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July 2008
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Adding Life to Years
Is John McCain too old to be president?
If you stayed up to watch Saturday Night Live the third weekend in May you might remember the fake political ad that featured John McCain - the real thing - asking Americans what they should be looking for in their next president.
“Certainly someone who is very, very, very old,” deadpanned the 71-year-old (he'll turn 72 in August) senator and Republican presidential candidate.
If McCain wins this November, he will become the oldest person ever inaugurated president, more than two years older than Ronald Reagan was at the start of his presidency. For this reason some people wonder if McCain is too old for the job.
In Newsweek this past February, columnist Anna Quindlen wrote, “The senator's pursuit of the presidency reminds me a bit of those women who decide to have a baby in their late 50s. The impulse is understandable, the goal possible. But, looking at all the facts, and the actuarial tables, is it really sensible?”
Let's set aside John McCain the individual for a minute and consider the broader issue: Is a person age 72, by that fact alone so far past his or her mental and physical prime that they couldn't possibly handle the demands of being president? The answer is no.
Age is no determinant of performance or ability. There are octogenarians who run marathons and write books, just as there 26-year-olds who can't make it up a flight of stairs without gasping, and can't figure out which end of a cereal box to open. Our presidential nominating process might have glaring weaknesses, but it at least provides a fair test of stamina and mental acuity. If John McCain can persevere to victory in a nominating race lasting more than a year and involving countless skirmishes with the press and other, often younger, candidates, he is hardly an invalid.
That doesn't mean the presumptive Republican nominee can assume he has put the age issue to rest. Ageism, as I discussed in this space last month, is probably the most pervasive form of prejudice in our society.
In a survey released earlier this year by the Pew Research Center, 4 percent of voters said they would be “less likely” to vote for a black candidate; 11 percent said the same about a woman. But 50 percent admitted that they would be less likely to vote for someone “in their 70s.”
So the age card obviously can be an effective weapon in politics, but it must be played subtly. No candidate wants to risk offending older voters, who reliably flock to the polls. Just as only African-American comedians have license to poke fun at black culture, only a fellow older politician can safely suggest that 72 is too old to become president.
Earlier this year Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. John Murtha, 75, did just that. Speaking to a labor group, Murtha noted that he had served with seven presidents, and had seen how the Oval Office ages its occupant.
“This one guy running,” he said, referring to McCain, “is about as old as me. Let me tell you something, it's no old man's job.”
McCain's response was to tell Murtha to speak for himself. “I'm doing fine.”
I am not here to endorse the candidacy of John McCain. Nor do I want to suggest that anyone of any age is capable of serving as president. Many people try to hold onto jobs or continue with activities when it is no longer wise or safe for them to do so. Driving with severely diminished eyesight or reflexes is the classic example.
The message here is one you've heard before in regard to prejudices: Treat people as individuals. John McCain is asking you to put him in office for four years with an electorate option for four more.
The weeks to come will afford voters and the press ample opportunity to examine the senator and his medical records. No one can determine how long he will continue to possess his faculties or stamina, but the same could be said of each of us. If you aren't satisfied that he meets the basic physical qualifications for the job, don't vote for him. If you are, turn your attention to the far more important question, which is what he would do with it.
(Lawrence J. Weiss, Ph.D. is director of the University of Nevada, Reno Sanford Center for Aging and an adjunct associate professor of medicine. He welcomes your comments on this column. Write to him at weisslj@unr.edu or c/o Sanford Center for Aging, Mail Stop 146, Reno, NV 89557-0146.)