The Presidential Fitness Test

Matter of Opinion

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Ross Douthat, News, New York Times, Journalism

4.2 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 February 2024

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Who’s your ideal American president? A strategic thinker who is calm in a crisis? A charmer with boundless aplomb? Perhaps a principled leader with an unwavering moral compass? This week, the hosts discuss what voters expect from “America’s daddy” and whether concerns about President Biden’s and Donald Trump’s fitness are overblown, given the history of the office they each hope to keep or retake.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You know we should actually go full Kostanza and call each other the mops
0:04.8	matter of opinion. Oh, I'm sorry the card says mops.
0:09.2	Moops. Moops. Moops.
0:15.0	From New York Times opinion, I'm Lydia Pole Green. I'm Michelle Coddle.
0:16.0	I'm Ross Dauthit and I'm Carlos Lozada.
0:19.0	And this is a matter of opinion. So when I saw last week's special counsel Report on Biden and all the reaction that followed, paired
0:36.2	with Trump of course facing dozens and dozens of felony charges, it really made me realize
0:41.2	how much this election is going to revolve around the question of fitness.
0:45.0	So I really wanted to ask you guys, yes or no.
0:47.5	Do you think either Trump or Biden is fit to be president?
0:51.5	Who wants to go first? I mean, Biden is fit to be president. Who wants to go first? I mean, Biden is fit to be
0:54.8	president right now. Yeah. Trump hasn't been fit to be president ever.
0:58.9	I'm concerned about both of them, to be honest. Let's just say they're not as fit as I would
1:03.9	want them to be but if they are unfitted it is for very different reasons.
1:08.9	Hmm Ross? No neither Trump nor Biden are fit to be president under the terms that we
1:16.5	would understand presidential fitness prior to the last eight years.
1:22.1	Yeah, so let's unpack what we mean when we talk about presidential fitness, not just
1:27.2	what Trump and Biden, but historically.
1:29.4	At the most basic level, what do we expect of the president and is there even a way to say what's
1:34.4	typical or normal in this office you know we talk a lot about the new normal and I
1:38.8	feel like I've had to get used to a lot of different normal but yeah like what do you all think was the last
1:43.5	normal presidency that you would you would have as a baseline? I kind of
	...

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