Ellen Goodman has written a column this morning on some of the questions we should be discussing and considering regarding Sen. McCain’s age and the effect (if any) it has on his competence to be President. This is not the first time this issue has been raised and it will not be the last, especially once Democratic partisans are released from attacking each other and can focus their fire on Sen. McCain.
Assuming the liberty that I so often have on this august site to counsel Sen. McCain, allow me to offer that though the issue has to be addressed, it should not be done so by direct address for the simple reason that though words matter, conduct and action matter even more.
Running for re-election in 1984, President Reagan answered questions about his advanced maturity by delivering a memorable quip that completely disarmed the issue and sealed his victory. For his part, Sen. McCain is a funny guy but is no Reagan, and so will not be able to diffuse the issue in the same effortless manner. Instead, it will be dispelled or confirmed through the day to day strain of the campaign. If Sen. McCain is active on the trail and energetically engages with the voters in the town hall meetings that have typified his campaign-style to date, age will not be an issue. If, on the other hand, voters tune into the evening news each night and see a listless nominee reading a tired stump speech through the bags under his eyes, doubts will inevitably develop, and justifiably so.
Sure it is nice to point to your ninety-year old mother as, to borrow Mrs. Goodman’s humorous term, a “genetic ambassador” when questions are presented regarding your age, but the best way to invalidate concerns that you are too much of an old man to vigorously execute the office of President of the United States is to not act like one.
Indeed, the issue of whether voters will believe Sen. McCain is too old will not turn on whether his critics say he is or whether he says he isn’t, but on the degree of energy and vitality he exhibits in traveling across the country asking Americans for their votes. If Sen. McCain continues to be the same candidate he has been so far, accusations of senility will ring hollow and die by absence of merit.
What’s more, age might not even turn out to be Sen. McCain’s cross to bear but that of his likely opponent, whose youth and inexperience compared to Sen. McCain’s years of impressive service to country could be politically emasculating in an election when perilous times place a priority on experience and preparedness.
The age hurdle is and will be cleared if Sen. McCain demonstrates that, far from being the target of a hooded reaper that some would portray him to be, he is the one statesmen in this election experienced and prepared to lead the nation through a quadrennium that will be both decidedly consequential and tumultuous.
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