For the ages The question everyone is avoiding: how old is too old for power?

THE QUESTION WAS SIMPLE: what are your thoughts about running for re-election in 2026? "Oh," said Mitch McConnell with a half chuckle, a mumble and then: silence

- David Smith 

The most powerful Republican in the US Senate stared into space and said nothing for more than 30 seconds.

It was the second time in little more than a month that 81-year-old McConnell had frozen while speaking to reporters. But there were few voices in the Democratic party calling on him to step down. The question of age is one that both party establishments have cause to avoid.

Democrat Joe Biden, 80, is the oldest president in US history. Republican Donald Trump, 77, is the second oldest, and current frontrunner for the party nomination in 2024. The Senate, average age 64, has one of the oldest memberships of any parliamentary body in the world. It is small wonder that dealing with America's drift into gerontocracy is not top of its agenda.

"Both political parties are pulling their punches," said Frank Luntz, a political consultant who has worked on many Republican campaigns.

"Democrats have been quiet about McConnell because they know their own party is run by someone who has the same challenges McConnell has." If he wins re-election, Biden would be 86 by the end of his second term; a recent opinion poll found that more than three in four Americans think he would be too old to be effective. Last week the Guardian reported a claim in a new book that the president has privately admitted he is occasionally tired.