2024-02-15 14:51:39
Over the next year, American democracy may change irrevocably, and the hype around the age of current US President Joe Biden, who plans to run for office again, could lead to disaster, economist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman said in a column for The New York Times, Day.Az reports. with reference to RBC.
“The final blow [для американской демократии] It won’t be the rise of political extremism – that growth certainly created the conditions for disaster, but it has been part of the landscape for some time. No, what could turn this threat into a disaster is how the hand-wringing over Biden’s age has obscured the real stakes in the 2024 election.
According to Krugman, the words in the report of special counsel Robert Hur that the 81-year-old Biden is “an elderly man with a poor memory” are a case of “bureaucrats overstepping their bounds in a careless manner at best and maliciously at worst.”
The journalist acknowledges that the American president is old, and that many voters consider his age a problem. He notes that it would have been better if Democrats had chosen Biden’s successor a year or two ago. At the same time, Krugman states that the US President is of sound mind and understands details perfectly, and the fact that he speaks quietly and slowly can be explained by his struggle with a stutter.
He also calls Biden a “surprisingly effective” president, highlighting his accomplishments in office as opposed to Trump’s tenure. Regarding the latter, Krugman noted that he is only four years younger than Biden, and his speeches “are often a rambling word salad full of strange statements.”
“Again, I wish this election wasn’t a contest between two old men, and I’m generally wary of America’s gerontocracy. But like it or not, it will be a race between Biden and Trump – and somehow a sane, well-informed candidate because of his age, he generates more heat than his ranting, fact-challenging opponent,” Krugman sums up.
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