Biden could win any war, but not the one against time. Democrats in the US are repeating this sentence in every other opinion piece, editorial, or in public discussion. At 81 years, he is the oldest president in the history of the United States. Ronald Reagan held the record earlier of being the oldest president when he completed his two terms at the age of 77 in 1989.

It is not just the age, which is a problem, it is Biden’s mental capacity to handle one of the toughest jobs in the world – sitting in the White House. His competitor Trump is just 3 years younger at the age of 78. Not too younger though, Trump has proven himself to be a tough contender and unusual of his style has muted himself about the age-related issues of Biden.

At 81 years, Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history, surpassing Ronald Reagan who was 77 at the end of his second term.

It suits Trump. He wants Biden to stay in the race. Because the more Biden speaks publicly, the more his mental health will be exposed. That is why, Biden since the first presidential debate – which jacked up the popularity ratio of Trump to new heights at the cost of Biden – has avoided public appearances. And when he did appear in front of the public, he avoided the questions and followed the scripted speeches with the help of a teleprompter.

In the instances where he appeared in front of the public without a teleprompter, he continued to destroy his chances of being elected. In one of such post-debate interviews, he mixed his race and said, “I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, the first black woman to serve with a black president.”

Biden in the first Presidential debate held on June 27^th stuttered, misquoted the facts, cleared his throat continuously, and spoke with a hoarse and raspy voice. His biggest verbal gaffe came when he stuttered while discussing the tax cuts imposed during the Trump era and after several ummm’s said, ‘if we finally beat the medicare…’ Trump did not let it go and immediately responded ‘he beat it to death, and he is destroying medicare.’ Biden struggled with completing sentences, steered off to different topics without answering the questions, and often remained incomprehensible and confused.

Trump benefits from Biden’s public appearances, as they often reveal Biden’s mental lapses, increasing Trump’s popularity.

It was not the first time that Biden’s mental health came into question. In October 2023 in an interview with Special Council Robert Hurr, he often forgot and mixed up key events and dates. ‘If it was 2013, when did I stop being Vice President?’ At another instance, he asked, ‘In 2009, am I still vice president?’ He even forgot the year his son Beau Biden died.

More recently, Democrats were looking very closely at his performance at the NATO summit that was held in Washington from 9–11 July. They were expecting him to perform better and to not go for more slip-ups.  But in the summit, he called his Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘Vice President Trump’ and to the astonishment of everyone introduced President Zelenskyy as ‘President Putin.’ Zelenskyy responded laughingly ‘I’m better (than Putin)’.

Verbal slip-ups have rarely been an issue, especially when it comes to politicians or anyone speaking publicly. But when discussing the oldest president who has been criticized for being incapable of handling the American presidency, this has become a (inter-) national issue. Democrats are worried that they are losing the voters and that the chances of Trump winning elections have gone substantially high. During recent polls by the New York Times, 49 percent of respondents said that they would vote for Trump as compared to 43 percent of those supporting Biden. Interestingly, 74 percent of the voters considered Biden to be too old for the job of the Presidency.

During the NATO summit, Biden referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘Vice President Trump’ and introduced President Zelenskyy as ‘President Putin,’ leaving Democrats increasingly anxious about his mental fitness for office.

So, what are the options with Biden and the Democrats? First, Biden sticks to his plan of competing Trump. He is imbibing the mounting pressure from within the party and the voters. He claimed that I defeated him (Trump) in 2020 and I am the only person who can defeat him again. This is the main reason Democrats supported him in the first place and are still supporting him. They remained focused on one point: defeating Donald Trump.

The electability of Biden against Trump resulted in his winning the 2020 Democratic primaries. But his same electability has nosedived this time. But Biden remains adamant and claims that he would quit only when ‘the Lord Almighty were to come down and say, ‘Joe, get outta the race.’ This is not going to happen. In such a scenario with every public appearance, Biden will continue to destroy his chances of winning the elections. One thing he could do is go for the cognitive and neurological tests.

The Pressure has been mounting on him that if he intends to continue, then he should go for a test to check his mental acuity and capability. Biden refused to undergo any such test. ‘I have a cognitive test every single day … I’m running the world.’ Without such a test, Biden’s chances of convincing voters about his mental capability remain meagre.

Second, Biden decides to quit. That again would be a nightmarish scenario for Democrats. In case of Biden quitting, Kamala Harris may succeed him and face Trump in the November elections. There is no doubt that Kamala Harris has proven herself to be a strong vice president with a long list of achievements to her name. She also remains the first Asian-American (her mother hails from India), an African-American (her father is a Jamaican), and the first female Vice President of the US. However, electoral politics is different from governance and office work.

Electoral politics is all about winning. Commentators believe that Americans are not ready yet to have a female president. Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. People have not forgotten it. Democrats have not forgotten it. Clinton was a ‘white’ female and a much stronger candidate than Harris. But she lost. Prediction is one of the most difficult jobs for the students of politics. And they are predicting now that Harris will find it very difficult to defeat Trump.

What can Democrats do then? First things first, they do not have time. Democratic National Convention (DNC) is going to be held in August. They must make a decision about Biden’s campaign before the DNC. It is reported that the Democratic bigwig, Barrack Obama, one of the biggest supporters of Biden till now, has also started thinking of the possibility of asking him to quit. He along with 23 Democrat Governors of different states, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other bigwigs can sit together and decide about the future of the 2024 Democratic campaign.

They can ask Biden to quit. They can also interview and nominate 3-4 possible contenders to replace Biden. To make the process more democratic, they can ask those contenders to present themselves at the upcoming Democratic National Convention and let people and delegates choose their leader.

Biden’s electability has nosedived, yet he remains adamant, claiming he would quit only if ‘the Lord Almighty were to come down and say, ‘Joe, get outta the race.

There is no denying the fact that Biden is the only person who has ever defeated Trump. But there is also no denying the fact that Trump is far ahead of Biden in every opinion poll held and he is not coming slow. The desperation level of Americans has gone too high. Nancy Pelosi recently opined, ‘We’re all encouraging him to make the decision. Because time is running short.’ Democrats have strong feelings for Biden, but they also want to win. And it seems they have realized the bitter fact that with Biden going into the elections, their chances of winning remain dismal.

The catch-22: they also know, it may already be too late to have someone else lead the race. Harris may not win the elections and other candidates may not have ample time to even introduce and entice the disenchanted voters. Moreover, with Biden leaving the race, his die-hard supporters (especially the coloured voters) may not accept or vote for other candidates. Defeating Trump this time seems to be the biggest challenge Democrats have ever faced. As of now, they are failing in it.