Up to a point. But even male politicians do not want voters to see them as approaching their expiration date, and Washington’s dermatologists and plastic surgeons do a roaring business keeping political V.I.P.s tucked, tweaked and tightened. And perhaps no one better appreciates the challenge of aging skin than the makeup artists for the political talk shows. These pros know how to work magic: For women, less is more. For men, use foundation heavy enough to hide stubble and go a shade darker than their skin tone to prevent them from looking frail and pasty. And for the love of God, moisturize!
These considerations are not new. As president, Ronald Reagan, with his bag of Hollywood tricks, dressed for TV to achieve the strong, broad-shouldered look — oversized shirt collars helped make his head look bigger — and kept his hair swept high in a pompadour. “It takes all the lines right out of my face,” he once told his deputy chief of staff. The House speaker John Boehner was famous for his year-round savage tan, which gave him that relaxed, hale and hearty look of having just strolled in off the golf course. And in the 1980s, there was chatter about what Senator Biden had done to combat encroaching baldness.
Mr. Biden appears to take such matters seriously: He is keeping things firm, staying fit, dressing well. He is exceedingly fair, although, hey, at least his face is a color found in nature. But looks are less worrisome than seeming slow or confused on camera. Mr. Trump has the edge in this department. The guy is a raver, but people don’t automatically associate that with age or cognitive decline.
Mr. Biden’s lower-key manner often works against him. His political brand is too mild-mannered to inspire confidence for many voters, who see him less as thoughtful and steady than as weak and befuddled. Some Democratic officials admit this privately, even if many Biden supporters hate talk of his age. The reality is, a lot of Americans aren’t sure if he has the “strength or stamina” to be president for four more years, to borrow a phrase Mr. Trump used against Mrs. Clinton in 2016. From Thursday to Election Day, Mr. Biden should be looking for any opening to display that strength and stamina.
History shows he knows how. In 2020, the first debate between him and Mr. Trump was epically bad, thanks mostly to Mr. Trump’s constant interruptions. One of Mr. Biden’s most memorable and winning moments was when he got fed up enough to say, “Will you shut up, man?”