May 08 2008
Johnny’s Mom
John McCain’s campaign is accusing Barack Obama’s campaign of making an issue of Senator McCain’s age.
Obama accuses McCain of ‘losing his bearings’
Johnny McCainNEW YORK (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday that Republican John McCain was “losing his bearings” for repeatedly suggesting the Islamic terrorist group Hamas preferred Obama for president.
That brought an angry response from McCain’s campaign, which accused Obama of trying to make an issue of McCain’s age.
Age is a touchy subject for McCain, who turns 72 in August and would be the oldest person to be sworn in as president if elected.
The two senators have focused more intently on one another in recent weeks as Obama has moved closer to becoming the Democratic nominee. Thursday’s back and forth between Obama and surrogates for both candidates foreshadowed a likely argument for the fall campaign.
The sparring also comes the same week as Obama’s decisive victory in North Carolina’s primary, which brought renewed calls for Hillary Rodham Clinton to get out of the race and clear a path for him to claim the Democratic nomination and focus on McCain.
At the root of the dispute is McCain’s decision to call attention to a Hamas adviser’s apparent affinity for Obama. The adviser, Ahmed Yousef, said in a recent interview: “We like Obama and hope that he will win the election.”
McCain used those comments in a fundraising appeal and has cited them in interviews.
Asked about the matter Wednesday during a taping of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” McCain said: “It’s indicative of how some of our enemies view America. And I guarantee you, they’re not going to endorse me.”
In an interview Thursday with CNN, Obama accused McCain of trying to smear him by repeating the comments.
“This is offensive, and I think it’s disappointing, because John McCain always says, ‘Well, I’m not going to run that kind of politics,’” Obama said. “And then to engage in that kind of smear, I think, is unfortunate, particularly since my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his.”
The Illinois senator added: “For him to toss out comments like that, I think, is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination. We don’t need name-calling in this debate.”
(See previous post.)
First off, John McCain is old. He will be 72 years old on election day. We’ve never had a first term president that old. Ronald Reagan was 73 when he began his second term. Remember all the stories about him falling asleep during cabinet meetings?
If Senator McCain’s age is not an issue in this campaign, it definitely should be. He is asking us to trust him with a very important and stressful job. We would be failing in our duty as responsible voters if we did not question his fitness for that job, and age definitely falls under the fitness category.
It’s kind of funny that the McCain folks are complaining about the Obama folks bringing up Mr. McCain’s age while they are posting a video on YouTube entitled “Johnny’s Mom.” They posted it under the cover of Mother’s Day, but can there really be any doubt they are trying to dispute that “Johnny’s” age is a factor if his mother is still able to make an ad with him?
When was the last time you heard a 71 year old man referred to as a child? I’ll bet it’s been a while.
The point of all is that the McCain campaign has made Johnny McCain’s age a legitimate issue in this campaign, and it should be. He’s old.
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I’m generally against discriminating because of age…especially since I’m approaching what I use to call old fartdom myself; but being president is an extremely demanding job and I doubt a 70 plus year old is up to the task. Just like any job, physical ability is an issue. When we’ve had a president too impaired to do the job (Reagan) or too lazy (Bush), the results have not been very good and we have wound up with other people running the government behind the scenes. One of Obama’s main assets is his youth. It would be foolish not to throw it out there for comparison for voters to look at.
Of course his age is a factor. He has made a couple of blunders on CNN while he was in Iraq, getting the factions confused. Being the president is the most demanding job there is, not only mentally but physically. You can see the effects on every president we’ve had in the last 20 years. The before and after pictures tell the story.