The Age Question
 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/25/politi...tml?c=politics


Is age a critical factor when considering a presidential candidate?

Other than what the Constitution requires not really, except I should think mental age is important. There are senior members on this board that I would not entrust with a tricycle let alone the presidency. I am not even certain I would trust myself.

For each candidate, there should be a long-form, unscripted interview. then you could judge based on the individual, not the number.

Whether there will be such an interview is doubtful, though.

I do not think it matters as long as she or he is healthy. Reagan was pretty old and McCain is obviously capable of leadership. In this age if infirmity becomes an issue we will see it almost immediately.

If either Hillary or Biden run I think they will have a younger running mate. I would not be surprised if Hillary just does one term. And women last longer than us men;)

I think 35 is too young from the standpoint of maturity and experience but, at the upper limit, I don't think you can safely generalize.

John

Yes too young of an age is more detrimental than an elder of experience.

Looking at higher ages I would need to know the health and stamina of the individual. We have all watched the Presidency beat down the individual over time. I thought Bush got stronger over time and look at him today mountain biking and running.

Hillary's health I would defiantly question. She was beat down as SS doing nothing but traveling. She looked young and vibrant in 2008 until her emotional breakdown towards the end of the primaries. After her term a SS she went into hiding because she was so run down, (oh and Benghazi) I don't see her being able to handle the job, no stamina and her health will be a hindrance.

I agree that health might be a consideration but I don't think that applies only to older candidates. If I remember correctly, JFK had health problems and he was relatively young.

He had Addison's disease and also severe chronic back pain from injuries he received in the "PT-109" incident.

John

Physical health would be less important to me than mental acuity. As age advances, individuals can experience difficulties due to early onset of dementia, Alzheimers, etc. and associated memory losses, lapses, perceptual issues and so on.

Although some seem to remain remarkably sharp to their final days.

Dave

Mental acuity vs likelihood of completing the commitment in reasonably good health.

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I think it depends upon who the candidate picks as a running mate. Having Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the Presidency with a crotchety old fart like McCain in office would have been a scary proposition.

Right! Anyone remember McCain's running mate? Oh yes, the ditz from Wasilla.

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Right. A good example why mental acuity is an important consideration regardless of age.

Nope!

I'd trust someone who's got experience and some life lived. I really think 35 might be to young.


Barney

That was what finally chased me away from McCain. His campaign was already going down the toilet, IMO. But, when he dropped the gang plank and invited the Moron Militia aboard ship I was done with it.

Dave

I'll always remember that it was done right here in Dayton, OH. At a place called the Nutter Center.

You couldn't make it up. :D

Palin was a silly move for McCain, IMO. But during the ballgames we had many of good conversations on the bleachers in 08 about our choices. Most of them told me the only reason they didn't support McCain was that he was a POW and it probably took years off his life, so at the age he was already they didn't believe he would hang on 4 more years and Palin wasn't ready for the job. I agree that if he had been elected and died in office we woulda had to cross our fingers that Palin didn't turn out to be a joke.. except Mr. McCain is doing better health wise than those people thought. He's lasted long enough to be through half of a second term had he been elected.

I never really considered his POW history as a negative. But, come to think of it such a traumatic experience could leave someone with serious issues other than physical health. A president must be fully prepared to deal with all sorts of different cultures objectively. Even former enemies. Could McCain have met with Communist Asian leaders in China or Vietnam on a diplomatic level without incident? Perhaps, but I'm not so sure.

Dave

That is a good question, and my answer would be your guess is good as mine. It could ( possibly ) spark a silent anger that could lead to a bad decision if a serious matter was at hand.

David many presidents have done that.

Have you seen 'Game Changer' ? ;)

Exactly.

I mean it could go either way. He would without a doubt remember what it was like being a POW and maybe ( possibly ) he'd try his best to avoid it happening to others. Really hard to say, but if given a choice I feel better about a man who's at least served in the Military than one who has not. It's always a gamble during an election, but I think that a person that's been deployed has a better understanding of events of war. I probably aint making much sense to anyone other than myself, but I'm used to it. :)

That isn't an entirely unreasonable idea. It worked with JFK.

No. My wife has one channel that plays nothing but the SOS and how dare anyone change her CSI or any other forensic science/coldcasefiles/somebody died and we gonna solve it show. :o

But I guess I'm still lucky. When I rode the 4 wheeler up the holler to the neighbors house to have a beer I noticed his wife was glued to the tv watching Finding Bigfoot ( or something like that ) and he showed me that she has a pc booted 24/7 with software running that she believes records ghosts talking. She gets up every hour to read the graph and sleeps very little. Poor guy.

I think we married twins from different mothers.

Here ya go.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Change_(film)

Forensics/procedurals would be good. Around here its the classic sort of sleuths who just have incredible intuition. Perot and Marple and such.

Foyle's War is on here. It's not too bad.:cool:

Actually that show is quite good, picked up the whole series on DVD. Honeysuuckle is cute.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=foyle%2...22&FORM=SNAPST

Chancellor Adenauer was 87 years old when he resigned as chancellor in 1963. At last this job was too much for him.

Nobody that was alive then will forget the era of the post-3rd Reich disaster Adenauer recovery miracle.

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Der Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle).

Neuter - Das Wirtschaftswunder. ;)

McCain himself was scary enough he is a ready, shoot, aim whackoo. With his two amigos Graham and Ayotte advising him he would have been a bloody disaster.

And a probable carry - over of the Bush/Neocon cronies.

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Hillary Clinton is not too old to run in 2016 and 2020 and serve as President from Jan. 20th, 2017 to Jan. 20th, 2025.

Any right winger that tries to play the age card against her is going to get bitched slapped by me.

Speaking of the the woman who could have been our Vice President, she said the following this weekend to the NRA convention:

"Come on! Enemies who would utterly annihilate America! They who'd obviously have information on plots, say to carry out jihad. Oh, but you can’t offend them, can’t make them feel uncomfortable -- not even a smidgen. Well, if I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...ze-terrorists/

It's amazing that people still take this looney woman seriously, yet she got a standing ovation from the always frightened (and frightful) NRA bunch. I wonder if she baptized her own children by waterboarding.;)

This was an NRA convention. Referring to the attendees as "people" does extreme violence to that word.

John

Fun with the war emotion! Hate makes you enjoy the idea of hurting enemies.

Conservatives seems especially into this stuff.

LMAO!!!

Dave