The Daily Background
| McCain and age
by Arlen Parsa
Marc Ambinder did a poll of his readers today and asked them whether a possible pledge by McCain to serve only one term would:
A) “make him look strong and selfless”
…Or…
B) “turn him into an instant lame duck”
I tend to side with the former point of view, but apparently 73% of Marc’s readers felt it would turn him into a lame duck. Let’s talk age for a moment, shall we?
Frankly, and I suspect this is probably the only time I will be giving McCain praise, but I am impressed by his energy level. He’s 71 now and he’ll be 72 by the time Obama’s inauguration happens next January. If he were to become president– which he won’t– McCain would be the oldest president upon inauguration next year.
National campaigns are extraordinarily exhausting for a candidate as young and in shape as Obama is, but I can’t even fathom how taxing it must be on an elderly person (and McCain isn’t doing an armchair campaign like Gravel was either– he’s out there campaigning, or at least to the extent that Republicans do campaign).
Although his tireless campaigning for Bush’s re-election in 2004 was surely strategic, consider that McCain didn’t plan to run again back in 2000:
REPORTER: Finally for the record, you have not lost your desire to be President of the United States have you?
MCCAIN: Certainly it’s been put in deep cold storage. haha..
REPORTER: You haven’t lost it?
MCCAIN: Well, in 2004, I expect to be campaigning for the reelection of President George W. Bush, and by 2008, I think I might be ready to go down to the old soldiers home and await the cavalry charge there.
I don’t really have any great insight to add to this, I just found it interesting to muse over.
McCain truly has a lot of energy but he also shows many signs of his age. The guy barely, if ever, goes a single day without making a major gaffe. Add his years of being tortured. Add Reagan leaving office without 100% of his mental faculties. And you have yourself a recipe for disaster. Age will be a MAJOR factor come November.
Personally, I can’t wait for the debates. The differences between the two will be striking when next to each other. Also, Obama will have had quite a few taxing two person debates under his belt while I don’t believe McCain has any. It is far easier to chirp in with a cutesy soundbite once every so often. Not so much being in the spotlight for 2 hours.
All this really means is that the Republicans will have to steal more votes.