Joe Biden’s fall last week symbolised much that is wrong in the US

In the tradition of previous US leaders who have taken embarrassing tumbles in public, Joe Biden was good-humoured after he tripped over a sandbag at a US Air Force Academy graduation in Colorado Springs on Thursday. “I got sandbagged,” the 80-year-old President said after officials rushed to get him back on his feet. Given the frequency of his falls and regular verbal stumbles, however, good humour is unlikely to save him from intense scrutiny over the viability of his candidacy for a second term. The sight of the US Commander-in-Chief and putative leader of the free world sprawled on the stage floor was hardly reassuring when he is asking voters to give him another four years in office. He would be 86 when he finished his second term.

His would-be Republican challenger, if he can wrest the nomination from Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, cast Mr Biden’s latest fall in the worst light. The President’s tumble, Mr DeSantis said, “summed up America’s decline … it was symbolic of the state of our country”. That ignores the public falls of previous presidents Gerald Ford, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. But Mr Biden’s age adds to perceptions of his infirmity. His medical team has declared him to be in good physical and mental shape relative to his years. After his 2021 physical, his doctor reported his “ambulatory gait is perceptibly stiffer and less fluid than it was a year ago”. Much of his stiffness, doctors say, is due to “degenerative (wear and tear) osteoarthritic changes of his spine”.

Mr Biden wants a second term. He has an obligation to voters and to US allies to be realistic about his physical and mental prospects over the next six years. There are precedents for octogenarians successfully holding high office. West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer was 87 when he retired after 14 years in 1963. Challenging as that was, it was hardly comparable with what modern US presidents face. Seventy per cent of US adults do not believe Mr Biden should run again. That does not imply support for Mr Trump, who will be 78 on election day next year. It suggests the need for a younger leader able to deal with challenges posed by Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.