Come on, man. Of course Joe Biden knows how old he is — but he isn’t too happy about the discussion of its importance, now and especially for the 2024 election. In a preview of the 2020 presidential rematch that the media longs to see and may will into reality, Politico notes that the top echelons of both parties have grown rather long in the tooth.

And in this case, Donald Trump is the youngster. With Joe Biden looking every day of his 80 years of age, people wonder whether the country should have to choose between two men who can still recall the birth of rock and roll. Biden’s getting a wee bit sensitive to the questions too, Jonathan Martin reported yesterday:

Yet Biden has repeatedly declined to say he’s running for reelection. That’s because, yes, he doesn’t want to trigger the Federal Election Committee, which may require him to file organizational paperwork if he was to say definitively he’s running. There’s also the more delicate matter of Biden continuing to say he’s “a respecter of fate” when asked about his plans.

The president has vented to allies about how often his age is mentioned in the press — “You think I don’t know how fucking old I am?” he said to one earlier this year. But who knows what the fates have in store for someone who just turned 80 a few weeks ago (Sorry, Mr. President!).

Further, if stopping Trump’s comeback and preserving democracy is the raison d’etre of Biden’s reelection, what’s the current president’s rationale if, by the start of 2024, it’s clear the former president isn’t a viable contender?

And if Biden does run, will he pledge to serve a full second term?

Er … what? Has any American presidential candidate had to promise not to resign or become disabled in office before this? Just the fact that this question has to be asked — and it does, with a clearly doddering 80-year-old pondering a second term — should be enough to disqualify him from a second nomination. Martin tries to put his best spin on Biden’s performance in office as an argument that Biden’s fit for another run, but he barely engages with the press as it is, and gets lost on stage rhetorically and sometimes literally in nearly every appearance.

In 2020, Biden could play rope-a-dope from his basement because of the pandemic and keep from fumbling publicly enough to make his age issues obvious. In 2024, Biden won’t have that luxury, especially if Trump doesn’t get the GOP nomination. (We’ll come back to that in a moment.) Not only will Biden have to campaign more publicly and robustly than in 2020 because of expectations in a normal environment, but also because he’s still tremendously unpopular and would have to work hard to repair his standing. Both his approval rating (41.5/53.8) and direction of country rating (30/64.4) in RCP’s aggregates are atrocious and not improving even after the midterms. The only reason Democrats did as well as they did last month is because they managed to turn them into a referendum on MAGA rather than Biden, and then only because Biden himself wasn’t on the ticket.

Furthermore, Democrats are beginning to lose their iron grip on the younger-voter demo. Putting PeePaw back on top of the ticket won’t improve their standing with the college and career-starting crowd, especially if the GOP nominates someone not yet eligible for Social Security to challenge Biden. And by the time that Republicans lock in a younger challenger, it will be too late for Democrats to change horses, even if Biden was inclined to retire at that point. The chaos would likely not just destroy their chances to hold the White House, but also any hope of salvaging red-state Senate incumbents and take back the House.

That brings us to Trump and the rematch that the media desperately needs to boost business. Putting aside everything else (as relevant as those issues may be), Trump will be 78 years old in 2024 and only eligible for one more term in office. He matched up poorly against Biden in 2020, and in this case would be even more of a poor match considering the age and term-limit issue. His presence clearly handicapped the GOP in the midterms, as did his candidate selection, which demonstrated an obvious disconnect between Trump’s priorities (the 2020 election) and those of the voters, especially the winnable independents.

Both parties need to look for younger and fresher leadership. Only one party has the latitude to do so in 2024 and grab a yuuuge strategic advantage not just for 2024 but for 2028 and beyond as well. The question will be whether Republicans recognize the opportunity and seize it.