Hearts & Minds: The age of Omaha: Buffett shows how to step down with grace

Typically, it takes Warren Buffett to highlight best practice for the ageing chief. To the dismay of many, the Sage of Omaha is retiring because he was feeling old. He was 94 and still in possession his faculties. But he knew they were fading – he starting to forget names and lose his balance. Time to quit.

His decision coincides with publication of a new book, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again. It makes for shocking reading – a textbook lesson in how not to manage advancing age and declining health. The contrast between the two, Buffett and Biden could not be starker.

Biden, encouraged by his family, wanted to carry on and stand again. His aides went along with his wishes; Buffett, despite disappointing his investors, gave no thought to remaining - his powers were waning, he knew that and quit he must.

In the president’s case, his halting walk and the risk of falling over meant he required a wheelchair but they ruled that out as bad for his image in a re-election campaign. He was given trainers to wear, handrails were installed when he mounted steps in public, the paths he had to walk were shortened, staffers stood closer to him should he topple, he used visual aids for every planned encounter.

This was merely the half of it, there is lots more. An insider says: ‘We attempted to shield him from his own staff, so many people didn’t realise the extent of the decline beginning in 2023.’ Yet the aim was for him to win and serve another four years, beginning in January 2025.

Despite their best efforts they could not avoid the unremitting glare of the TV debate with Donald Trump. That performance finally meant there was no hiding place and he withdrew. But it also sealed the fate of the Democrats, he’d left it too late for his replacement, Kamala Harris, to have any chance of victory.

His close circle is talking about it now but no one spoke up when the drama was unfolding. What began as an attempt to put the best possible gloss on the president’s condition soon became a cover-up. The consequences of misleading and letting him continue as long as he did, were disastrous. It should be required reading for anyone contemplating following the same deceitful route. That, plus the news coverage of Buffett’s announcement.  

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard.