Tuesday, January 22, 2008

John McCain: The Age Factor

It's not currently a headline story like Barack Obama's skin color or Hillary Clinton's gender, but I contend that John McCain's age is going to come to the forefront of the debates soon. I've been thinking about it for awhile, but held off on writing about this, cause... well, I thought McCain was going to go away. But alas, it seems like our favorite veteran is here to stay - to the dismay of Huckabee, Romney and Guiliani (now, he may be gone soon).

In my humble opinion, paramount to the discussion of an individual candidate's ability to run the White House, should be the question of whether or not he or she can actually endure this undeniably and incredibly stressful job of running the country. I'll refrain from making jokes about senior citizens and the deterioration of one's body, but I think I raise a valid question. And while I want to put this as respectfully and delicately as possible, I also want to cut to the chase: Would John McCain actually live through 4 to 8 years of serving in the White House?

McCain was born August 29th, 1936 - which puts him at the slight ol' age of 71. (Life expectancy is right around 78 here in the US.) To be clear on this...I certainly hope that McCain lives a long and healthy life, BUT I can't help wonder if his body will hold up. What if a Ronald Reagan-esqe situation occurs? -There was considerable speculation over whether he had demonstrated symptoms of mental degeneration (Alzheimer's disease) while still in office. What if McCain's physical body begins to deteriorate and he needs an organ transplant? (This is not so absurd a notion) Does anyone else worry about this? Am I crazy for thinking that this should be a consideration?

As a point of reference, the other candidates ages are as follows: Guiliani 64, Romney 61, Clinton 61, Edwards 55, Huckabee 53, Obama 47.

And, just for sport...the year McCain was born (1936), other notable events that occurred were:

March 1- Hoover Dam completed

March 7- Germany violates Treaty of Versailles and occupies the Rhineland

June 30 - Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind is first published

August 1 - Summer Olympics open in Berlin, Germany, and mark the first live television coverage of a sports event in world history

November 3 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected to a second term

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Agree on this issue, Chuck Norris also thinks that John McCain is too old to become the next president of the United States, http://www.electionspeak.com/USElections/mccain-too-old-to-be-president-says-chuck-norris/

Anonymous said...

At this point I think there are quite a few Democrats...at least the more progressive ones that would vote for John McCain rather than Hillary alias Ex President Bill Clinton...Executive Distortionist in Chief....I'm one of them. But of course there is always the possibility of a president-in-training ticket with Clinton/Obama....as has been said...it may the only thing that makes the Democratic ticket viable against the Republicans. Don't know if Obama would be able to stomach such a match-up to save his party.

Anonymous said...

I thought we already decided that chuck norris' opinion doesnt count because a) he's retarded and b) he's only three years younger than mccain.

Anonymous said...

John McCain is terrible but Barack Obama is even worse!

B.O.came out of nowhere and was hailed as a great leader before he was even elected to the senate. How odd.

Notice also how the U.S. new media has been focusing on Middle Eastern terrorist camps in Africa and other Africa issues, and ask yourself if this smooth-talker who belongs to a church that boldly espouses black separatism isn't being pushed forward by groups seeking to gain control over Africa's natural resources.

Wait and see.