What's younger than John McCain?

[pecunium]

Damn near Everything.

For some highlights...

The Chocolate Chip Cookie, McDonalds, Mt. Rushmore and (my personal favorite) both of Barack Obama's parents.

Couple that to the Republican's new slogan, The Change You Deserve, and one is just croggled.

Then again, they are selling McCain (who's been in office since before I was a freshman in high school) as a maverick, so the self-delusion isn't ending; even as they try to distance themselves from Bush.

Comments

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he's old but it doesn't feel right to me attacking him on age. And he'd still be a terrible president even if he were 30 years younger.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'm of a mixed mind on this. McCain's age is a factor. Should he be elected (God forbid... see how effectively the Republicans are at making me more religious) he will be 80 before the term is elected.

I don't know the state of his health, but he's older than the average life expectancy, and he's had some hard times. Wilson's stroke, the possibility of some form of dementia/loss of faculty, etc., mean it's something I am thinking about more than I would normally.

Cheney's heart was an issue, so too is McCain's age; poking fun at it is one way to bring it up.

Is it the best way? I don't know. Humor is subtle, and subversive, it can get into primal crannies of the brain (as with the, "Obama is a Muslim" stuff, and the, "joke" pictures of him in a turban), and so have more effect than a reasoned argument, which can be right; but lose to the emotional appeals of, "common sense".

So it's not perfect, but I don't think it's beyond the pale.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I'm with this; it's reasonable to be concerned about frailty if there's some evidence to suggest he's not in good health; it's reasonably to doubt his mental acuity if there's evidence to suggest it's beginning to fail. But just poking fun at his age? Well dodgy.

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

And it can easily backfire if it gets widespread enough to reach the senior voters. They are online too, and they are reliable voters.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but McCain is within a year or so of my age and, although I'm in reasonably good health, I'm damned sure I couldn't even begin to cope with the physical stresses of being President. Please don't assume that /o/l/d/ /d/e/c/r/e/p/i/t/ Senior Citizens are devoid of practicality.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure whom you adressing (I think it's the idea this could backfire). It's not that I think the old (elderly, aged; take your pick) are incompetent. I recall my grandmother (at 73) running a pair of kids into the ground at the National Zoo (she had just been given a new drug; Motrin, for her arthritis).

But as you say, the day-to-day of the office is a grind (with feats of real intensity), and while my grandmother was able to do it once, if we'd gone every day....

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure who or what I was addressing, there -- mostly the idea that old people would be likely to vote for the oldest candidate, I think. (Women for H. Clinton, Blacks & some other non-Whites for Obama, maybe, to some small but statistically-significant degree, but I don't think that Age, per se, works that way.) Most people don't get old without realizing that age (in other people, of course) doesn't necessarily bring sagacity. Or without being able to recognize a four-flusher or someone with some seriously nutty ideas when they see one.

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

Of course old people won't just vote for the oldest candidate. But it's real easy to go over the line and soon people might think it will be ok to call McSame a stupid old geezer, senile, etc, and other things that might personally offend a senior voter. I would prefer to respect McSame's age (which is beyond his control) and attack him on his temper, his two-facedness, and his dumb-ass policies. Specially his policies.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, the other factors -- the Issues -- are more important than the (over-generalized) age matter. But it _is_ a factor. One problem is that mentioning it outside the larger context can look like one is (wrongly) considering it the only, or the most important, objection to him. And few of us attempt to put the whole case every time we mention him. (I remember when there was a strong sub-surface -- it was rarely mentioned directly -- objection to FDR's election on the grounds of his physical condition, and indeed the job finally killed him, but he _did_ get elected three times, and accomplished a considerable amount of (mostly) Good Things.)

My overwhelming objections to McCain are that -- wherever his words might have been -- he has consistently voted to support the Republican/Bush Policies, and that if he's elected just about the same people will be running the Administration, carrying the country towards the same autocratic and aristocratic goals, which I think would be disastrous.

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