Age and the Presidency

Guess what happened in 1936:

Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini create the Rome-Berlin Axis

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First issue of Life magazine

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Hoover Dam was constructed

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The first NFL Draft

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The birth of John McCain
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Only two presidents have every been elected after their 66th birthday. William Henry Harrison (68) and Ronald Reagan (68). Harrison died after serving less then one month in office and there was speculation about Reagan’s health during his tenure. They has been reports that Reagan may have developed symptoms of Alzheimer’s during his term. That seems to be refuted in this NY Times piece. Either way, his health was always an issue that the press held over him.

Here’s where I’m going with this: If John McCain is elected President, he will be the oldest elected President in US history. Just as a reference point, he is only one year older than the Dalai Lama. Yeah, and he looks old.

I’m not trying to take cheap shots at McCain. He has more foreign policy experience than anyone left, and was tortured for like 5 straight years. So we know he’s tough. He seems like a solid option for the country. All I’m saying is that I know about 10 people over the age of 70. All of them go to bed around 7. They eat breakfast around 5am, eat lunch at 10, then they wrap up supper before 5. If they make it through Wheel of Fortune it’s a good thing. Heck, I’m 26 and go to sleep around 10. Shouldn’t the leader of the Free World be a tad bit younger?

With McCain, it will be VERY important that he chooses a strong running mate. VPs are usually afterthoughts. Heck, Bush #1 even won being drug down by Dan Qualye. Speaking of Qualye, get a load of this:

“W. Bush called on Quayle to be his running mate in the general election. Quayle was chosen to appeal to a younger generation of Americans and his good looks were praised by Senator John McCain, who said "I can't believe a guy that handsome wouldn't have some impact."

Hmmm…so I guess we can look for McCain to have a uber young, VP. So my prediction is Senator Lindsey Graham . He’s young, Southern Baptist, (to help the Evangelical vote), and has a super cheesy picture. He was also an adamant supporter of "comprehensive immigration reform" and of the McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform Bill of 2006. So there’s my best guess. Hopefully whoever his VP is will be the Tom Brady to McCain’s Drew Bledsoe. If McCain announces his running mate as Dennis Kucinich, I’m officially voting for Hillary Clinton.

Politics 101

McCain, Romney neck-and-neck as Floridians head to the polls

“Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts appear to be neck-and-neck in the Republican primary. If McCain wins in Florida, his status as the national front-runner will be cemented.”

For 5 minutes tonight, please go to CNN and see who is going to be the Republican nominee. I agree with a lot of predications that the winner of Florida will be the nominee for the party.

One by One, Angry Liberals Turn Their Backs on Team Clinton

“Like lovers scorned, Bill Clinton’s longtime liberal supporters are walking out on him, slamming the door behind them and rebuking the 42nd president for his behavior leading up to last weekend’s South Carolina primary.”

It’s confusing to me how Obama keeps getting random backing from key Democrats, but its not translating into the national polls. Do Democrats not care about the opinions of their elected officials? I’m missing something here.

White House 2008: Republican Nomination

Just to reemphasize: Click on the link to see Giuliani’s demise. He went from solid frontrunner to afterthought in about 2-3 months. I bet his campaign manager is not getting job offers anytime soon.

The Importance of Florida: Romney, McCain

As an amateur (simpleton) political commentator, this has been a fantastic presidential race to see how the nation as a whole responds to events external to itself. What I mean, is that we are a nation that loves frontrunners. We don’t vote for candidates that we simply believe in; we vote for a candidate that we sort of like and that has the best chance of winning.

With Romney and McCain establishing themselves as frontrunners, the Salt Lake Tribune wrote a price on the importance of Florida to the Republican race. They commented that:

“Tuesday's primary, coming only a week before the tsunami of states voting Feb. 5, could give a major boost to either John McCain or Mitt Romney, who appear to be the duo battling it out for their party's nomination….The Sunshine State's primary offers the best opportunity for either McCain or Romney to take the spotlight going into the 22-state contest on Feb. 5, a day with more than 1,000 Republican delegates at stake in a contest where 1,191 are needed to get the nomination.”

What this is implying is simple: 22 states vote on Super Tuesday. Right now, there are still tons of votes scattered around for Rudy Giuliani, Ron Paul, and Mike Huckabee. So instead of those voters continuing to vote first their “first choice”, many of them will switch their vote to either McCain or Romney. The reason is simple: Don’t throw your vote away. Vote for the best remaining candidate that shares most of your views on the issues. This drives me crazy. Why should we do this?

For example, in early November the leading candidates in the Tennessee Republican primary were Fred Thompson and Giuliani. Well, you know what happened there. Thompson is out and Giuliani appears to have “strategized” himself completely out of the race. (Somebody needs to write a book about that decision by the way). So we as Tennesseans have been limited to who we can/should vote for by a number of states, some that have vast different concerns then we do. Let’s assume for a minute that Tennessee’s primary was earlier in the year. If Thompson could have won this state, that would have propelled his national status and contributions to his campaign.

Hopefully somebody smarter than me can explain a simple question I have. Why aren’t all primaries held on the same day? Wouldn’t this be a fairer representation of the nation’s true opinions? Like I mentioned earlier, Giuliani was leading national polls early in the race. What changed about his policies? Nothing. Romney or McCain haven’t been THAT impressive. The reason he is losing is because he’s been out of the spotlight for 3 months.
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Our next president shouldn’t be decided by strategies or budget allocation. All candidates should run national campaigns until March, then let us all vote at the same time.