Experts on aging caution against concluding that U.S. President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump are suffering from cognitive decline based on their verbal slip-ups, saying that mixing up names or dates does not necessarily mean a deterioration in mental acuity.

President Biden’s memory lapses, confusion, stumbles and halting gait have ramped up calls that he undergo a cognitive test during his annual physical exam.

Mr. Biden, 81, is set to undergo his physical as early as this month. White House aides said the exam, like last year’s, would not include a cognitive test required for many Americans older than 65.

A growing number of lawmakers insist that Mr. Biden undergo tests to determine whether he is capable of running the country or is suffering from dementia.

There is an element of Scooby-Dooism to the Democrats’ erroneous conviction that, if they just insist vehemently enough that Joe Biden is not, in fact, clearly too old to be president of these United States, they will be able to persuade the public that it is true. “We would have got away with it,” Biden’s apologists seem to be muttering aloud, “if it hadn’t been for that pesky Robert Hur!”

Joe Biden's advisers knew in 2020 that his age was an issue for Americans but they successfully painted him as a competent leader who would restore normalcy to the White House after Donald Trump's chaotic presidency.

Now that Biden is 81, opinion polls show age is even more of a concern for voters ahead of November's election.

In office, Biden's gait has stiffened, he is slower on his feet and he regularly makes verbal mix-ups during speeches, at times confusing the names of world leaders.

Democrats are in need of a reality check. The stakes are too high for us to indulge in the kind of denial, self-deception, and illusions that are a too-common reaction to many of the biggest challenges we face as a party and a country. Indeed, reality is our greatest strength and our best defense. Only failing to acknowledge it can undo us.

Almost by definition, Sleepy Joe can’t be too woke.

There are serious disadvantages to being a really old president. Three-quarters of Americans think Joe Biden is too old to effectively serve in our nation’s highest elected office. Sixty-nine percent of Democrats said he was too old, in a poll taken last August.

But I’ve started to think that Biden’s age presents him just as many advantages as disadvantages. Namely, Joe Biden is just too old to be a tribune of the young progressive Left. A man with the nickname “Sleepy Joe” can’t be too woke.

Donald Trump is an old man.

He’s 77 years old. When Trump was born, Harry S. Truman was president and Perry Como topped the year’s pop charts. Betty White hadn’t yet started her career in film. Israel and Pakistan didn’t exist. Korea was a unified country, and Vietnam was not. The pioneering computer ENIAC was just four months old.

President Joe Biden will on Monday spend his 81st birthday pardoning turkeys at the White House as a Thanksgiving tradition before traveling to the Atlantic island of Nantucket on Tuesday with his family.

But his enjoyment of the day may be tarnished by renewed attacks from critics who think he is too elderly to hold office.