Compton's Comment

Is John McCain Too Old?

^{Everald Compton | OCTOBER 2008}

I could ask another relevant question.

“Is Barrack Obama too young?”

But, let me continue to seek an answer to the first one.

A short response is “No”.

If scientists could come up with an adequate means of calculation, I would staunchly advocate that every human be recorded as having two ages – a physical one and a mental one. In this way, we would have a more just society, particularly if we could insist that everyone should only ever state their mental age, as physical age has very little relevance to one’s value to society.

I have met people whose physical age is thirty but who are mentally geriatric. Their brain is little used and hasn’t grown from their school days when it was asleep anyway.

At the opposite end of the scale, I know people who are seventy and who have minds that are more active, productive and experienced than a bright thirty year old.

Regrettably, there are also too many seventy year olds who have either let their brains die or who live in the past and yearn for the good old days of yesteryear that will never return.

However, the undeniable fact about John McCain is that he still has a very active mind and he clearly out-campaigned his rivals for the Republican Party Presidential Nomination even though they were decades younger.

We should also acknowledge some other compelling evidence – Ronald Reagan was President until he was almost 80. De Gaulle led France at that age as did Adenauer in Germany. Pope Benedict is not doing a bad job for an 81 year old and he doesn’t appear to want to slow up.

And John Howard wasn’t old when he lost office. The media convinced the voters that he was. I had afternoon tea with him in Sydney three months ago and I can assure you that his mind is more active than ever, vigorous enough to make a comeback if he wanted to (and, unlike Paul Keating and Malcolm Fraser, he bears no bitterness about the election result).

So, what assets can a senior like McCain contribute to the future of the United States?

Some excellent things, such as: a vast amount of invaluable experience, the ability to make good decisions under pressure, immense passion for his country and no need to prove his ability, as he already has an enviable public record.

Like all of us, he has a few defects, the worst being a bad temper. But, he has enough wisdom to change that, even at his age. It’s a matter of attitude.

So, can he beat a young man? Yes, he has the capacity to do that. After all, he is five years younger than me.

His problem is that the young man whom he faces is as dynamic a politician as I have seen in my lifetime and he is running on the convincing platform that it’s time for a change. It surely is. America needs a President who will rebuild a nation which is clearly in decline, instead of trying to rule the world.

I personally favour Obama as I am very impressed with him as a person, but I would never ever write off McCain. A guy who can survive five years of torture in a Vietcong Prisoner of War Camp, even though he had already been severely injured in battle, can’t ever be taken for granted or expected to quit.

Those who vote against McCain should not do so on account of his physical age. They should only vote that way if they think that Obama will be a better President who is not too young and inexperienced to handle such a huge task.

Age must never be a factor in anyone’s choice. The world’s senior citizens still have a significant contribution to make to the betterment of humankind.