such as dementia. Meanwhile, a clip of a new verbal slip-up from President Joe Biden, in which he referred to Donald Trump as a 'sitting president', sparked renewed online mockery from conserv- atives. Biden has long been noted for a trend of awkward verbal gaffes or slip-ups during pub- lic addresses, going back to his time as vice president from 2009 to 2017. As president, the trend has taken on a new di- mension for many who claim that he, the oldest person to hold the office, is mentally un- fit to lead the nation and point to his gaffes as proof. Others have defended Biden, noting his history with a stutter that may contribute to his public speaking difficulties. I suspect that instead of con- centrating on the issues that really matter, the two sides will be making a lot of fuss on the slips of either candidate, slips that suggest that whoever made them is not fit to run the country. 'There's a lot of political non- sense involved in this,' says ag- ing expert Steven Austad, chair of the biology department at the University of Alabama Bir- mingham. 'Aging makes people different,' but affects them dif- ferently, he adds. "Some people at Biden's and Trump's age are in a nursing home. Others are running marathons and are writing great works of scholar- ship.' Pity the serious US voter if the campaign centres on the verbal slips of the two candidates! A geriatric race is on. Robert's prodigal children The Prime Minister has re- cently been making waves in- dicating that he is prepared to welcome back many who had fallen by the wayside when their political career ended up in a veritable mess. He started with Rosianne Cutajar. She was followd by Justyne Caruana who had to resign twice from ministerial responsibility over a period of two years. Meanwhile, there is now talk of Josianne Cutajar deciding to contest the MEP elections, after she had inexpli- cably declared that she would not be attempting to keep the seat she won five years ago. The biggest catch of all is none other than Robert Abe- la's predecessor, Joseph Mus- cat himself who is being touted as a possible Labour candidate for the EP elections. The Sun- day Times reported this week that the majority of cabinet members say they would sup- port Muscat as a candidate for the European elections. It is known that many Labour Par- ty supporters who had decided to refrain from voting in the EP elections would vote for Mus- cat if he is a candidate. I do not think that politicians who make a mistake should necessarily lose all their polit- ical ambitions for the rest of their life. Everything depends on what kind of mistake it was. There are mistakes that, as Dom Mintoff once famously said, cannot be erased with a rubber. Will the PM also welcome back to the fold Slivio Grixti who is currently at the centre of investigations concerning a disability benefits racket? It is wrong for the Prime Min- ister to welcome back all those who made 'mistakes' without giving the necessary weight to the type of 'mistake' that was made. This sort of attitude under- mines all the attempts that the Labour Party has made to de- pict itself as a serious no non- sense political party. 9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 FEBRUARY 2024 OPINION A geriatric for a US president Michael Falzon micfal45@gmail.com Barring some surprising upset, incumbent President Joe Biden (right) will face his predecessor Donald Trump (left), who would be running for re-election to a second, non-consecutive term