Try and make sense of this WaPo headline about Biden & America's ages

President Biden turning 80 this week sparked some media outlets to assure everybody that he’s not too old for the job. The New York Times recently went as far as to report that “age is more than a number”:

President Biden turns 80 on Sunday, and would be 86 at the end of a second term. The New York Times spoke to 10 experts in aging about what the next six years might look like for a person of that age. They agreed that Biden has a lot going in his favor. https://t.co/gU6CKjvbiB

— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 19, 2022

The Washington Post is also getting in on the “is Biden too old for the job” action, but the headline for this one might make you say “WHAT!?”

Did Kamala write this pic.twitter.com/F527nk6RGR

— Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) November 23, 2022

Yes indeed, that’s the real deal right there:

This made me wonder how Biden’s age compared to the nation’s. He’s the oldest president ever, but America is the oldest America ever. Did that make his age less exceptional? I pulled data on the country’s population over the past 120 years and compared it to the age of the president during that period. And I can say: yes, Biden’s age is still exceptional.

The chart below shows the percentage of the population each year that’s the same age as or older than the president who served the majority of that year. (President ages are as of Dec. 31 of the year.)

The entire article seems to be a big ol’ grasp for some straws to distract us from what we see and hear from Biden almost every day. His cognitive state is the problem, not just that he’s 80 years old.