John McCain Is Too Old

2008-07-28
By Del Walters

I write this not to be mean to Senator McCain who undoubtedly is an America hero and deserves the respect his decades of service have meant to the American people, but instead to be honest to those same American people who deserve an objective examination of the truth.  That truth being, the presidency takes a terrible toll on everyone, young, old, black and white, and that toll may be too great for any man or woman McCain’s age.  I would write this same article, if John McCain were the youthful candidate of change, and Barack Obama were the aging candidate with the distinguished war record. The simple fact is, today being President of the United States is a young man’s job, or at least the job of one is who not so old.

In 1936, the year of John McCain’s birth, a gallon of gas cost 10 cents, a new house less than four thousand dollars, and just 24 dollars a month to rent. The average worker made just under two thousand dollars a year. TVs, if you had one, had 3 inch screens and that was a big screen TV.  If you were in the market to buy a new car, you could purchase a Studebaker for $665. Hollywood celebrated movie stars with names like Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, and Broderick Crawford.   Ask your grandfather.

Anyone 50 and older remembers vividly the cover of Life Magazine that showed how America’s presidents aged in office.  This generation need look no further that George Bush who entered office in his fifties and is now just a shadow of his youthful self.  September 11th, the Anthrax attacks, two attempts on his life (that were publicized) the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, a crumbling economy, oil crisis, housing crisis, and the like all have a tendency to age any man. 

Keep in mind the President is also the keeper of the nuclear codes. Nowadays there is the ever present threat of another terrorist attack.  Rogue nations like Iran and North Korea want nuclear weapons; unstable nations like Pakistan and India already have them.  China, Russia and oil rich Arab nations create a military landscape that is ever changing.

History also paints a cruel picture of the toll the White House can take. Former President Clinton (heart bypass surgery) was once the youthful candidate Clinton who played saxophone on the late night talk shows and wowed America. Ronald Reagan suffered an almost fatal assassination attempt and ended his life in the throws of Alzheimer’s.  Jimmy Carter aged before our very eyes as the Iranian’s seized American hostages.  Gerald Ford bore the brunt of Richard Nixon’s Watergate while Nixon himself died a humiliated old man.  Each and every one of those Presidents, with the exception of Ronald Reagan, entered office far younger than John McCain (Reagan was 70) and that is the point that needs to be made. The age of the president must be placed squarely on the table, and examined for what it really is, a major factor in the upcoming election.  It is as important to many voters as race is to others.  It is the 800 pound gorilla in the middle of the Republican cloakroom. 

We wax nostalgic about the presidency of John F. Kennedy in truth, because he died in office.  He and first lady Jack Onassis remain youthful and vibrant, because of that.  The same can be said of Hollywood actors who died in their prime.  It’s just the way we as a society worship youth.  Seen a poster of Marilyn Monroe lately?

There are other reasons to be concerned about Senator McCain’s age…his mental fitness for the job.  To be certain in this regard the Senator has been given a pass.  During his last trip to Iraq it was Senator McCain who had to be reminded that he misspoke concerning Sunni and Shiite leaders in that country.  More recently there was the embarrassing moment concerning the distinction between birth control and Viagra when it comes to health insurance.  McCain looked like an aging doe stuck in the headlights, afraid to respond to a question about Viagra because it would make him look old, and sound old. He did!  The image stuck!

Now we learn that CBS TV covered a McCain gaff with what they now call an editing mistake.  McCain misspoke again, a second time, when it came to Iraq.  The statements should have been front page news and would have been, had they been made by Barack Obama.  Instead they were reduced to debate and punditry, as opposed to a real and honest dialogue on whether McCain’s missteps were the result of campaign fatigue or a failing, aging memory.  

The truth is we live in an ever changing, and quickly changing world.  My children, both teenagers have no memory of ‘party lines’ on telephones (you actually shared a phone line with neighbors and had to wait your turn, or, if you wanted to, you could listen on their call). They also can’t remember life without computers let alone cell phones.   They have come to age in a digital, internet world, use text messaging (a language baby boomers don’t understand) and program the flashing 12’s on our VCRs, (if we still have them) and alarm clocks when the power goes out. They get their news online.

Baby boomers my age, which happens to be twenty years young than John McCain, religiously read our morning papers and made the TV news appointment viewing.  We listened to 45’s and 33 LPs.  We cheered eight track stereo, and cassettes and FM radio that played album cuts.  We celebrated the onset of TV, and watched as it turned from black and white to color.  We remember three TV channels and life before cable. We also remember the Vietnam War that John McCain served honorably in, but not WWII. 

John McCain, on the other hand, can remember the war to end all wars, and having “Nothing to fear but fear itself,” and that may be part of the problem.  To baby boomers 60 and younger Vietnam was our war, World War II the war our father’s fought.  Adults 40 and younger consider Vietnam history, and World War II ancient history. Voters participating in their first election were born in 1990.  1990!   

So why is this issue being ignored?  No one in either party wants to incur the wrath of the AARP, and the nation’s senior citizens who vote in record numbers each and every election year.  It is the youth vote that is always the question mark.  Still, talk to those people, the people McCain’s age and the first thing they will tell you is that he may be too old for the rigors of the office. They know firsthand the toll that skin cancer can take, or old war wounds that come back to haunt you in the early morning hours. Every pharmaceutical commercial, Viagra and all, speaks loudly to them.  Of course John McCain may be the exception to the rule and may have discovered the political fountain of youth, but odds are, he hasn’t.

There is one final reason John McCain is too old.   The next president has to clean up the mess the last president left behind and that may be too much for any one man to fix let alone a man who is in the twilight of life.  There was a time when John McCain had the qualifications to be the perfect man for the job; sadly, that time has passed Senator McCain by.

Del Walters is an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter, filmmaker and author.