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 No Country for Old MenPosted on Apr 29, 2008
Would President John McCain forget who made that 3 a.m. call to the special White House phone? I suspect that his aides would not just let him nod off back to sleep, even if they were intimidated by the prospect of one of his alleged intemperate outbursts, but might our septuagenarian president be less than fully focused? Most likely he would be, although as someone born in the same year as the senator, I too bristle at suggestions that age has made me less perfect than I once was. But it has. Sadly, those brain cells do go, and “senior moments” of befuddlement are more than a joke. But that shouldn’t automatically disqualify one of us still-agile silver foxes from the White House, as few of my contemporaries are likely to turn in a worse performance than the much younger current occupant. However, looking at the top two men in the present administration, the age question does make a compelling case for very carefully evaluating McCain’s vice-presidential choice. That was my point when I raised the age issue on a Los Angeles Times Book Festival panel last Sunday, and my sparring partner, right-wing radio pundit Hugh Hewitt, wanted me instantly voted off the island of constant noise. He compared my “ageist” comment to someone making a racist charge against Barack Obama. I take his point, as absurd as it first appeared. Absurd because it is obviously true that aging, as opposed to skin color or gender, does have a deleterious effect on one’s physical and mental functioning, and to deny this evident biological reality is as nonsensical as denying evolution itself. The species survives when each generation burns out and is replaced by a hopefully superior one, and while it is natural to want to linger on the scene as long as possible, we cannot insist on our personal indispensability to the continuation of the human experience. Of course Hewitt was not doing anything of the sort, any more than he would genuinely embrace creationism, summarily dismiss fears of global warming or otherwise honestly endorse the tenet of the sort of phony science that right-wing pundits must from time to time condone. They do so for opportunistic reasons, and that is why the significance of McCain’s age must be denied by those eager to maintain the GOP’s hold on the presidency. They will hold their noses and vote for him despite the sensible positions he has at times had the temerity to advance, impervious to their blackmail. Impervious, that is, until he decided to make a second run for the presidency, leading him to sharply reverse his past principled stances and accommodate torture, tax cuts for the rich, Pat Robertson and other favored fetishes of the Republican base. The right-wing talk show bully boys still don’t trust him, but he’s the only horse left to ride.
While they continue to loathe him for his fatal flaw of occasionally embracing a moderate thought, they are dependent upon his electoral victory to extend their vastly disproportionate political power. They fully expect McCain to betray key points of their cryogenic agenda; on Sunday, Hewitt condemned most of McCain’s Senate performance and in particular his reasonable stance on immigration.
Let’s not kid any longer. Age is a factor in this race and nowhere is it so important as in McCain’s vice-presidential choice. If he picks from the very thin ranks of reasonable Republicans, it will be reassuring to more moderate voters attracted to McCain for his independence of thought as reflected in support of campaign finance reform and his opposition to some outrageously bloated military weapons expenditures that he has on occasion done much to expose. But if he turns to the loony wing for a running mate, we must become very concerned about the ability of a man in his 70s to fully perform in the world’s most important office. Is there another Cheney lurking in the wings?
Robert Scheer’s new book is “The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America.”
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By dale Headley, May 4 at 9:10 am # cluelessI find McCain’s non-sequitur ramblings reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s in his second term. Whether it is age, alzheimer’s, or just plain cluelessness does not matter; McCain is clearly not equipped to be our leader in what is the most potentially catastrophic period in our history.
By Robert Collette, May 3 at 11:16 am # President Eisenhower stated that no one over 70 should hold the office of the president. He should know. Republicans should listen to one of the few decent Republican presidents we have had.
By Nino, May 1 at 11:19 am # Re: Well, that didn't work as....its not age,its character..McCain is a traitor...so what is the big deal...oil is out of sight because he is owned by the corporate interests..as is hannity,rush (stoned as usual) ORielly..)harvard grad from levitown yet) and so it goes....it cant happen here...all the best...remember,dont question the ruling class they hate that..we are the masses and thus are like pavlovs dogs...bow wow...Nino
By jane, April 30 at 8:41 pm # Old men always send young men to the front to die.AT
By Jane, April 30 at 8:36 pm # As my late friend Andy Truskier would have said: “ how true”. We miss you Andy.
By Ella in NM, April 30 at 6:00 pm # Thanks, Robert for providing more ammo for stereotypingI don’t give a flying f**k how old John McCain is. Whatever McCain’s problems or deficiencies, it is not his age. Age will be no more than something that his staff will make “reasonable accommodation” for , as if it were just a physical difference that had to be adjusted to. All I know is he has been a Republican since day one, and he will always be one so his views will rarely, if ever, be even a tiny bit amenable to me. THAT IS WHY I WOULD NEVER VOTE FOR HIM. NOT HIS AGE. I would like to remind EVERYONE that we are all going to live--on average--way, way longer than our predecessors. A few people will die young, unfortunately, due to things they cannot control. Some will succumb to family histories of cancer, heart disease, Alzheimers, etc--but we will know about them before they are 70. However, the majority of us will live to be healthy, vigorous, and intellectually sharp well into our 80’s. We’ll get bored, we’ll want to contribute our incredible wisdom and experience, and many of us will want to maintian full employment until the day we croak---specially those of us who have maintained a high level of physical and mental activity in our middle age, like McCain. No one should expect to retire at 62, and die a peaceful death in their sleep a few years later.
By Allan Scheer, April 30 at 11:04 am # Age = Wisdom
By Duris Maxwell, April 30 at 9:19 am # Somehow the fact that Mr. McCain thinks that running for president is the same thing as being president should tell you something. And his idea that you can speak about the war in Iraq in WWII terms.
By Amerikagulag, April 30 at 8:05 am # Doesn’t matter if he’d forget, Lieberman will handle things and Israel will be all the better off.
By John Hanks, April 30 at 6:10 am # It will be too late.I would rather know if anything was done to cause or prevent the call. Liebermann is a paranoid megalomaniac and totally incapable of judgement.
By Marta Kaye, April 30 at 5:32 am # I think the republicans are just useing McCain to keep the White House. The one who will run it will, no doubt be the VP-Huckabee! That is what they did with Reagan, Bush sr. ran the show. Add Your Comment |
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Newsroom Carnage Continues at The Washington Post
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