Should McCain's age be an issue?

BedHead
Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:35:56 +0000

I go back and forth on this issue. I worked with a really, really sharp economist for awhile. He was vigorous and had a prodigious set of abilities. I hadn’t seen him for a couple of months (when he was a bit younger than McCain) and I was shocked when I saw him how quickly a mental deterioration had occurred. He complained about it himself. One would never have thought this would happen to this guy, really. It was quite sad.

What if this happens to our president? Worse what if it happens halfway – if he’s compes mentes just enough to argue he can do his job, but he’s not really got his hands on the levers. I am tired of having a president who seems to not exercise much of the judgements that get made in his midst.

If I am voting for someone I want to think his mind will be energetically and fully engaged for 4 years.

Now, honestly speaking, I wouldn’t be voting for McCain even if he were 10 years younger and were going against Obama. But if Obama were 72, I wouldn’t have voted for him in the primaries; I’d have gone for someone who had a longer stretch of likely higher energy.

It is true, though, that McCain seems quite a bit more vigorous than someone like Murtha.