Jan. 27, 2008
Don't Avoid Questions Over McCain's Age
National Review Online: Presidency's Mental, Physical Demands May Overwhelm GOP Hopeful
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Play CBS Video Video Chuck Norris Mocks McCain's Age "CBS News RAW": Actor Chuck Norris scoffs at Sen. John McCain's age, 71, saying that he would lack stamina as president. McCain dismisses Norris's comment with a joke.
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Video Disillusionment: McCain As part of the CBS News series "Primary Questions," Katie Couric asks Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., what he finds the most disillusioning aspect of running for president of the United States.
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Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., stops by a pre-debate rally in Deerfield Beach, Fla., before heading to the Republican presidential debate Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008. (AP)
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Photo Essay John McCain Some call him a hero, some a maverick. Will Americans call him Mr. President?
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News Tools Campaign Calendar The latest list of primary and caucus dates as states continue jockeying for position.
Among the painful signs of our time are the shocked reactions to Chuck Norris’s raising the question of whether Senator John McCain is too old to be president.
Have we reached the point where we have so many politically correct taboos that we can’t even talk sense?
Does a man in his seventies have less energy for either physical or mental tasks than someone younger? Those of us who are in our seventies know darn well that we can’t do everything we used to do, as well as we used to do it.
It was appalling to me when my driver’s license was renewed last year without my having to get behind the wheel of a car and demonstrate that I still could drive safely.
Even if my own driving was still all right, I could get killed by some other old-timer whose driving was not all right -- and who had not been tested behind the wheel for many years.
While teenagers have high rates of fatal accidents, the decline that sets in as they mature does not continue indefinitely. The rate of fatal accidents declines to a plateau in middle age -- and then begins to rise again for older people, until old-timers eventually reach the point where their rate of fatal accidents is at least as high as that of teenagers.
It is not just in physical tasks that age takes its toll. Even when our minds remain sharp, our energy levels are seldom the same, and that affects how long we can concentrate on a given day without taking a rest.
It is easy enough for me to take an afternoon nap and wake up refreshed, especially since my younger research assistants are working while I am dozing, and have plenty of material ready for me when I am ready to resume work.
But a president of the United States has to be ready to take on any crisis that arises anywhere in the world, at any hour of the day or night.
And if he has to deal with it around the clock, then he just stays awake around the clock to deal with it.
It can be a killing job. You need only look at pictures of Abraham Lincoln when he took office and compare them with the pictures of him just a few years later, when he looked like he had aged at least ten years during the Civil War.
Look at pictures of Franklin D. Roosevelt taken in 1940 and compare them with pictures of him taken in 1945, after World War II had taken its toll.
Today we know that FDR’s doctor had put him on a restricted schedule -- and that still was not enough to keep him from dying in office, just a few months after he began his final term as president.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was younger when he died than John McCain is right now. Moreover, FDR had not been abused for years as a prisoner of war.
When we are talking about a president of the United States, we are not talking about the fate of one individual, but the fate of a nation and of generations yet unborn.
This is no time to get squeamish or politically correct, when talking about whoever is to carry the load of the free world on his shoulders in the White House.
Quite aside from age, there is all too much evidence already that John McCain is not the kind of man who has given in-depth thought to many of the serious issues on which he shoots from the hip, which some people equate with “straight talk.”
The media have dubbed him a “maverick,” which is another way of spinning the fact that he is headstrong and unreliable.
Senator McCain’s teaming up with Senator Ted Kennedy on immigration, and with equally left-wing Senator Russ Feingold to violate the First Amendment in the name of “campaign-finance reform,” are classic examples of a loose cannon.
Senator McCain is not a bad man. He has some admirable qualities. But there are plenty of good people who would be dangerous in a job for which they are not suited.
Back in the 18th century, Edmund Burke said that some people “may do the worst of things without being the worst of men.” The White House is not the place for that.
By Thomas Sowell
Reprinted with permission from National Review Online.

Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."





Say NO to McCain!
Some day when we are in a war with a enemy that can attack us with a real military, we are going to wish we didn''''t have the reputation of a country that uses torture. We can''''t condemn others for torturing our military personel if we are doing it ourselves.
Posted by harp1963 at 07:01 PM : Jan 27, 2008,,,
This thinking is a common misconception, the new stateless enemy could care less what our policies are on torture, only established governments do who have their signature on the Geneva Convention. For example, its well known the U.S. does not have to worry about Islamic Extremist Terrorist groups torturing U.S. Prisoners because they don''t take any Prisoners, they kill them all and in fact not only do they kill them all, when they want to add drama to the killings they chop their heads off on web video or shoot them in the head gangster style. Islamic Terrorist have proven how the U.S. treats their Prisoners does not influence how they treat ours, all U.S. Prisoners face certain death.
Some day when we are in a war with a enemy that can attack us with a real military, we are going to wish we didn''t have the reputation of a country that uses torture. We can''t condemn others for torturing our military personel if we are doing it ourselves.
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I agree;
Just look at the impressive showing the younger President Bush made during the first hour of the 911 crises.
It really is doubtful that McCain could sit and read %u201Cmy pet goat%u201D as well or as long as Bush did.
Posted by Rafterman1 at 02:54 PM : Jan 27, 2008
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I agree and we must also think about the issue of his health. John should do the honorable thing here and be the Elder Statesman.
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AMNESTY-JOHN is the poster old-man for MANDATORY age limits for ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS. Just think how embarrassing it will be for Americans when AMNESTY-JOHN wets himself -or worse- in meetings with leaders of other countries. It would be just as bad as having a total moron representing America, and EVERYBODY knows how humiliating that has been.
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Problem is, Alzheimers can hit at any time. Look at Reagan, everyone said the same thing, how fit he was. But in his second term, he slept at meetings and had forgetfulness, most likely the Alzheimers he had coming in. Maybe its time to add a maximum age to join our presidential minimum age. Yeah, I know a maximum age is unlikely to ever happen, but old presidents have to be a concern.
Give it up McCain.
America does not need you leading this country at this time.
Go read a comic book.
Have the nurse change your Depends.
You had your chance and blew it BIGTIME.
Your kind of politics has hurt this country enough.
- by zeezilman January 27, 2008 2:44 PM EST
- McCain%u2019s %u201CHispanic Outreach Director%u201D, Juan Hernandez, is the same guy who was a close advisor to Mexico%u2019s President Vicente Fox! Hernandez headed up a Mexican bureaucracy called the %u201CPresidential Office for Mexicans Abroad.%u201D It was designed to allow Hernandez to travel across the country, meddling with local, state, and federal immigration enforcement on behalf of millions of illegal aliens in America. Prior to aligning with the campaign staff, Hernandez has been serving in McCain%u2019s Reform Institute as a Senior Fellow of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Initiative.
- Reply to this comment
See all 18 CommentsU.S. born dual citizen Juan Hernandez is notorious for having said of Mexican Americans on Nightline on June 7, 2001, %u201CI want the third generation, the seventh generation, I want them all to think Mexico first.%u201D
Does John McCain agree that they should always %u201Cthink Mexico first?%u201D With Hernandez as his %u201CHispanic Outreach Director%u201D, who began serving last year, I don%u2019t think there is any question. Is there any reason that anyone should think open borders fanatic Dr. Hernandez wants President McCain to secure the border? Is there any reason that anyone should trust a man to secure the border if he is getting his %u201CHispanic Outreach%u201D advice from Dr. Juan Hernandez? Is there any reason why anyone should not think that John McCain is committed to giving amnesty to the 20 million illegal aliens in America?