The Wisdom Of The Ancients

by digby

Some of you may remember me writing about my conservative Dad — retired military, very right wing, very political. He’s the type of guy who thinks General Curtis Lemay had the right idea about bombing Hanoi back into the stone age.

He and I were just talking about the presidential race and he astonished me by saying that he won’t vote for McCain because he’s just too old. This, from a man who is nearly 15 years older than him! In his case, this translates into just not voting rather than a vote for Obama or Clinton (completely out of the question, of course) but for those elderly who aren’t so rigid in their politics, this really could be a big deal. McCain should be my Dad’s dream candidate — naval war hero POW, military obsessive, “go-to-hell” macho attitude. That his age overrules all of that good stuff says something.

I don’t know if McCain really is too old for the job. But it probably does pay to listen to those who are themselves in their golden years. There have been a number of articles and polls pointing out that older voters are the most skeptical of McCain’s age, but I had expected my feisty father not to be among them. I assumed the macho military thing would trump all. If they’ve lost my Dad, they really are in trouble.

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