That Presidential Debate

How Bad Was That?

If you lean to the left like me and you're with the progressive, there's no way in hell Donald Trump is acceptable. It goes without saying, but I'm saying because let's face it: Joe Biden looked much worse than Trump - who was largely being himself - and revealed to the world how far gone he was. 

That wasn't just some sleepy forgetful guy there. That is the POTUS looking for a second term and maybe even some of his lost marbles. I kind of brushed aside some of the rumours about how bad his senility was, but there was just no denying it in that performance. Get this: Trump was awful, but we're not talking about that because we're so used to pointing out how awful Donald Trump is, every time he opens his mouth. No, we're taking about just how far gone Joe Biden is towards the happy place. Man, I was squirming listening to him mangle not just his answers but his legacy with it. It was so bad he's going to be remembered for it. 

Look, if you were applying the criterion that maybe Donald Trump isn't compos mentis, you have to apply the same scrutiny to Joe Biden and frankly, he looked further along the road to an unravelled mind than even the Donald. The early crit is that there would be panic in the senior democratic ranks. Jeez, you reckon? 

How Did We Get Here?

I've probably said this here some time ago but American politics has uniquely been unable to move on from the Baby Boomers. Australia quietly made the transition in the last decade. Anthony Albanese is probably the lat ALP leader who is a BabyBoomer, and he's a young one at that, being born in 1963. Malcolm Turnbull was the last Liberal Party leader and he was born in 1954. Scomo, is the first Gen-X PM of Australia and while he was terrifyingly terrible, he wasn't an old fart - just a stinky one. 

 If you look around the world, the leaders of the first world apart from Japan have moved on from Baby Boomer leadership. Boo was the last Boomer UK PM. Liz Truss was also a terrifyingly terrible Gen-Xer born in 1975; Rishi Sunak was born in 1980, so he's practically a Millennial. Macron was born in 1977. Olaf Scholz of Germany is a Boomer, but Giorgia Meloni, Justin Trudeau, Pedro Sanchez, and even our favourite Gen-Xer Volodymyr Zelenskyy, were all born in the 70s. 

Somehow, America has resisted moving on at every juncture in the last 25 years. They have gone from Bill Clinton being the first Boomer to be POTUS, followed by 2 terms each of Dubya and Obama, 1 term of Trump, and 1 term of Biden; all of them baby Boomers. Flanked by the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, the Dems look pretty ossified. The Republican leadership in Congress and the Senate on the other hand have added some Gen-X voices voice, but they seem to be the voices of the deranged, like Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Matt Gaetz. Gaetz is in fact a millennial.   

I understand, age is just a number. Paul McCartney is 82 and still touring. When asked about retiring he     quipped "first you retire and then you expire. What am I going to do? sit on the couch and watch Netflix all day?" And he seems mostly fine, but he doesn't run the top job in the Free World. The point is, it's one thing to defy age and keep going - and the Boomer generation of US leadership has gone on for a very long time, but it also can't last forever. These guys are simply getting too old, but America's been in denial about it until this debate. Both sides need to play back the debate to the respective candidates and ask them if they think they really did alright. Maybe they will see the blindingly obvious and step down.   

Wanna Feel Old? 

A couple of days ago, Derek Jeter turned 50. Fifty!