Joe Biden’s worrying birthday

However the White House marks Joe Biden’s 81st birthday on Monday, it is unlikely to lessen anxiety among Americans – and others across the world – about his implausible determination to seek another four-year term as president. The old boy has his moments: at last week’s APEC summit, he aptly labelled Xi Jinping a “dictator”.

But the gathering provided further evidence he is in his dotage and not a realistic prospect to remain in the Oval Office until 2029, when he would be 86. As Adam Creighton wrote, Mr Biden emerged from APEC further diminished. Foreign policy is supposedly his strength, but at his press conference he gave bumbling, incoherent and barely audible answers to a handful of questions. On television, we saw a stooped handshake and blank stares at the conference table. The contrast with Mr Xi was alarming.

It is no surprise a recent AP poll showed 69 per cent of Democrats, 74 per cent of independent voters and 89 per cent of Republicans say Mr Biden is too old for the job, amid immense challenges in the Middle East, Ukraine and Asia. The main US parties must look past both him and Donald Trump, 77, who is weighed down with months of court cases that will do him continuing damage. Voters in the world’s most powerful nation need younger, less tarnished and more credible candidates. The vainglorious push by both men to pursue their ambitions is profoundly selfish. It promises to do profound damage to the US and to its allies.