McCain’s Age
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in General PoliticsRobert Novak starts the “McCain is too old” meme:
Sen. John McCain, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, has gotten a tepid response to a New York City fund-raiser Monday for his “Straight Talk America” political action committee.McCain signed a Sept. 27 letter announcing his appearance at the St. Regis Hotel Nov. 7. The price was $1,000 per person for a 6 p.m. reception and $5,000 per person for a 7:30 p.m. dinner.
Many New York contributors to McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign were reluctant to attend this year’s event. The fact McCain will be 72 years old for the 2008 presidential campaign was cited to explain lack of enthusiasm, as was the senator’s support for the Iraq war.
Boring story? Perhaps. But let’s not completely dismiss it out of hand. Of course, whenever this topic is brought up, someone reminds us (as I will do now) that one of the most beloved Presidents of our time (although not by my family) was 69 when he took office.
Big deal.
So in the spirit of not dismissing the age factor…do we need a President who’s younger? Or how about a fairly healthy President? After all, FDR was physically handicapped. And it obviously didn’t matter with Cheney, who’s just one heartbeat away from the Oval Office AND the emergency room.
But let’s look back at The Gipper. Some speculate that Reagan may have been displaying mild cognitive impairment while in the Oval Office (a stepping stone to Alzhemier’s). In fact, one of his biographers notes:
On May 29, 1988, for example, he emerged from an extended one-on-one with Gorbachev unable to recall a word that had been said.
Now, if that’s true, that’s serious. We can’t have a President simply forgetting entire meetings with world leaders because of diminished cognitive abilites brought about by aging. Seriously, at the point it interferes with his or her ability to do their job, age becomes an extremely important factor in my book and possibly even THE deciding factor at the polls.
At the end of the day, though, I’m sure McCain won’t hold his opponent’s youth and inexperience against her.
This entry was posted on Saturday, November 5th, 2005 and is filed under General Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 5th, 2005 at 2:28 pm
Yep, I’m sure he’ll be gracious to Condi!
November 6th, 2005 at 12:11 pm
The whole issue of Condi puzzles me.
Republicans want her to run and I ask why? Because she’s a woman? Because she’s African American? Those two things are completely uninspiring to me. How about somebody who is actually qualified to be President? Having some actual legislative experience working with many different politicians to craft law would be nice too.
Listen, Condi might be a great choice 11 years from now, but I think she needs to leave the President’s side and run for public office and get some more entries on her resume. After that, I’ll consider a Condi presidency bid a lot more seriously. And I think she knows she needs to do that if she wants to be taken seriously by moderate and democratic voters.
And by the way, FYI, I would LOVE to have a woman as President, regardless of her race. But not Condi with her current resume. That’s a complete non-starter for me.
November 7th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
Interesting that Novak knows the reason people didn’t buy tickets to the fundraiser. If he spoke to some 2000 supporters who are now sitting on their hands, it would have been nice if he shared it with us. I think he’s carrying water for somebody.
Of course it doesn’t help that I think he’s a disgrace to his profession.