Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here| Email Alex | Email Max JOE BIDEN is old, at least by presidential standards. That much is well known. But as the question of whether he will run again for office approaches, alongside his 80th birthday, it’s raising more acute concerns inside the White House. Our JONATHAN LEMIRE reported this week that aides are nervous about the birthday milestone, and somewhat torn over how to mark the arrival of the first octogenarian president — which many believe is a political liability. While the instinct within the White House is to downplay the birthday, others familiar with this predicament think that might not be the savviest approach. Longtime conservative consultant CRAIG SHIRLEY spent a lot of time thinking about aging in the presidency when he was writing his biography of RONALD REAGAN, who, prior to Biden, was the oldest person ever to win a presidential election (which he did at the age of 73 in 1984). In a phone call this week, Shirley noted that in Reagan’s first successful campaign, in 1980, the campaign similarly agonized over the then-governor’s upcoming birthday. But it decided to lean into the event, throwing birthday parties and fundraisers for the candidate across the country. Reagan quipped that attending another birthday party for himself was better than the alternative—that being, death. “They decided to hide in plain sight turned it to their advantage,” said Shirley. Ultimately, according to Shirley, the Reagan White House decided to follow the playbook for subsequent birthdays. During a press briefing that Reagan gave on one of his birthdays, his wife NANCY REAGAN surprised him and the reporters in the room with a cake. “If I was advising Biden, I would say don't hide it,” he said. “Everybody knows you're going to be 80 years old, make it a positive. He can have a cake. Have some friends over.” “To run away from it is foolish,” Shirley said. Age and mental acuity have increasingly been a major issue in American politics as older generations hold on to political power. Conservative media regularly cover Biden as if he is senile, while left-leaning media outlets often did the same for DONALD TRUMP while he was in office. Power in Congress continues to be held by individuals who have reportedly been unable to recognize their own colleagues, staff, or people they’d met before. But it’s not just the elderly whose health is coming under a more intense media and political microscope. Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. turned Senate candidate JOHN FETTERMAN has faced questions this week about his fitness following a series of interviews which shed additional light on how a stroke he suffered earlier this year has impacted his ability to process auditory questions. Fetterman’s Senate campaign has faced criticism for not providing information about his health over the past several months. While they brush off those charges, this week, the campaign has taken a less defensive tact too. In a series of tweets, Fetterman addressed the impact of his stroke on his campaigning and used it as an opportunity to bash his opponent. “Recovering from a stroke in public isn’t easy,” he wrote. “But in January, I’m going to be much better – and Dr. Oz will still be a fraud.” Biden himself knows something about publicly recovering from a serious health episode. In February 1988, he had two surgeries to remove brain aneurysms and didn’t have a public appearance for six months afterward. When he returned to the Senate to preside over a hearing, the New York Times reported that Biden quipped: ''My family is here. They prepared all the questions today and came to see if I could enunciate them and understand the answers.'' But if the president had any perspective to impart to Fetterman about what it’s like to recover from a harrowing health incident while in the public spotlight, he hasn’t offered it. According to a source close to Fetterman , when the two talked last month, Biden did not discuss health issues. Instead, they spoke about marijuana policy and sentencing. MESSAGE US — Are you GARRETT LAMM, director of presidential correspondence? Email us at westwingtips@politico.com.
| 
