Is John McCain Just Too Old?

Posted By: Nick

 
The subject of McCain’s age has been very touchy.  McCain himself seems to enjoying joking about it in a self-deprecating way, but his campaign has reacted quickly against any perceived age attacks.  Remember that when John Kerry called McCain confused a few weeks ago, the McCain campaign responded that Kerry was trying to attack McCain’s age.

But isn’t it a fair question to ask?  After all John McCain wants to be President of the United States.  He wants to be the guy making all the decisions in the situation room.  He wants a job where he will get no real break, and not a single full night’s sleep for four (if not eight) years.  Why can’t we ask if he’s physically and mentally up to the challenge?

At the age of 72 (which McCain will be when he take office), things can happen.  While McCain’s health records suggest he’s in good shape, his own mistakes while on the campaign trail are starting to cause problems.  In the past few weeks his errors have piled up: He referred to the Czech Republic as Czechoslovakia; he mentioned the Iraq-Pakistan border; he referred to Vladimir Putin as the President of Germany; there are other examples as well.

The McCain campaign has said he’s merely making innocent mistakes; anyone who is out in public speaking as much as McCain is, is bound to slip up occasionally.  This is true, but McCain’s “slip-ups” are happening quite frequently, and perhaps more problematic for his campaign, they seem to be concentrated on the one subject he claims to be an expert about: foreign policy.  The conclusion to be drawn from these mistakes are not good for McCain: either he is not such an expert on foreign policy; or his mind just isn’t quite as sharp as it used to be.  Both are troubling prospects.

Worse, for McCain, the story is gaining steam in the media.  The Washington Post has a piece up today.  The Politico had a story about it yesterday.  Perhaps the worst case scenario for McCain is that voters really start to believe him when he says that we must be cautious who we pick to lead our nation in a time of war; if they buy into the need for a strong commander in chief, they may just decide that we can’t take a risk on John McCain.