Romney is surely right. Both Biden — whose every public appearance is now a cringe-making embarrassment, on account of his manifest senile decay — and Trump, whose bile-fueled campaign for the Republican nomination in 2024 is little more than a personal grudge match against his many enemies — are men of the past entirely unfitted for the responsibility and burden of the presidency in the future.

At a time when America’s position as leader of what remains of the western world is facing unprecedented threats from China and Russia, along with the challenges of new AI technologies, these two elderly has-beens, marinated in the twentieth-century politics of yesterday, are not what the world needs today or tomorrow.

It is, however, a sign of the ongoing tragedy of US politics, that neither Biden’s Democrats nor the bitterly divided Republicans are likely to take the slightest notice of Romney’s wise words. Both the Washington incumbents and the GOP have locked themselves into absurd positions from which there is no obvious escape.

[Only one of these parties has a realistic choice, too. Democrats have waited too long to start a competitive primary, thanks to a slew of state deadlines for primary-ballot access. Republicans have other options in the field already, and practically any of them could beat Biden on the age gap alone. — Opportunity is knocking … — Ed]