Gerald Largen — Campaign oddities and 'Super Ager' rerun

One thing you can say for the Trumpster’s campaign, it’s rarely boring. But one wonders whether some of his alleged activities actually took place, or whether he’s just bragging. However, a judge and jury did find that he did what he shouldn’t have done to the young lady in that department store dressing room. Sounds true, doesn’t it, that he wouldn’t pay for a hotel room?

In all fairness, the ways of a man with a maid have played a role in American politics for a long time. Two of such instances are credited to our Democratic Presidents, namely Andrew Jackson and Grover Cleveland. The circumstances of Jackson’s marriage to Miss Rachel were questioned by some overly technical readers of the marriage statutes, and the timing and circumstances of the birth of Grover Cleveland’s off-spring was so widely questioned that it became a limerick in his election campaign, which ran thusly:

“Maw, Maw, Where’s my Paw?” “Gone to the White House! Haw, Haw, Haw!”

Of course, Trump is alleged to have out done them all, even Jack Kennedy, with his pay-offs, which are now come back to bite him in one of his multiple lawsuits.

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I was especially pleased to learn that a part of the three hundred and fifty-five million dollar judgement the judge recently awarded against Trump included his profits from the lease of the old Washington D.C. Post Office. This arrangement was so outrageous that it should have shocked everyone. The law was clear that he as president should have been barred from dealing with the government for this lease, but the law has never bothered Donald John. We probably will not see a penny of this award, but at least he owes it to us.

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Reprinted from the issue of 17 November 2023:

Gentle reader, as you know, a great deal has been said and written, about the 2024 presidential election and the two presumptive candidates, the current president, Joe Biden, and the former president, Donald Trump. And a good portion of what has been said against Mr. Biden is “He’s Too old!”

As everybody knows, Mr. Biden is old. For that matter, he was old three years ago when he was first elected as president, but for some reason, now thirty-six months later, “he’s too old.”

Being old himself, the old curmudgeon at eighty-eight is way “too old,” and to run a marathon, or take on wrestling march, or weight-lifting exhibition he no doubt is too old, as is Joe Biden most likely. But running an investment empire, like Warren Buffett running Berkshire Hathaway, or running a nation, like Joe Biden, requires little marathon running, wrestling, or weight-lifting.

And insofar as running the government of the United States, some of your doubtless remember when this country was run by an invalid. For the younger readers who know very little about our past, this invalid president was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was an early Polio victim. Mr. Roosevelt led us out of the worst depression we have ever experienced, then led us through the worst world war we have ever experienced. He finally died in office a few months after serving three full terms in office and a few months after being elected for a fourth term.

So, it is proven that one can be physically disabled and yet be a great president. Thus, the only question of presidential qualification is the mental capacity of the candidates. As we all know, or should know, there are a great number of octogenarians whose mental capacity is far beyond that of most young folks. This is, in fact, the subject of considerable research and documentation that justifies this assessment:

“Some people in their 80s and 90s stay sharp, and retain their memories ...,”

The foregoing quotation is from the front page of the November issue of the AARP Bulletin. This issue focuses on a special report titled “Super Agers,” and covers seven pages of the Bulletin on this topic.

Supplementing the text of this article, there are side-bars on such Super Agers as Williman Shatner, age 92; Ruth Westheimer, a.k.a. “Doctor Ruth,” age 95, and Norman Lear, T.V. producer and screen writer, age 100.

The article begins this way: “Some people aged 90 plus have the memory, thinking skills and zest for life of people decades younger. Researchers are starting to figure out why and how more of us can age the same way.”

Researchers and authorities cite in the article include Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, as well as Canadian researchers, and others in pursuit of the people who can as classified as Super Agers.

Based upon his performance during his first three years in office it seems altogether likely that that President Joe Biden would qualify as a member of this group of eighty-plus citizens who can be referred to as SUPER AGERS, and it would be a shame if we were to lose the services of this proven statesman due to the ignorance of a bunch of ill-informed ignorants who don’t know that there are many folks who are mentally fit and better able to cope with our national problems much more skillfully than some young whipper snapper who has neither the knowledge nor experience to do the job and whose only claim to being qualified to lead us is that of being younger. This country would be in a sorry state if its method of picking a president is how few birthdays a candidate has celebrated. Let us pray that we have not reached that sorry state yet.