Am I being “age-ist”? Maybe. But maybe not. 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. So sue me.
“…But McCain’s age is no joke. He will turn 72 on Friday and would be halfway to 73 if elected and sworn in on January 20. That would make him the oldest first-term President ever, two years older than Ronald Reagan. He has survived four skin cancers (melanomas), including one in 2000 that was classified as Stage IIa.
McCain is two years older than his father was when he died suddenly of a heart attack at 70. He is 11 years older than his grandfather was when he died suddenly of a heart attack at age 61.
The United States cannot afford the risk that McCain would die suddenly in the middle of an international crisis.
Nor can we afford the risk of dementia. 22% of Americans over 70 are affected by mild cognitive impairment, while 13% of Americans over 65 have Alzheimer’s. Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at age 83, but early signs were evident during his first term. Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher developed dementia at age 75.
Prescriptions can also adversely affect mental function. McCain takes Simvastatin, an arthritis drug that can cause memory loss. McCain also takes Ambien to sleep, which can cause amnesia and “fugue states” like the one that caused Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s late-night car crash. If the phone rang at 3 a.m., would McCain even wake up?…”
John McCain turns a spry 72 on Friday and I would be remiss in my duties if I let such an eventful day go by unmocked… so here’s what I thought I’d do:
I’m throwing a contest for the best birthday greeting you can come up with. It can be a video, an image, or even a 5-7-5 haiku. Do whatever you want but keep it relatively tasteful so that I can post the winning entries here on the blog and also send it off to the McCain camp.
I’ll pick 5 finalists - each of whom will win a copy of my book - and then I’ll post those entries and put it out to a vote to decide the ultimate winner… who will also receive any item of their choosing from my CafePress store.
Images and haikus can be emailed right to tipsATthingsyoungerthanmccainDOTcom with the words “Contest Entry” in the subject line. For videos, just upload them to YouTube or some other video site and send me the link (same address/subject line).
I know it’s short notice but please get your entries in by Thursday afternoon.
If you happen to be near a radio at around 8:10 Eastern (which I think is 6:10 Mountain), turn to 850 KOA-AM. I’ll be on a show called “The Ride Home - with Dave Logan and Lois Melkonian” talking about the blog/book.
UPDATE: Just got bumped to tomorrow at 6:10 Eastern. Apparently there’s some big convention in Denver this week and the show was running behind.
So I popped into the Barnes & Noble on 6th Avenue and 8th Street in the Village last night and saw my book on display - very exciting!!
I can think of no better way to celebrate McCain’s upcoming birthday (this Friday - more on that later!) than by picking up a copy (or 20). It’s available here, here, here, and here…. and hopefully in bookstores everywhere.
Thanks - and if you happen to see it in a store yourself, I’d love to see a shot of it taken with your phone. Send them to tipsATthingsyoungerthanmccainDOTcom.
It’s a question I’m often asked and, contrary to the emails I’ve received calling me a “liberal homo” (our friends on the Right are so classy, aren’t they?), it has nothing to do with questioning his patriotism. It’s because he and his team refuse to let an opportunity go by without reminding us that he was a POW.
If you were able to answer that question, congratulate yourself… you think faster and you have a better memory than John McCain.
If, on the other hand, you said that you would need to “have (your) staff get to (me)”, then I would suggest you go running around your neighborhood calling everyone else an elitist. See how well that goes over.
Jerome Corsi, who helped launch the Swift Boat smear campaign against John Kerry, is at it again with a book of distortions and downright lies about Barack Obama. Not content to roll over and play dead, the Obama campaign has released a 41-page pdf that addresses every false claim in the book - from the inconsequential to the substantive.
It drives me crazy how they insist on reporting the news. I mean, just because something actually happened, it doesn’t mean that they need to bring it up. Why can’t they leave well enough alone? Why can’t they just be more like Fox and simply read. the. damn. press. releases? Dana Perino doesn’t write those things for her health, people.
I organized the CafePress store a lot better so you don’t have to scroll through scores of products. It’s now all neatly organized by “years younger than” for your shopping (and mocking) convenience.
Check it out and let me know if you want any sections created.
I created a CafePress store where you can buy t-shirts and baby stuff that proclaim just how much younger than John McCain YOU are!
Here’s how it works: all the items can be customized with the proper year (based on how old you are!). I used “30″ as the example - but it can be anything… even 71 for a baby-t or onesie.
Simply send an email to tips@thingsyoungerthanmccain.com with the words “Cafepress Order” in the subject line and let me know what you want the number to be… I’ll then shoot you an email back once the art has been uploaded and you can place your order.
Half of the proceeds will go towards offsetting my ever-increasing bandwidth charges and the other half will go to either the Obama campaign, the DCCC, or the DSCC.