Saul Friedman: McCain’s Choice of Palin Has Made His Age an Issue
Posted at 7:30 pm, September 5th, 2008
A couple of months ago, in the seniors column I write on my day job for Newsday, I rejected age as an issue in the presidential campaign. But I added, “if age is to be a factor in the coming race… perhaps the most important issue may be whom Sen. John McCain, 72, chooses as a running mate.”
This has not been much discussed in the press, except in passing. Younger journalists may be defensive writing about age or John McCain’s mortality. But I am in my seventies and understand the problems that can come with aging. Older people are more at home talking about age without being accused of ageism. And we can talk about mortality, ours or McCain’s, without being morbid.
Therefore, no matter what your politics may be, McCain’s age suddenly has become an important issue in this presidential campaign. How can the press, or the rest of us, avoid it when McCain, 72, chooses as his vice-president Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, 44, who has served in that office less than two years and whose only other elective office has been on the city council and as mayor of her tiny home town, Wasilla, (pop. 6,715)?
It does not belittle these accomplishments, but it is a huge understatement to suggest that she is not ready or qualified to become President of the United States should something happen to McCain, who will be near 73 if and when he assumes office, old enough to be Palin’s father. One wonders not only about his choice, but whether she realizes the risks to the country she says she loves. She could have said, “Thanks, but I’m not ready to take charge of the nuclear launch codes.”
Three times since 1945, vice-presidents have succeeded to the presidency when it became vacant. And four times vice-presidents won the White House on their own, but they were people with vast experience in government and international affairs so that there was continuity in one of the most powerful offices in a dangerous world. That gave confidence to America and its allies and pause to potential adversaries.
As I noted on June 21, McCain’s age, in and of itself, should not be an issue. But McCain was badly injured when his plane was shot down over Vietnam in 1967; he suffered physical torture and psychological trauma during more than five years as a prisoner, and since 2000 he has had surgery at least twice for melanoma, an especially dangerous form of skin cancer. As someone in my seventies who has been through illness, I know the risks and possible consequences of aging. Doesn’t McCain? Shouldn’t we ask?
We still do not know when Alzheimer’s first attacked President Reagan, who was 77 and a cancer survivor when he left office. Franklin Roosevelt, we learned much later, was a sick man during his last year in the presidency, although he was only 63 when he died. Dwight Eisenhower was 65 when he had a heart attack while in office in 1955 and almost did not run for a second term.
As another seniors writer, Ronnie Bennett wrote in her online column, Time Goes By, earlier this month, “Palin’s lack of political and governing substance is critical to the issue of McCain’s age.”
His history as a POW, the injuries from which he still suffers, and his recurring melanoma “make it McCain’s professional and personal responsibility as a citizen and leader to choose a qualified vice-president who can carry on the office of the presidency….In the most fearfully anxious and uncertain times in memory, he failed that responsibility catastrophically.”
Here’s an irony. McCain’s experience as well as his age made him a favorite among many older voters, according to polls by Pew Research. But older people know some of the problems of aging, especially for someone in his seventies with the responsibilities of the presidency.
The seemingly hasty choice of Palin, 44, with five children and a grandchild on the way, may only underscore her contrast with McCain’s age among older voters, especially women, as well as younger voters who, according Pew, believe (mistakenly) that a person over 70 is too old for the vigors of office. While many older voters may share McCain’s conservative values, they are wary of his positions on Medicare and Social Security. He has proposed cutting Medicare benefits and converting part of Social Security into individual investment accounts.
In addition to calling attention to his age, if not his judgement, McCain’s choice undercut his own argument that his rival Sen. Barack Obama, lacks sufficient experience to be president, which had been a plus for McCain among older voters. Sen. Joseph Biden, as a potential vice-president, would instill more confidence in older voters than Palin.
Older voters, I’ve learned, tend not to be extreme; age tempers us all. Therefore, my guess is that older voters will not be impressed with Palin’s rather extreme religious views, her Christian fundamentalism, her belief in creationism, her opposition to abortion even in the case of rape or incest, her opposition to sex education and her insistence, even in the face of her daughter’s pregnancy, that schools should only teach abstinence. I can hear the sighs of parents and grandparents among our readers who know better.
Finally, while older voters–especially women–tended to support Sen. Hillary Clinton over Obama because she was an experienced known and he was less experienced and unknown, that doesn’t mean they are now likely to support McCain. That might have been the case if he had chosen someone equally experienced who could assume the presidency. Older Americans, with memories, value continuity rather than abrupt, unpredictable and wrenching change.
While McCain’s mother is in her nineties, his father died when he was 70. McCain jokes that he’s “older than dirt and I have the scars to prove it.” It’s no joke that McCain, who is not in the best of health and tires easily, is approaching the average life expectancy for white men, just over 77. Which means that there is a fair chance his choice for vice president could indeed become president. Is that what McCain intended? Shouldn’t this become an important issue?
September 6th, 2008 at 7:30 pm |
“Near 73″? What the heck does that mean? Is he six, half-way to seven? He turned 72 a week ago, and his term would begin in January, 4 months from now.
The average life expectancy for a 72 year old white male is not 77.
I do like the attack on Palin’s daughter. Making an issue of a teenager’s pregnancy to score political points is the sort of thing we’ve come to expect from you. What a despicable thing to do, but true to form for an ugly man.
As for experience, one wonders what you could possibly be thinking. Was Obama qualified for the presidency when his campaign began 19 months ago? After only two years in the Senate? Is there really such a qualitative difference that comes from the intervening two years of experience? If so, should we really credit Obama with those years, given that he didn’t show up for them?
September 6th, 2008 at 8:13 pm |
Thomas, I disagree. I think this is a calm and reasoned piece – and the fact that you disagree with the positions he’s taking does not make them wrong or absurd.
I also disagree with your evaluation of Barack Obama’s qualifications to govern. On the domestic front, the central problem facing this nation is how we reconfigure our economy and rebuild the middle class. We must again reward innovation and hard work, but not the kind of innovation that looks to create arcane “financial instruments” with which to essentially defraud others and which render a global economy fundamentally unstable. A middle class that can pay its mortgage, feed and educate its children, and has a little money left over to invest in savings and a few pleasures … is the engine of a healthy economy. And a healthy environment contains the resources we need to maintain that healthy economy.
The experience and knowledge of working in an urban community that was devastated by the closure of a major manufacturing facility is exactly what someone needs to know to fix the same set of problems – just on a slightly larger scale.
In terms of foreign policy, we need to do a lot more listening and lot less assuming we’re God’s chosen people and we know what’s right for everyone else. That arrogance has cost us dearly and left us despised among even those who used to be our allies. Barack Obama’s experience of living abroad is EXACTLY what’s needed to learn that other cultures see things differently than we do – neither side is “right” or “wrong” – and we need to learn how to live together in peace.
I believe Sarah Palin is very bright, and has some interesting experience as both Mayor and Governor. She is obviously a talented administrator, and she has a potentially huge career ahead in the Republican Party. But her experience thus far has not equipped her to lead this country.
September 6th, 2008 at 9:29 pm |
I don’t consider myself an ugly man. But Gov. Palin’s opposition to birth control education except for “abstinence only,” makes the coming borth of her grandchild relevant as a policy matter. And parading her Down’s syndrome baby was a bit much. But my essential point: Does her “very thin resume,” qualify her for the presidency should something happen to McCain?
September 6th, 2008 at 11:07 pm |
Her resume is no thinner than Obama’s, and yet you don’t have any concerns about his. What’s the difference?
“Parading” her baby? What would you have her do? Hide him? Her family cared for him during her speech, as one would expect.
Palin’s daughter received so-called “comprehensive” sex education, not an abstinence-based curriculum. Since you are anxious to make policy based on this particular anecdote, does that mean that we should move to an abstinence-based curriculum? (Or does the anecdote only work one way?) Or should we look at the data, which shows no difference in teen pregnancy rates as outcomes of the two choices? If you’re going to comment on the policy matter, shouldn’t you learn something about it?
September 7th, 2008 at 6:54 pm |
It’s helpful to understand that “Thomas” would regard =any= question you could raise about John McCain or Sarah Palin as a monstrously unfair attack. That is what “Thomas” does.
John McCain has had several go-rounds with melanoma, a form cancer that just about inevitably recurs; because of his time as a POW, he has very little upper-body strength or flexibility, which hampers his breathing. To judge only by his network TV appearances (and charitably leaving aside his clips on YouTube), he has had more than his share of “senior moments.” In my lifetime, never has the phrase a heartbeat away from the presidency had more portent.
As to Governor Palin’s daughter, “Thomas” is right: why shouldn’t the governor show her off? After all, Bristol and her mother are walking examples of Republican values–in the daugthter’s case, fornicate without protection, get pregnant, publicly coerce the father into committment, and vow to carry the baby to term. In the mother’s case, preach abstinence and other Christian virtues but forget to check on your child’s love life. And it’s all hunky-dory because at least there was no idle talk about abortion.
(Just in case you’re under the impression that “Thomas” is arguing for tolerance, try to imagine what he would say if Malia Obama or Chelsea Clinton became pregnant.)
As to whether Saul Friedman is ugly, I can’t really comment. As to “Thomas,” that’s easy. He’s as ugly–and will stay as ugly–as a suppurating wound.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:04 am |
Quick update due to some very late reporting: It turns out Gov. Palin endorsed teaching about contraception! So, since we know how that turned out, and we’re insisting on making policy by anecdote, will you join me in insisting one abstinence-only education?
I have an excuse for not knowing all the facts about Gov. Palin’s stand on sex education; I’m not a professional at this. But what excuse do the morons in the press have? If only there were a place that could serve as a “watchdog” for the press, to help guide them in the right direction.
Saul, when are you going to apologize? I mean, there’s no hook for your ugly story now–the only hook is something you (or some other moron) invented out of thin air. Correct your lies, won’t you, and apologize for using a teenager as a weapon in your political battle against Republicans.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:20 pm |
For Thomas and anyone else who uses such insults:
I do not take kindly to hateful language. And be warned the internet does not permit slander to go legally unchalleged.
September 8th, 2008 at 6:07 pm |
Saul, now that’s funny. A thin-skinned pressman–a man who attacks a 17-year old girl to make a political point, who can’t get basic facts right, who doesn’t know anything about the policies he advocates for–wants to sue me for slander! I don’t think you’re a particularly promising plaintiff Saul.
All this just because I asked you to correct the record and stop spreading lies about a teenage girl.
September 9th, 2008 at 6:32 pm |
Not thin skinned, just tired of vitriol that has no place in civilized discourse. You make things personal. A lie is an knowingly spoken untruth and I do not lie. Thomas, I have a reputation in the business of journalism and I try to protect it; you know my name and how to reach me. What is yours?
September 9th, 2008 at 10:49 pm |
Saul, my email address given each time I comment. You emailed me last year to threaten legal action because I dared to disagree with you, so I’m guessing you can figure out how to contact me now. If you need additional information to prepare the legal action and serve it, I’ll give you that by email.
The commentary you’ve posted above is continually published–it isn’t like a daily newspaper back in your day. And so even by your very generous standards you are lying–you now know the facts and yet you are continuing to spread a falsehood.
I don’t doubt that you have a reputation in the business of journalism. What I doubt is that there’s anything that anyone could say or do to damage it.