Joe Biden Is 78 Today. He’s Just Getting Started.

78 is the new 40.

Joe Biden is 78 years old today. That’s pretty old! No male in my family tree has ever made it to 78, though I like my dad’s odds of surviving the next seven years, at the very least. Only one of the Grumpy Old Men ever made it to 78. Charles Schulz, Ted Kennedy, Albert Einstein, Mister Rogers … they never got there either.

But 78 sure isn’t what it used to be. After Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20 as our 46th president, the next person in the line of succession will be Kamala Harris, who is obviously younger than 78. But the next two, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and President pro tempore of the Senate Chuck Grassley (who is currently recovering from Covid-19), aren’t. And depending on who Biden selects as his various Cabinet members, the rest of the line could be over 78 too. Seventy-eight is nothing! Harrison Ford is 78. Judge Judy is 78. Joy Behar is 78. Barbra Streisand is 78!

Two months from today, Biden will become the oldest person ever to hold the office of President of the United States. (Had Donald Trump been re-elected, he would have earned that distinction in the final year of his second term.) Biden will just be starting the most important phase of his political career, facing one the most difficult jobs any American president has ever had to deal with…