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Youth and old age are delicate issues for candidates

Ellis Henican

June 15, 2008

Is it prejudiced to vote against a candidate because of his age?

That Molotov cocktail of a question has suddenly exploded in the 2008 presidential race. And not just because the 71-year-old John McCain would be America's oldest first-term president ever.

At 46, Barack Obama is off at the far other end of the presidential age span - not as young as John Kennedy or Teddy Roosevelt (43 and 42, respectively, at the time each took office), but solidly among the presidential babes. He'd be the fifth youngest since 1789.

So should any of this matter? Who's being unfair to whom? Is it ageist to vote against McCain because he's too grandfatherly or ageist to dismiss Obama as wet behind the ears? Surrogates for both sides are pretending great outrage, but only in one direction, of course.

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Obama actually had to deal with the age issue first. Remember "Hillary Clinton, ready from day one?" What was that if not a swipe at Obama's youthful inexperience? Every time someone says "lack of experience," you can fairly substitute "too young."

Over the past few days, the delicate question of age has slapped hard at McCain. Loyal Democrats working cable shows are wink-winking in near unison: McCain's "flustered," "out of touch" and sure looking tired by the end of the day.

No one's called him "doddering" yet. But these are all code words for old. John Kerry said "confused." And when McCain mixed up Sunnis and Shia a couple of times and he told Matt Lauer it's "not too important" when U.S. troops return from Iraq - well, the Dems were acting like he'd be marching in the inaugural parade in his slippers.

Truth is, age is just a number at either end of life. All these candidates should be judged on their ideas, their energy and their performance - not the year each happened to be born.

If they're smart, they'll find a way to turn the whole thing into a joke. The gold standard of age-issue comebacks is Ronald Reagan's crack against Walter Mondale in the second debate of 1984. Reagan had a wobbly performance - some even found him doddering - in the first candidate faceoff that fall. He need to show he was still fit to serve.

Now, in hindsight, historians have raised real questions about Reagan's second-term mental state. But that night with Mondale, he neutralized the threat quite brilliantly.

"I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience," Reagan said.

He was 73 at the time.

He went on to trounce "junior," as you may recall.

SON GONE FIRST: Tim Russert's death at 58 has turned the whole weekend into a sweet Irish wake, as the newsman's career and achievements are celebrated widely. But this being Father's Day, I was pulled back to "Big Russ and Me," as moving a tribute to a father as any son could write. I'd recommend it wholeheartedly. I'm still wiping tears from the part where Tim goes back to Buffalo to buy his dad a Caddy. I'll say no more, but it really does explain an American generation and their sons.

STINKY STUFF: The report is unequivocal: Nassau taxpayers could save $17 million a year if the towns took over garbage collection. Here's what's still unknown: How much wrath will Tom Suozzi face when he stands up to the politically wired sanitation commissioners and deeply beloved perks? You know they won't just slink away quietly.

ASKED AND UNANSWERED: Couldn't you go for a big salad of ripe, juicy, red tomatoes just about now? No? Gee, why not? . . . What are the odds that Mike Bloomberg really folds the city's 68 OTB joints? Less than 50-50, right? What are the chances that, if he did, Gambino bookies would be celebrating mightily? How about it's a sure thing? . . . If that sour odor wafting across Long Island was really a Jersey City house fire (as some officials suggested), how come Hamptons folks smelled the very same odor a week later? Did the house burn twice? . . . Am I dividing right: $280,000 in torn-clothing payoffs from 1,400 LIRR and Metro-North legal claims equals $200 a rip? Those are some well-dressed (and litigious) riders . . . Really, how did a .357 Colt Trooper, used last year in the schoolyard murder of three Newark honor students, end up in Alvaro Delgado's Bay Shore home? Perhaps Larry Mulvey's new GunStoppers hotline (877-4GUN411) can help to scare up a tip or two . . . If sharks weren't so often preceded in print by the adjective "killer," would the protesters at this weekend's $1-million Star Island Yacht Club shark-fishing tournament have an easier time making their outrage case? . . . Judge D'Amato? Why not? If Ed Koch can host a plain-spoken judge show, why not Senator Al? . . . Was he wearing a helmet? That's the first question everyone was asking when a motorcyclist was killed Friday morning on Route 231 in Dix Hills. But when word arrived that he'd collided with a dump truck - well, it was hard to imagine that any helmet would have been enough . . . Did John McCain really propose a series of town meetings modeled on the Lincoln-Douglas debates that he'd enjoyed so much as a boy? Oh, my God. I'm sorry. That was a very ageist joke!

Reach Ellis Henican at ellis@henican.com.

REWRITE!

1 Hey, Belgium: This Bud’s for vous

2 Tomatoes: The new Red Scare

3 OTB: Who says the house can’t lose?

4 Gimme City: Another subway fare hike

5 Russert: Who will cheer for Boston College now?