Beep: Mubarak took power at 58, same as Brezhnev.
Khomeini was a religious figure in a theocratic movement who argued that God had granted him power, so he’s hardly relevant in this debate.
You can argue that old leaders can get weak (for example, the previous Pope), but the opposite is rather rare. In any case, we are addressing corruption levels, not liberalism.
(EDIT: one of the examples you should have brought is Giorgio Napolitano, recently “king of Italy” – he was elected President, then a largely ceremonial role, at 81 and proceeded to basically take over the political system by exploiting constitutional loopholes, eventually winning an unprecedented re-election and serving a record-breaking 9 years. However, it was on a background of complete collapse of the political and economic system of the country, which sort of begged for it. In any case, by the end he was physically exhausted and served only 30% of his second mandate. That’s the good thing with old leaders: they have to give up sooner rather than later.)
