Republicans’ preoccupation with McCain’s age makes matters worse

More projection. The only ones who routinely talk in code are Republicans trying to appeal to the “religious” right and racists. Besides, who needs code when anyone can see McCain is old as dirt.

their, damnit, not there

I’m not concerned about him being 71, per se, because I think some people could do just fine at that age. I do think in the last few months there has been some evidence that he’s been suffering some mini-strokes — memory loss — because he has made bloopers in his speeches that are worse than Bush’s, and we know that Bush has a low iq, while in the past McCain has appeared to be average in that category. (I know he graduated near the bottom of his class, but that is always attributed to hotshot hijinks, not to dumbness. As is his crashing four or five of our planes during the Vietnam war.) It would be interesting to get some perspective from people who have worked closely with him in the past, like former interns, as to how smart he was then and is now.

Or could it be that the rethugnicans, having been thugs for decades, presuppose that everyone else is being a thug and talking in code?

Is this to be the year when repugnicans provide us with an ongoing stream of humor?

I’ll ring the bell again and shout from the rooftop: STAY AWAY FROM AGE ATTACKS! It is so tempting to make the jokes; they almost write themselves on a daily basis. If Dems attack on age, it opens the door for Republicans to attack much more directly on race.

The campaign will likely get ugly, but we do not need to open the door. I’m not sure if the country is more race-conscious than age-conscious (polling indicates more people are concerned about age than race, but how honest are poll respondents?), but we have the better candidate and the better set of issues. Stick to the basics and attack the positions, not the person. Given enough ammo, McCain will shoot himself in the foot without our help.

Franklin (3): If Democrats actually wanted to be a little slimy, they would go out of there way to wish him a happy birthday on August 29th.

…and here we have a picture of John on his 69th birthday, holding a big cake with President Bush. It wasn’t so long ago. In fact it was the day Katrina struck New Orleans. Oh, and here he is on his 70th birthday aboard Oleg Deripaska’s yacht in the Adriatic. You remember Oleg. He’s the aluminum tycoon from Russia who was pushing John to give Airbus the Air Force tanker contract. Oh, and look at this. Here he is with his mom, Roberta. She doesn’t look 95, does she? Was this the day she washed Chuck Norris’s mouth out with soap?

Of course Obama is campaigning on McCain’s age. -Mary

Oh, do please give us one concrete example. I can’t wait.

There does need to be an open and honest discussion about the consequences of age on the job. Our society is squeamish about age because we have marginalized older people (beginning in the 40s) and accord no respect to them or to experience, wisdom, the qualities that age brings.

Which, of course, is why all of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are 25 years old. This is also the reason why the Constitution says that nobody over the age of 35 can be President.
Also, I would like to jump on board with doubtful’s request that you give us a concrete example of Sen. Obama “campaigning on McCain’s age”.

Almost aside from the age issue, I think McCain is doing a fine job of pointing out how ill-prepared he is to be president. He obviously doesn’t care whether he can even access information, I say that based on the fact that he can’t use a computer, and (apparently) has done nothing to alleviate his illiteracy, despite having the ability (cough?) and time to do so.

He’s like a guy who can’t read, telling us that he knows what’s going on because he has advisors who can tell him what the books and papers say. If that’s not a characteristic of an old man who should never be allowed anywhere near the Red Button, then I don’t know what is.

He’s an old man, sure, but the important thing is that he thinks like the stereotypical old man. Lacking even the desire to be literate, he’s telling us that because he has so much “experience” he knows the course we need to chart. But none of that “experience” has involved exhibiting any desire to become literate.

Will the American people vote for that kind of anti-intellectual crank? I don’t think so.

They are just preparing the ground so that when Democrats complain about Republican coded racial attacks, it will sound like tit-for-tat complaining between the campaigns.

I agree with ‘danimal’: Stick to the basics and attack the positions, not the person. Given enough ammo, McCain will shoot himself in the foot without our help.

People get tired of hearing about race and age etc…. At least the educated people. Race and age work with intellectually lazy people who don’t bother checking out the facts. At least they do understand ‘pictures’ –> Pictures/video say more than words:
McCain looks old, sounds old, acts old, moves slowly, same old Republican dogma, etc…
Obama looks colored (not necessarily black), sounds vibrant, acts young, moves with grace, has new ideas, common sense, etc..

When Obama keeps talking about the issues, the way he has been doing, eventually some of those reflexive voters will start questioning their candidate.

When McCain keeps talking about the issues, the way he has been doing, eventually some of those reflexive Republican voters will start wondering whether it will work or not.

Of course the bigots and racists all over the country will vote McCain regardless. It doesn’t matter if Obama is promising to give them a $1000 check personally.

Well, now, if Pornin’ Jo-Ho wants to promote McJurassic as a “doddering, old, confused fool” and declare that “he needs to go to Miami Beach and play checkers,” then who am I to argue? everyone complains that I don’t take that caffeine-zone bubba seriously enough. Fine. I’ll take him seriously now—at least on this one issue.

The McFool reminds me of the Pixar short, Geri’s Game, where the old guy is playing against himself in a chess match. But in this case, both sides are clearly in checkmate….

The Obama people are playing it just right, The GOP is always whiniest when the Dems don’t seem to care what they think.

And don’t worry about alienating older people. We (I’m 65) know better than anyone that when you get older, you slow down in every way, and those Mccain’s age and over know how they’d feel in such a challenging job. Murtha was absolutely right that the Presidency isn’t an old man’s job. I predict that as the campaign wears on, he wears down noticeably.

If Republicans can get Dems to second guess themselves — “We need to go after McCain, but we have to be careful about which words we use” — they’ll feel like they’ve succeeded.

Because, you know, the Repukes have been so circumspect in reminding America that Obama’s a black man.

Obama doesn’t need to say anything about age. He merely needs to stand next to McCain once in a while.

Challenging him to a few rounds of one-on-one basketball would make a great photo-op too. 🙂

Regardless, come autumn when the media runs out of other things to talk about they’ll eventually start in on Reagan and Alzheimer’s, and about then the late night comedians will start cracking jokes about tens ways of telling how your candidate is getting too old, and how McCain needs someone to cut up his steak and pre-chew his soup.

Wow, Black-Hole Mary almost made a valid point, then jumped back on the express bus to Stupid Town.

I’ll agree, some of Obama’s comments (like his “bearings” remark) are subtle reminders to the fact that McCain is old, no matter what the official line might be.

But I don’t have a problem with it. McCain IS old. Whether it’s too old to be the President depends a lot on his mental faculties, his physical health AND his social outloook – is he planning on addressing 21st century problems with a 20th century mindset? Will that be a help or a hindrance?

And while, I’ll agree, a lot of people tend to treat old folks like garbage, or a burden, that’s an entirely different debate than whether or not this particular old man has got it together enough to be President of the United States.

Keep at it Black-Hole Mary, one of these decades, you might say something worth defending.

Not today, though. For now it’s strictly “Mary went to Stupid Town and all she got was this lousy t-shirt.”

Scarborough said that McCain was a “doddering, old, confused fool. He needs to go to Miami Beach and play checkers.”

And this statement is in error because…….?

Age is a factor that cannot be ignored. Part of the wisdom that is supposed to come as we age is accepting our limitations. At what age would McCain think he ‘was’ too old to be president? How can the republicans think his age is taboo to talk about when it is record setting because nobody this old has ever been president.

The reason McCain doesn’t wear a flag pin is because he can’t remember where he put the damn thing. I hate to think of a president who would have to ask not only if Iraq is next to Iran but if we are still fighting there and if so…against who.

I know Obama will win in a landslide and that we will have dem majorities in both House and Senate…so why are dems leaders still caving into Bush and the telecom coporations? They could fix FISA temporarily till we get a new president in 7mos…so why are they caving in to Bush’s and Cheney’s demands???

The republicans block an extension of unemployment benefits and lock step obstruct all good legislation while the dems just cave to all Bush’s demands. Would anything of major importance be different if Repubs still controlled congress??

The only time I remember Obama making a “coded” reference to McCain’s age was when he said something about respecting his (McCain’s) half a century of service to this country. I thought it was a thing of beauty 🙂

The Republican mind works differently than anyone else’s. They know what they’d be saying if the shoe were on the other foot and they are projecting that subconscious response onto the Dems and the Indies, who are left stammering, what? who? I didn’t say that! which of course they didn’t, but that never matters. It’s all subconscious paranoia and aggression to begin with. That’s why one can’t have a rational or logicl conversation or discussion with a wingnut or a turdblossom.

Here’s an example of campaigning on age: McCain issues a full and comprehensive description of his health status while Obama issues a much briefer and less detailed report (5 pgs IIRC). The difference in length between the two makes the obvious contrast that McCain is old and thus likely to have serious health problems whereas Obama is young and thus vigorous. Age is never mentioned but it is certainly implied. Another example — Obama (by description of the press) shields himself from the press in unscripted and spontaneous situations whereas McCain makes himself freely available to the press (part of why they like him) and more often goes off-script. The result is that McCain is more likely to be caught in a “senior moment” whereas Obama doesn’t let himself be put into such a situation. Obama’s clearly evident fatigue, especially in PA, suggests he gets as tired as anyone during campaigning, age or not. Every time McCain misspeaks it is due to his declining mental acuity and Obama jumps on the remark, which emphasizes that he’s made another goof. Every time Obama misspeaks (e.g., 57 states) it is framed as just a natural mistake that anyone could make. Echo chamber that kind of thing and it is campaigning on age-related stereotypes.

When I cannot be here to directly answer your comments made during the day, please do not assume I am ducking them. My job does not permit me to spend all day online. By the time I get back, there have been so many new things posted that the discussion has often moved on. I wish it were different, but I cannot do anything about that.

Statistics showing age discrimination after age 40 are abundant. If some of you are older and have never knowingly encountered it, I am very happy for you, but that doesn’t change the situation for most older adults. Whenever they interview a so-called “discouraged worker” who has stopped looking for a job, or been unemployed so long they have fallen off payments, it is always someone over 40, laid off from a longtime job and unable to find another one. There is currently a lawsuit being brought by TV writers claiming age discrimination because even those who have won numerous awards aren’t hired after they reach “a certain age” (40) in that industry. Yes, there is legislation, but it is unenforced and unenforceable. Look at AARP statistics on the number of older adults who would like to be working full-time but cannot find employment and thus have been involuntarily retired — it is something like 60-70% IIRC. The average retirement age is now somewhere in the middle 50’s but it is not entirely because people plan to retire younger than ever or have the money to do so. It is involuntary.

The main cognitive effect of aging is slowing of mental processes, but not all age-related changes are negative. There are several cognitive processes that improve with age, including the ones that contribute to what we call “wisdom.” For example, older people always do better than younger ones on tests of semantic memory because they know the meanings of more words, understand more of what they encounter, and are better able to use that knowledge to organize information and cue their own recall (more associations for the same info mean more ways to retrieve it). The more educated someone is and the more they use their brains in their work, the less impact even the age-related declines have on cognition. I’m sure people over 60 feel some change — they are getting older — but whether that change affects their job performance is an entirely different matter. Studies show that older people find different ways of doing things to maintain and improve their performance. Studies show that older workers do better not worse on jobs when they are older, in all things except speeded tasks (where males typically do better than females, even at younger ages). Even ideas about strength are changing, since studies of older athletes are showing there are no physiological reasons for declines until very old age. For those who stay healthy, you only see steep declines in the 3 years or so before death, which occurs at hugely different ages for different people (as Russert’s death shows). People who do not use their brains and become couch potatoes show cognitive declines beginning at age 25. Should they all be fired too?

The people who claim that they are now 60 and couldn’t do the job of president, probably couldn’t have done it at age 40 either. The job requires wisdom, experience, and a kind of emotional equilibrium that improves after age 35 (and which McCain clearly lacks), not speed or mental agility or at-your-fingertips recall of details (which can always be either looked up or gotten from an assistant). It requires big picture synthesis, negotiating and people skills (which tend to improve with age) and flexibility to learn from both history and one’s own mistakes. I’m not saying McCain has or ever had those traits, but they are the traits of an older person and they do not favor youth. I found them more in Hillary Clinton than Obama, but that’s no longer the issue.

The extensive literature on aging does not support the idea that McCain is too old to do the job because of some arbitrary age norm. I think he is not the right person for the job at any age, but he should be evaluated based on his personal qualities, not someone else’s feelings about their own aging, and certainly not based on stereotypes about older people. To the extent Obama draws on such stereotypes instead of focusing on McCain the person, he does a disservice to all older people, especially those trying to maintain an active life among impatient younger people who think that faster is always better and do not understand how much they have yet to learn.