You are younger than John McCain.
According to Census Department estimates for July 1st, 2007, there are 301,621,157 people currently living in the United States - and 274,485,639 (or 91%) of them are younger than 70.
Now, again, does this mean that John McCain would automatically be a bad President because he’s older than roughly 91% of the country? Of course not. But does it make a case that he might not be so connected to the issues of a staggeringly overwhelming part of the country? I think that it does.
It’s a funny thing… this whole notion of “connecting” to voters. I hear people say all the time that they feel “connected” to George Bush - that he’s “like them” and that he’s the kind of guy you could sit down with and have a beer. Now, maybe Bruce Springsteen can pull off the whole “everyman” schtick, but I never really bought it when it came to GW (perhaps this is because I didn’t go to Yale, I don’t have a boatload of oil money, and my father wasn’t President - so the analogy starts to fall apart a little for me)… and I think it’s a little weird that the same emphasis on connection doesn’t seem to apply when we’re talking about a candidate that’s older than 91% of the country.
By comparison, roughly 68% of the population is the same age or younger than Barack Obama and roughly 83% of the population is the same age or younger than Hillary Clinton. What does that mean? I don’t know - what does it mean to you?
Why are people all the time wanting to have a beer with George W.? Don’t they know he’s an alcoholic? Given how bad a President he is now, just imagine how much worse he’d be after a few beers. OK, it might be hard to tell, but in principle, it’s a bad idea.
Comment by fleisch — May 20, 2008 @ 3:34 pm
I don’t disagree with your overall thesis that age matters, but to me the main concerns are health/intelligence/stamina related. The “out of touch” argument is, in my estimation, much weaker.
In fact, you could argue that an older president could relate to younger voters better than a young president could relate to older voters: the old president was young once and thus has a frame of reference for youth, but the young president has never been old and thus has no frame of reference.
Also, if you buy your argument, wouldn’t you have to accept that presidents of one gender are “out of touch” with voters of the opposite gender and that presidents of one ethnic/racial group would be “out of touch” with voters of every other ethnic/racial group?
From a practical standpoint, I don’t think anyone who rises to the requisite level of politics to be president could ever really be that “in touch” with the average voter…
Anyway, great website.
Comment by MP — May 20, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
I’d rather have a beer with Obama anyway. People with IQ’s above room temperature like to drink beer sometimes too.
Comment by Jon — May 20, 2008 @ 4:06 pm
two suggestions–
snow white and the seven dwarfs the film is younger than him, as well as the novel of mice and men by steinbeck.
hilarious site, i’m a fan!
Comment by erin warde. — May 20, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
Richard Nixon nominated a person to the Supreme Court (Hainsworth or Carswell?) who had highly questionable credentials, including the fact he was intellectually challenged. As a lower level judge his rulings were routinely over turned because he was unable to apply the law. For example, he was a southerner who apparently couldn’t quite get his brain around the implications of “Brown,” (1954), which ended segregation, i.e., “separate but equal” schools for whites and blacks.
I remember one argument Republicans made in favor of his confirmation by the Senate.
American’s of mediocre intellect deserved representation on the Supreme Court, too. The smarty pants intellectuals had their representatives, the William O. Douglas’ and the Hugo Blacks’, but those of average and below average brain power, the plain folk who didn’t need no habuscorpus, or other greek words to confuse them, also deserved representation.
What’s astounding is that the Rs made this argument with a straight face. Honest, I’m not kidding. You can google it.
Almost all generalizations have exceptions, but I believe, in general, political leaders, perhaps especially presidents, will do a better job if they at least know what it’s like to work for a living, if they have had earned their position, accomplished some things on their own.
Bill Clinton’s father was killed when he was a small child. He has truly humble origins. As does John Edwards, to pick another example. Hillary Clinton? Solid middle class. McCain? Upper middle class - his father was an Admiral in the US Navy, but reports are that his father never used his influence to help his son’s career. Obama? Middle class.
George Bush - old, old, money. He has never done a days work, at least as most people think of work, in his life. He has been handed *everything*. He goes to one of the nations best private “Prep” schools, is granted admission to Yale as a double legacy, and, except for a few “boys-will-be-boys” pranks, graduates with a C average and a fine record as a cheerleader.
Oops, 1968 is a bad time to lose that college draft deferment. He supports the war fully…. from 10,000 miles away.
“My oh my, how do I dodge, ah…, skip, the draft? If only I could join the National Guard, the Air Guard would be best because they fly cool obsolete jets and that would be fun, *and* they have zero chance of seeing combat because all the flights in Vietnam use aircraft carriers, and no national Guard pilot is trained to the level of skill it takes to land on an aircraft carrier.
But biiiiig problem: there’s a waiting list of 500 to get into the Texas Air National Guard.
But, turns out, no problem. Someone calls someone and they move me from number 501 to number 1 in line.
A friend of Dads - the Saudis are really nice - sets me up in the oil business in western Texas. Oops, my company goes bankrupt. That’s bad for most people. For me? No problem, none of it was my money, except, who’ll loan me money now?
The Air Guard planes were fun to fly for a while, but Dad says if I helped a family friend in his race to be US Senator in Alabama, it’d be a better use of my time.
My application for a Guard transfer to Alabama is turned down. They don’t have the planes I fly.
Bummer, except, again, no problem. A call is made and I get my tranfer.
Ya know, I’ve been pretty busy here in Alabama, girls and alcohol and coke - I just can’t squeeze in those monthly meetings. I’ll just skip ‘em.
Oh, I have to take a flight physical. Does coke shows up in those blood tests? Oh, heck. Really? I could skip the physical but that would mean a court martial and some bad stuff, but hey, I’ll take the risk like a Bush.
Ut oh. Letter that I’m in violation of Section…I forget, some section, and I’m going to be reduced to Airman 3rd class and spend some time in the brig. And Airman 3rd class do go to Vietnam, and Airman 3rd class who are busted officers get dishonorable discharges. It’s a rule.
But not one that applies to me. Instead, calls are made, after one month of active duty in the Texas Air Guard my request for an early Honorable dDscharge to attend Harvard Business School is granted.
Got my MBA. Get a job? Not my style. Somebody buys me a bunch of shares in a small oil company that’s doing OK. Nice folks, they put me on the Board of Directors. I would never break the law and use inside information to decide if and when to sell my stock. I was just lucky that I decided to sell the day before the really bad earnings report was released. SEC investigation? Phone calls are made and it is killed.
What do I do now?
No problem, Saudis invest in second company. I take it bankrupt, too. I’ve heard that can be messy, but not for me. It wasn’t my money.
Now I guess I’ll get a job. Oh, I’m offered a really good one as an executive with the Texas Ranger’s baseball team. Wow, some family friends bought me some stock in the team, too. Way cool.
The City of Arlington gives my baseball team a $300,000,000.00 stadium, in 1988 dollars. I’m against welfare. Everyone should make their own way, like me, but corporate welfare, ah, I mean, incentives, are great. That gift of three million dollars of Teas Ranger Stock is now worth $20,000,000.00. My Dad, he’s Vice-President of the United States, will be so proud. I’m a self-made man.
Wow, they want me to run for Governor of Texas. Everythings all planned, even the lies we’ll tell about Ann Richards, as if the truth isn’t bad enough. She’s soft on capital punishment. She thinks those found guilty should have had sober lawyers and stuff like that.
President? Me. Well, heck, sure, let’s go for it. I lie so often that I don’t know which is what or when or why, but does it matter as long as i win.
9/11. War is so romantic, and a decision to go to war so… BOLD. Plus Uncle Dick says thumbs up. Let’s shock and awe them and then I’ll say “bring it on.”
Four dollar gas? Is that a lot?
Bills to fund healthcare for children, make food stamps easier to get if you’re unemployed or family of soldiers? VETO.
People can’t expect to have everything handed to them. They need to work harder, take responsibility for their own lives, just like me, and like Dad, who was President after he was VP (Grand Dad was a Senator).
Besides, we need to be fiscally conservative. We’ll need that money cause even my buddies, the Republican economists, are saying that our emancipation of Iraq will cost well over one trillion.
Just eight months and I’m outta here. The investments in McDonnell-Douglas and Exxon-Mobil I know nothing about cause they’re in my blind trust are doing great. All my friends are really happy with how my policies have helped the economy. Friends, old and new, will pay me two million for a 20 minute speech anytime I want to give one.
When you work hard and make your own way, things just have a way of turning out OK. I guess I’ll always have trouble connecting with those who don’t understand this, those who are, well, ya know, lazy.
George W.
Comment by John Hocking — May 21, 2008 @ 3:35 pm
What it means to me is that he is more experienced, and (hopefully) wiser than 91% of the country. Old enough, anyway, to realize that most of the issues he couldn’t possibly know about are probably superficial. It’s just that we young people don’t realize, sort of how elementary school kids get so stressed about stuff that to anyone else seems trivial…because it is.
Having said all that, I don’t want to defend McCain. All of this applies to the average old person, but McCain has generally proven his ineptitude by what he has said, not by what his birth certificate says.
Comment by James — May 21, 2008 @ 9:53 pm
Also, what is interesting is the percentage difference of the population of 70 and older from 75 and older. 75 and older is only 6%. That means according to the census statistics he has a 50% probability of dying before he leaves office
Comment by Duh — May 22, 2008 @ 4:01 pm
One could also argue that because he’s so old he’s been through more than 90% of the country. He’s seen good and bad economic times. He’s been there when jobs were readily available and when they were not.
He’s been there when God spoke the universe into existence and… oh, wait.
Comment by Bob — May 23, 2008 @ 9:06 am
Uhm… If your last paragraph was here to make a point, it’s lost on me. After all, John McCain being older than 91% of Americans also means that 91% of the population is the same age or younger than John McCain.
Comment by Juliette — May 25, 2008 @ 7:31 am
What about percentages of the voting-age public? I’m sure a fair amount of those 301,621,157 people are children. It’ll also make Obama’s numbers look closer to 50%, so it won’t help McCain too much…
Comment by Dominic — May 26, 2008 @ 11:41 am
“I don’t have a boatload of oil money…”
are you retarded?? Please show me one dime of this “oil money” you speak of. OPEC has Georges testicles in a jar on its desk. People seem to sport this idea that our president just wakes up every morning and say, “I feel like raising the gas price.”
GWB does have some responsibility in the increased gas prices but not for reasons people complain about. ITS ALL DUE TO THE DECREASING VALUE OF THE DOLLAR!!! We are over-printing money like no other to borrow money for this “war” (brain fart) and it makes the dollar more valuable to be used as toilet paper. The other MAIN reason for the high price is demand. obviously.
Comment by Butt's X — May 26, 2008 @ 3:18 pm
no, I’m not retarded…and I don’t recall saying anything about gas prices or OPEC. Is the bush family not in the oil business???
Comment by admin — May 26, 2008 @ 3:30 pm
You can’t just say “oil money” and not credit what that means. OPEC IS the oil. How would the Bush family be in the oil industry?? Of course we(US) are “involved” with the oil trade, so is everyone else that has a demand for oil. If Bush was profiting off of crude oil production, why would he continue to “beg” the Saudis to increase production?? Bush is OPECs little bitch.
Comment by Butt's X — May 26, 2008 @ 4:19 pm
roughly 28 percent of Americans are younger than me. I am 18. Ergo, John McCain is older than 63% of American adults. Barack is older than 40% of American adults.
~s~
Comment by Monty Park — May 26, 2008 @ 10:41 pm
And he wonders why he’s having trouble reaching the younger demographic. I don’t think I could ever vote for someone who was young and active during WWII. The change in ideologies is so drastic, that it’s just ridiculous.
Comment by Emily — June 19, 2008 @ 9:48 pm
[...] The point of this site, as I’ve explained previously, is to raise awareness of McCain’s age in the context of how it might affect his ability to do a good job as President. The most obvious implication of his age is on matters pertaining to health but another belief that I’ve long held is the potential for him to have difficulty connecting with the vast majority of Americans. [...]
Pingback by This oughta get the youth vote out in droves. | Things younger than Republican Presidential candidate (oh, and did I forget to mention war hero?) John McCain — July 15, 2008 @ 8:28 pm
Dear John Mccain, please don’t become president, save yourself the embarrasment, and drop out.
Comment by Laura — July 17, 2008 @ 5:44 am
Two things:
First, I don’t care that McCain is old. But the fact that he knows next to nothing about the internet bugs me. This is a technology that is changing the world! And one of the biggest dangers we face as a nation is a cyberattack..and our CIC wouldn’t know the first thing about how catastrophic that could be. (At least I assume he knows, unlike Stevens, that the internet is not a series of “tubes.”)
Second, what we do on the internet…blog, comment, research, etc. does not matter one bit….if we don’t walk into a polling place on Nov. 4th and VOTE!
Is everyone commenting here registered? You have one month left to do that in most states….remember, your blogs are great…but it’s your VOTE that counts! I’m voting for someone who is smart, sensible, patriotic and internet savvy, the first politician to use the internet to circumvent the “candidate with the biggest contributors wins” rule…Barack Obama.
Comment by C.Sykes — September 4, 2008 @ 3:07 pm
[...] One of the main arguments behind this blog was always that, while I couldn’t think of any reasons why race or gender could impact negatively on someone’s ability to be an effective President, I could think of a number of reasons why age might matter. There are the obvious reasons (health, memory, stamina, the likelihood of being a one-term President, etc.) but there’s also the distinct possibility that a 72 year old might not be able to relate to the concerns of an overwhelmingly younger population (roughly 91%, according to recent U.S. Census data). [...]
Pingback by Another word on “ageism”… | Things younger than Republican Presidential candidate (oh, and did I forget to mention war hero?) John McCain — September 21, 2008 @ 9:03 pm