McCain's Age Counts

Watching Carly Fiorina reproach Sen. Claire McCaskill on Meet the Press for mentioning John McCain’s age in a discussion about McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin, I was struck by McCaskill’s option not to respond. It was as if there was something turning in the back of her head saying; “don’t go there”. Whether it’s silence due to political correctness or the howling of a blatent discriminatory assault, in either case we don’t get the opportunity to address what should be freely discussed, and which is also quite relevant.

John McCain’s age is a factor in this election, no less a point of discussion than Obama’s experience or his race. Age brings with it a set of potential positives that are often ignored or overlooked. The most notable is that capability we used to revere: wisdom. There can be other characteristics enhanced by age as well, such as; patience, connections, demanding respect, and compassion. Most people are more aware of the possible negatives since we (certainly those over 50 say) dread their inclusion in their own lives. Those might be memory loss, confusion, and disabling health, to name a few.

When John McCain decided to run for the Presidency at the age of 72 the nation had the opportunity to make a judgment as to his fitness for the job. Thus far he has shown himself to be up for the task and it does not appear that primary voters saw him unfit. It is ludicrous, however, to think that the ordinary limitation that we associate with age wouldn’t become evident during the race. We all need to look and come to our own conclusions, and the people, the media, the competition, or the McCain campaign itself can’t be afraid to reflect on it.

McCain himself took it one step further, however. Certainly for his opposition to suggest the disqualification of his bid for the White House based purely on age would be unethical and simply wrong. However, the age and physical condition of the candidate is absolutely fair game in the discussion of the Vice President. That’s what I wanted to hear Claire McCaskill say. When McCain chose a running mate with virtually no national or international experience he allowed his age to become topic one.

The government’s actuarial tables show the average life span of an American male age 72 is 12 years. What that means is one-half (50%) of all American men age 72 will be dead prior to their 84 birthday. If you run the numbers it means that McCain has about an 18% chance of dying during his first term in office. The percentage possibility of him ending his Presidency is greater if you add the chances of incapacity to the chances of death. Of course, this is a simple average and a wealthy, white male has better odds, but then a cancer survivor has worse odds. Besides, many have justifiably argued that an American President ages 3 years for every 1 year in office. Bottom line, without any of the variables, there is a 20% likelihood that if McCain were elected, Sarah Palin would end up running the Country and the Free World. If a 1 in 5 chance of that happening isn’t enough to scare the begeebees out of the electorate, then plan on seeing the best and the brightest start flooding the Canadian border.

Sure McCain will have his senior moments (take his recent failure to remember Spain’s Prime Minister), but face it, all of us over 50 do. The key to whether that disqualifies him as a candidate will be his ability to admit and minimize the negative value of those moments. His campaign’s response to the Spain flub, saying he meant what he said, is not the way to do it.

However, his first decision and fatal flub, the nomination of Sarah Palin, make his age reason enough not to elect McCain. That alone should garner him no more votes than Bush might get were he running for a third term. I hope the subject of McCain’s age come up and often, as the consequences of the choices politicians make need to be trucked out in the light of day.