Thomas J. Madden, Chairman and CEO, Transmedia Group

When President Biden answered that fateful question at his first press conference whether he would run for a second term, many reporters noted solemnly he would then be 82, while some seemed to snicker he’d be President Methuselah.  

The more conservative media commentators on FOX NEWS pronounced 82 as if he’d be comatose by then and on an even more slippery slope than when recently he fell up that flight of stairs several times boarding Air Force One.

Well, I’m here to tell the press and anyone who’ll listen that eighties are the new sixties and you can still run a business and even a country when you’re reached that elevated, sublime vintage.  

I know people in their eighties in Florida who are still clear-headed, full of energy and chutzpa.  Try to keep up to them!  They still can walk miles on the beach.

So, let’s once and for all remove the bugaboos and prejudice from the eighties and focus on all the valuable experience, accomplishment and wisdom embedded in those numbers.  And let’s not focus on just a few stumblings and mumblings.

Let’s once and for all remove age from politics and concentrate instead on someone’s smarts, knowledge and abilities, regardless how old they are.  And shouldn’t we be applauding longevity, especially these days?

Conservative media love hitting opponents below the age belt.  

Recently Biden bashers sent around a picture of an emaciated Biden dressed as an airplane captain looking exhausted, ready to collapse.  The creepy caption said: “If this was the pilot, would you get on the airplane?”

Sure, Biden studders and stammers occasionally, and he’s not the most graceful on stairways, but let’s judge him by what he does for America, his accomplishments and certainly one of them is kicking COVID’s butt.  

And let’s all get those vaccines Joe is delivering into our arms ASAP so we can stay ebulliently healthy in our eighties and beyond.

And when speaking of aging, let’s not lose our sense of humor.  I asked a dentist friend the other day to arrange a dental appointment for my Mayan friend here who is “living” with us in our Boca Raton condo.   He’s just a kid, only 2,000+ years old!