How Much Does Memory Matter in Choosing a President?

Concern about President Biden’s age (81) intensified for some voters when Special Counsel Robert Hur described him as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”  His likely opponent, Donald Trump, would be 82 at the end of his second term.  So a relevant question about both candidates is: when is one too old to be president?  Despite what seems the rage in contemporary conversation, we have no idea because age is not a comprehensive measure of a mature adult’s cognitive capability.  Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, then third in line to the presidency, served very effectively at 82.  Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is 93.

Memory of dates or names (semantic memory), which Hur described, is but a small piece of mental capacity and can affect people at any age. Think about that last time you could not recall the name of a movie star or a phone number you’ve dialed often. That kind of memory problem is far less important for a president than other measures of cognitive capability.   We ought to consider at least these:

·       Judgment: The ability to act morally, intelligently and prudently is essential.  It’s what Aristotle called "practical wisdom."  It is being guided by the lessons of experience and critical thinking, not the rigid walls of ideology or the cheers of followers.  George Washington was a military leader, but when the Revolution ended his military confrontation with England and sympathetic attachment to France was no longer prudent, even when popular.  So as president he set a policy of neutrality and kept us out of European wars.

·       Historical knowledge: Leadership in the presidency requires a deep understanding of world and American history. Secretary of State George Marshall, whose Marshall Plan was perhaps the single greatest foreign policy achievement of the twentieth century, once said " I doubt seriously whether a man can think with full wisdom and with deep convictions regarding certain of the basic international issues today who has not at least reviewed in his mind the period of the Peloponnesian War and the Fall of Athens.”  Such immersion allows a president to draw upon lessons of the past and avoid false historical analogies, such as that failing to invade Iraq in 2003 would be Hitler-style appeasement of Saddam Hussein.    

·       Intellectual humility: The ability to admit one’s limited knowledge and that assumptions and beliefs could be wrong – to question one’s mental models - is essential.  It requires using and rewarding people who will disagree and raise uncomfortable questions.  President Kennedy failed to do this in what became the disastrous Bay of Pigs effort to topple Fidel Castro but learned to do it in his successful handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

·       Constitutional thinking: A president swears to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.” That requires a deep understanding to guide behavior. When Richard Nixon obstructed justice during Watergate, he failed this test, was faced certain conviction in the Senate and resigned. When Vice-President Pence refused to miscount electoral votes, he demonstrated he understood the Constitution and its limits on him.

Special Counsel Hur’s observation is a distraction.  It makes for great headlines but is a very small look at the cognitive ability a president needs.  As voters, we must dig deeper.  The media, pundits and politicians seldom do that job.  They ask questions or make statements designed for sound bite headlines and surface analysis of a candidate’s abilities.    

Nor can we rely on presidential debates, which have become merely platforms for scripted statements.  Instead, we must subject candidates to what in universities is called an oral examination.  Such a forum could be hosted, for example, by the National Constitution Center, which is chartered by Congress to educate us about the Constitution on a non-partisan basis.  The flavor of such an event can be glimpsed with a few illustrative questions of the type that are important to ask of a person who aspires to lead the nation:

·       In George Washington's Farewell Address, he warned about the dangers of factions - groups more interested in their own ends than the good of the nation as a whole.  Is that worry still valid and, if so, how would you deal with it?

·       If you were warned of an impending international crisis, how would you approach understanding the problem and generating options to deal with it?

·       How do you interpret the Constitution’s Tenth Amendment, and how will that shape your presidency?

·       Tell us about a specific situation in which you made a significant mistake, what you learned from that experience and how you have used that knowledge since.

Presidential contests today focus on a candidate’s ideological purity, media presence and headline-producing attacks. Such behaviors don’t reveal a candidate’s judgment, historical understanding, intellectual humility or grasp of the complexities of the Constitution.  We’d want our cardiologist to have far more cognitive ability than remembering the date she diagnosed our heart murmur.  We should apply the same standard to a candidate for president.

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