Age Double-Standards

I read today in CBS Online that critics of McCain are making age an issue. Any who are, shame on you. At 71, he is certainly capable enough to serve four years, and frankly, if the people favor him, unless some degenerative process affects his capacity to think, his age makes no difference - unless he's not 34 in which case he can't be elected - but I think he's slightly older than that.

It is funny, however, that our founding fathers thought age was an issue, that wisdom matters - by putting a minimum age requirement on the Presidency. I don't think any of us are about to elect Justin Timberlake President, but when those folks out there who start hand-wringing over bias, start thinking - perhaps they can grasp that our forefathers actually had an age bias. Put it this way, they saw wisdom as required, I'm not sure why we need to get quite so sanctimonious for thinking that the risk of loss of faculty is a taboo subject - it shouldn't be. Were McCain 91, I think it'd be a fair question. Age descriminition is rightly against the law (except for the Presidency it seems) - but capacity is capacity, not discrimination.

The question for the voter should be, has McCain's stance on topics been what the voter supports. Yesterday, McCain berated Obama over Obama's lack of military service. Yet McCain certainly didn't vote for John Kerry over Bush, or take to task the SmearBoaters. Indeed, the Republicans by and large said Kerry's service, and Bush's incomplete on his own service, didn't matter. Beyond that, and of course FAR more important, Bush's track record on Veteran's affairs - which is what started the flare-up over military experience - is abysmal, and McCain has rubber-stamped it. McCain used near infantile logic - that Obama hadn't served and therefore wasn't qualified to comment - to deflect Obama's correct and well justified criticism. McCain's judgement on Veteran's affairs is what's in question, not Obama's service jacket (or lack thereof). If this is the kind of judgement we should expect from McCain - if this is the kind of service to policy and tactic of debate, then while his age isn't the issue, his capability most certainly is. Or shall we simply have George Bush - with whom McCain has marched in lock-step for 6 long, painful years - painful for Veterans most of all - shall we have George Bush appear at the Republican Convention, salute us all and say "Reporting for Duty!"