Past expiration? Who is too old to serve and who isn’t?

There had been wide speculation that Pelosi might retire after Democrats lost their majority in the House and Pelosi ceded leadership of the Democratic caucus to Hakeem Jeffries.

Pelosi said in a Washington Post interview that she wants to help Democrats regain a majority in the House in 2024: “We need all the help we can get,” she said. “I just can’t sit it out.”

In case you’re wondering, Pelosi is 83 years old, an age she wears well though some editorial cartoonists would have you believe otherwise.

That makes her roughly two years more, uh, seasoned than our eldest president ever, Joe Biden, who turns 81 on Nov. 20 … and whose age has been talked about so much lately that it has become, well, old news.

Then there’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 81, who mysteriously has frozen twice during public appearances in episodes that seemed to be seizures, though a doctor says they were not.

And there’s 90-year-old Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a longtime friend of Pelosi’s from San Francisco, whose age also has been constantly questioned and who, frankly, has seemed lost and confused sometimes in the Senate chamber.

For her part, Pelosi swats aside any notion about being too old to serve.

While she admits to a diet that includes lots of chocolate and hot dogs, Pelosi told the Post that she feels fine and remains active.

“I have an enormous amount of energy,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s the chocolate or the Italian heritage.”

So, after making her mark as the first female speaker in U.S. history, Pelosi seems intent on ending her career as a worker bee, among the rank and file.

Pelosi also defended the president and Feinstein. And herself.

“We have wisdom. We have experience. That counts for something.”

And it certainly does, though Feinstein seems to be in a fog and there have been calls from the left and right for her to step down.

As for Biden’s stumbles and gaffes, Republicans revel in their ridicule and Democrats fret, mostly in private. His falls have been well-chronicled, as have his misstatements. Then again, he’s been making gaffes and misstatements all of his political life.

That said, Biden’s stiff gait and obvious deficiencies as a public speaker do make him seem his age. If not older.

And the public has taken notice.

According to the results of a CNN poll released last week, 76% of the respondents said they were “seriously concerned” that the president’s age might “negatively affect” his chances of serving a complete second term.

By contrast, the president’s possible opponent in 2024, Trump, exudes more vim and bluster, even if he is overweight and rambles during speeches like your one of your uncles at Thanksgiving.

At any rate, calls to impose an age limit for presidential candidates seem shortsighted and unfair.

That’s because people age at different rates, making a number seem arbitrary. (Should the NFL have imposed an age limit on Tom Brady?)

It depends on the individual.

In other words, age is just a number, until it isn’t.

You may have noticed that, of all the elected officials mentioned in this editorial (not counting Hakeem Jeffries), Biden is actually the second-youngest, next to Trump.

That’s a lot of experience … and mileage.

(We’ve wondered aloud in these pages occasionally whether our mayor and some City Council members have served for too long. By congressional standards they’re mere babes.)

Of course, the other problem in Congress beyond age is the entrenchment of incumbents, who seem to be drawn so much to the lure of bright lights and power in D.C. that they never want to leave.

Any institution benefits from new blood and ideas (the likes of Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene notwithstanding).

But a better solution to the creeping seniority in Congress is term limits or putting an end to the root of so many evils, gerrymandering. Ideally, both.

Beyond that, for now the best way to change leaders whom we deem to be too old or too complacent is simply to vote them out.