In selecting Senator Joe Biden to be his vice president, Barack Obama probably lost his "age card" argument against John McCain. McCain is 71 and will be 72 should he take office in January 2009. Joe Biden is 65 and will be 66 should he take office in January 2009. Both McCain and Biden have been in the US Senate since the early 1970's. Neither has had any executive experience having served in the legislative branch for a long, long time.
Voters will no longer look at McCain as being the oldest candidate to run for president. Republicans will make the case that Biden, too, is no spring chicken, although Obama will be one of the youngest candidates for president in US history.
McCain and his campaign staff have been making the argument that being 72 really isn't that old. It's been an uphill fight as the American electorate are fully aware of McCain's age and a huge number of voters worry about his being too old. Now that Biden is in the race as vice president on the Democratic ticket, McCain and his supporters will say, "see, there's nothing wrong in being past the normal retirement age and on Medicare to be running for either president or vice president of the United States."
Another factor in the selection of Biden for vice president at the age of 65 is that it means there won't be a candidate in the wings for president in either four years or eight years depending on the outcome of the 2008 election. Unless of course Joe Biden still wants to be president at the ripe old age of 74 eight years on inauguration day 2017.
By picking Biden as VP, Obama is saying Biden is acceptable to take over the top spot at age 66 or older. So, McCain being 71 going on 72 is no longer an issue. The age card is no longer in play!
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Veterans Day 2009
37 minutes ago
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3 comments:
Another post representing original thought that I have not seen anywhere else. Thanks for this!
I'm moved to say that McCain looks and acts a heck of a lot older than Biden. Biden exudes health and vitality. To me, at least, Biden gives the image of someone much younger. That may counteract the pure age statistic.
Or maybe not. Just a thought.
I agree that McCain seems a lot older, mentally and physically.
However, I'm not sure that age will be the pivotal issue. Jobs, immigration, the economy, the war, there are so many things on the minds of Americans these days.
I also come here to read often because you have such a unique spin of the issues. Thanks.
BE and Maria: I agree Biden has a more "youthful" persona than McCain. Still, the statistic of birth is out there. We'll see if it will make a difference in the race for the presidency. I also agree that there are so many other issues of importance to address other than age. However, the new "undereducated," as the msm calls them, will look for superficial reasons to vote for a particular candidate. Look what happened in 2004 when the label "flip-flopper" stuck to Kerry. No matter what he said or did, it stuck and it turned the election to shit for brains and the rest is history.
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