Critics Try To Make McCain's Age An Issue

CBSNews.com Reports: Senator Using Humor To Deflect Charges He Is Too Old For Presidency

(CBS)  This story was written by CBSNews.com political reporter Brian Montopoli.

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John McCain is 71 years old. You would be hard pressed to argue that that's an insignificant number - it's only a few years less than the average lifespan of U.S. men, now about 75 years. But it perhaps does not have the sort of visceral impact that some of McCain's critics might wish it did.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, at 88, could be McCain's father, after all. Harrison Ford, who, at 65, is only a few years younger than McCain, is once again gallivanting through an Indiana Jones blockbuster. And an unprecedented number of Americans are crossing the threshold into retirement with the belief that they will stay active into their 80s and even 90s.

So what is someone who wants to spotlight McCain's age - and the questions they believe it raises about his presidential aspirations - to do? One strategy: Focus not on how old McCain is but on all that is younger than him. That's the concept behind www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com, a Web site spotlighting some of the people and things that came into the world after the presumptive GOP nominee - among them Alaska, penicillin and Bugs Bunny, not to mention Barack Obama's parents.

"The world is a pretty complicated place right now and I’m thinking that it’s not such a great time to elect our oldest President ever," writes the man behind the site, who wants only to be identified as Joe. "So sue me."

McCain, who had cancer surgery eight years ago, is today releasing almost 1,200 pages of long-withheld medical records, a stack of documents that he promises will contain "no surprises." But it's hard not to notice the timing of the release - the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, a date when any news pertaining to the health of the man who would be the oldest incoming president in American history is likely to effectively be buried. (Read more about McCain's medical records.)

McCain, who has seen his age become a punch line for late-night comedians, has tried to deflect the issue with humor.

"I ask you, what should we be looking for in our next president?" McCain said during an appearance on "Saturday Night Live" last weekend. "Certainly, someone who is very, very, very old."

"I have the courage, the wisdom, the experience and, most importantly, the oldness necessary," he added. "The oldness it takes to protect America, to honor her, love her and tell her about what cute things the cat did."

McCain's use of humor to address the issue is reminiscent of Ronald Reagan, who famously promised not to use 1984 presidential rival Walter Mondale's "youth and inexperience against him." But Democrats hope McCain's age brings to mind another, less successful Republican nominee: Bob Dole, who ran for president in 1996 at age 73, and who was hard pressed to overcome the perception that he might be too old for the job. (Much-replayed video of Dole toppling from the stage at a California campaign rally didn't help.)

"I don't think the guy is losing it, but 72 is 72," said Democratic consultant Garry South, referencing McCain's age on inauguration day. South said that Democrats don't need to spotlight the Arizona senator's age because "it will be obvious to people," adding that a high-profile moment like Dole's fall could bring the issue into the public arena without Democrats having to take the somewhat unseemly step of bringing McCain's age up themselves.

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Video: Will Ageism Dog McCain?

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Indeed, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said last month the he doubts "we will bring it up in the election," citing "a higher ethical bar" than Republicans. But some Republicans saw an implicit raising of the issue in Obama's recent statement to CNN that McCain had "lost his bearings" for suggesting that Hamas preferred that Obama become president.

"He used the words 'losing his bearings' intentionally, a not-particularly-clever way of raising John McCain's age as an issue," McCain senior adviser Mark Salter said following the comments.

There is tempting evidence before Democrats considering spotlighting McCain's age. USA Today found that four in 10 Americans wouldn't support a 72-year old nominee. But a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll also found that nearly 60 percent of Americans believe McCain to be younger than he is.

A video released by the Democratic consulting firm the Organizing Group, dubbed "McAncient," seeks to change that perception. The video, which you can see here, features a crude-if-occasionally-clever song and lines like "He's older than his wife, a little younger than his mama/He's old enough to be one and a half Barack Obamas." The creators also maintain their own "Younger Than McCain" Web site.

One strategy McCain has deployed to blunt questions about his age has been to put his robust 95-year-old mother Roberta front and center, most recently in a Mother's Day ad. He has also cultivated a tireless persona on the campaign trail and highlighted a biography featuring not just wartime heroism but its fair share of youthful indiscretion.

But in an age when media outlets are speculating that McCain's advocacy for high-definition television might come back to haunt him because it exposes his "[w]rinkles, blotches, liver spots, scarry tissue" to the masses, it may be impossible to keep the issue below the radar until Election Day.

One advantage the Arizona senator has going for him in deflecting age-related criticism may be his opponent's youth: Obama is just 46 years old, and Republicans are already looking to hammer home the notion that he lacks the experience for the office. As he tries to allay concerns about his age, McCain can argue - implicitly, if not explicitly - that having a president on the older side of the spectrum is preferable to the alternative. And if he chooses a relatively youthful running mate, it could help put to rest some of the concerns of voters who fear for McCain's health while in office.

[obamaslady]

S_Temper: Do some research before you make such ridiculous statements because you don''t know what you are talkin about. Get online and research so you will have some facts and people will not continue to believe you are as ignorant as your post!

[obamaslady]

Whaddaya mean "make age an issue"??? IT IS AN ISSUE AND A VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE - particularly in light of the fact that he has had cancer! When you think that the medical records were ONLY allowed to be "vetted" by journalists with NO medical background for 3 hours and NO photocopying allowed, THAT NOT ONLY MAKES AGE AN ISSUE, BUT THE FACT THAT HE IS TRYING TO "HIDE" HIS MEDICAL ISSUES BECOMES AN EVEN BIGGER ISSUE IN LIGHT OF HIS AGE! McSameBush thinks that by dumping his medical records to the media over a major holiday weekend will make them disappear. I have news for him - I personally will see to it that these records will be bought up in every blog I write! THIS INFORMATION MUST BE KEPT IN THE NEWS UNTIL THE GE. He thinks he can run and hide from the LOBBYISTS, MEDICAL RECORDS AND CINDY''S TAX RETURN, BUT THAT IS JUST NOT AN OPTION! He is not the person he wants the public to believe he is. See link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cliff-schecter/the-real-mccain-goes-vira_b_102626.html

[jncc1701]

After reading the stupid comments on this message board - it is clear America is in her decline.
the average citizen is too poorly education to truly be an informed voter, and without this the Republic will slowly become a dictatorship just like Rome.

And for the record, the average life expectancy for a American man is 78, McCain will be 71 next year. Unless he has discovered the famed Fountain of Youth - how does his age not become an issue? Not to mention the agenda of the VP he selects, what are we really voting for?

but then I doubt anyone on the message board is intelligent enough to figure this out.

[watcher269-2009]

Critics Try To Make McCain''s Age An Issue

----------------

It is an Issue

If McSame wins the will have to change the name of Air Force one to -

Old Farce One!

[rufisgufis]

How you know when you''''re old!

When your medical records are measured by the pound;

When you remember going to your first baseball game - the first ever baseball game;

When you were BFF with Noah;

When your great great, great grandson celebrated his his 100th birthday.


FEEL FREE TO PASTE AND ADD

[rufisgufis]

Shshshshshsh - John McBush... I mean McCain had his warm milk so he''s feeling sleeeeeeeeeepy. Shshshshshsh - Nappy time...

Posted by EddyNewHope at 07:00 PM : May 25, 2008
_______________________

I hope he took his meds before his nappy time.

[eddynewhope]

McCain should have won in 2000 and our country, and the world would have been far better off, but Karl Rove and Bush''s cronies torpedoed him in North Carolina by suggesting that he had "fathered a black baby". In reality, McCain had displayed his honor and goodness by adopting a child and for that, I give him much respect. However, by embracing the same scum that destroyed him 2000, McCain has revealed beyond any doubt that he is anything but a "maveric", etc. Since 2000, he has become a complete sell-out. Examples: flip-flopping on Bush''s tax cuts for the rich, courting the same evangelicals that helped ruin him 2000, flip-flopping on the torture issue which is unforgivable considering his history, and playing along with Bush''s "appeasement" attack which was utterly laughable, the "gas tax holiday" etc. etc. Gooooo Libertarian candidate Barr for president! Wooohoooo!

[eddynewhope]

Posted by S_Temper at 05:25 PM

You might be a ******* who thinks Karl Rove''s fear and smear tactics are going to work in ''08 if:

1. You present straw man arguments that depend upon the reader not know anything about any of the candidates.

2. You''re a hypocrite by suggesting that a candidate is advocating normalizing relations with North Korea when your own candidate and his party (Bush) are already normalizing relations with North Korea, etc.

3. Your own candidate''s "Spritual Leader" thinks that the Nazis were executing God''s will by exterminating the Jews.

etc. etc.

Keep trying jagoff. You''re behind the times and your moronic arguements "McCain''s age is an asset..." are as obsolete as your candidate. LOL

[eddynewhope]

Shshshshshsh - John McBush... I mean McCain had his warm milk so he''s feeling sleeeeeeeeeepy. Shshshshshsh - Nappy time...

LOL - McCain is going to run a red telephone at 3 PM ad. "It''s nappy time at 3pm in the afternoon at the white house and a telephone is ringing..."

[bajaan]

How you know when you''re old!

When your medical records are measured by the pound;

When you remember going to your first baseball game - the first ever baseball game;

When you were BFF with Noah;

FEEL FREE TO PASTE AND ADD

[rhs648]

If you share McCain''s political views, age is not an issue. If you oppose McCain''s political views, it is easy to make age an issue. It all revolves around political hype and this is true of all of the candidates. Clinton supporters slander Obama, Obama supporters slander Clinton, etc. The half truths and non-truths fly freely on all sides. Most people see through all of this.

[greatdrivew]

McCain''s problem is not his age. Instead, his problem is he''s an uncorrectible, single-issue candidate: war.

And of course the scary aspect of that is McCain has shown, at most, a limited understanding of the forces, cultures and dynamics of the Middle East.

In other words, where he hasn''t flip flopped in the last few months, he''s a no-show [the economy, mortgage crisis, NAFTA, health care, taxes, etc.] or incompetent.

So age isn''t his problem. It''s his single issue, combined with all that goes with it [100 years in Iraq, permanent military bases, bloated military spending], and his overall incompetence that are the problems.

In sum, I realize the McCain camp is currently doing all it can to shore up his deficiencies, but they''ll never get all this corrected before November.

[blkpresident]

Anybody seen grandpa-McCain''s "blankie"?

[why_not_nar]

Katie Couric has achieved two things in her tenure at CBS news:

1. She has had more hateful and nasty things to say than any anchor in the history of television. John McCain was captured, and tortured for several years in a N. Vietnam prison camp. He had the courage to withstand all of that. You never saw John McCain on television denouncing the United States to save his own life. I don''t question his mental health, I APPLAUD HIS COURAGE.
2. Couric has earned the lowest ratings in the history of television news. On a good evening she will get 5-5.5 million viewers versus NBC''S, OR ABC''S 8+ million viewers.

KATIE, I SAY TO YOU WHAT WAS SAID TO SENATOR MCCARTHY IN 1953.

"AT LONG LAST, HAVE YOU NO DECENCY?"

[why_not_nar]

Katie Couric has achieved two things in her tenure at CBS news:

1. She has had more hateful and nasty things to say than any anchor in the history of television. This man was captured, and tortured for several years in a N. Vietnam prison camp. He had the courage to withstand all of that. You never saw John McCain on telivision denouncing the United States to save his own life. I don''t question his mental health, I applaud his courage. (from a person who has no intention of voting for him...but that is about his positions, not his mental health)
2. Couric has earned the lowest ratings in the history of televisions news. On a good evening she will get 5-5.5 million views versus either networks 8+ million voters.

KATIE, I SAY TO YOU WHAT WAS SAID TO SENATOR MCCARTHY IN 1953.

"AT LONG LAST, HAVE YOU NO DECENCY?"

[homjett]

The headline should instead read "Americans WILL make John McBush''''s age a major issue before November, 2008. AND American''''s will also expose prescription narcotic drug addicted Cindy McCain as perhaps the most pathetic potential First Lady in US history since GW Bush''''s wife (whatever her name is?)


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Posted by ConDumbism

What a dumb statement that is. Laura Bush has high poll numbers. She is no stepford wife. Shows how little you know.

[david1737]

Who endorses McCain?

Pastor John Hagee

%u201CAdolf Hitler was sent by God to get Jews to the Promised Land.%u201D

-Pastor John Hagee


McCain actively pursued Hagee''s endorsment and than said:

he was "very honored by Pastor John Hagee''s endorsement."

[david1737]

The Headline says:

"Critics Try To Make McCain''s Age An Issue."

Sorry, McCain''s age makes McCain''s age an issue.

[homjett]

Anyone who can hike the Grand Canyon from rim to rim, an from what the Doctor''s say, we have another Reagan type, younger in body then his years. Where are the Health records of Obama an Hillary. Obama seems to be the one who needs rest, might be his lungs need some looking at. If they use McCain''s age then its open season on what will be said about Obama.

[david1737]

So where''s McCain''s "Straight Talk?"