ABQJOURNAL NORTH: McCain Is Showing His Age

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Sunday, July 27, 2008

McCain Is Showing His Age

By David Roybal
For the Journal
          Spirited and media-rich primary campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all but ensured that debates over race and gender would figure prominently in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes. Increasingly, it's clear that concerns about age will also shape voters' positions as we prepare to select the next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
        Seventy-two-year-old Republican John McCain unwittingly sees to it that, shall we say, age discomfort gets at least equal play alongside prejudices rooted in race and gender. At least twice, McCain has very publicly confused Shia with Sunni while talking of the war in Iraq. Last week, he misstated a critical timeline in how the war has unfolded. And still on the subject of the Middle East, think back just a few weeks to McCain's extemporaneous canting: "Bomb, bomb, bomb; bomb, bomb, Iran."
        It was a parody of "Barbara-Ann," which became a hit song for The Beach Boys after having been performed earlier by The Regents in 1961. That's the year that McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, was born.
        The parody itself seemingly has its origins in the Iranian hostage crisis, when 52 U.S. diplomats were held captive in Tehran for 444 days beginning in November 1979. Obama graduated from high school in 1979. Even with his Honolulu diploma in hand, he might or might not have been able to point to Iran on a world map as he stepped away from his youth.
        Now, being around long enough to have danced to "Barbara-Ann" doesn't make one too old to be U.S. president. But turning to the song's parody amid serious discussions about Iran's current leaders and their own reckless conduct that threatens peace in volatile quarters can raise serious questions about McCain's judgment these days.
        Age, of course, can cut both ways. Youth and seniority are both exposed in the ongoing contest for the presidency. But as Obama vies for the White House, his relative youth hasn't been an obstacle for the 1st-term U.S. senator, who turns 47 next month. (John F. Kennedy was 43 when he was elected president; Theodore Roosevelt was 42 when he became president following the assassination of William McKinley. Bill Clinton and Ulysses Grant were both 46 when elected.)
        Experience, not age, has been Obama's vulnerability. And that's what had him meeting with heads of state in the Middle East and Western Europe last week. He aimed to show himself worthy of respect among international leaders as well as capable of stirring admiration of populations largely dismayed by the eight disastrous Bush years.
        Some at home hoped Obama would appear to be far out of his league. Instead, he looked confident, fresh, promising. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, trumpeted only recently as one of Europe's new leaders, looked tired by comparison.
        McCain, a media darling during a previous run for the presidency, last week was left to play decades-old hits of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons in his campaign recordings that were used to accuse the news media of swooning over Obama.
        Votes won't be counted till November but for now Obama seems to be dealing with race better than McCain is with age, and that explains some of the swooning.
        Still, Obama would be wise not to get too spoiled by his current treatment in the media. McCain's own experience shows how attitudes and coverage can turn quickly.
        Indeed, so many U.S. reporters wanted to follow Obama through his international journey last week at least partly because they hoped to be around in case the young presidential candidate made a major gaffe that showed him to be unprepared for the Big Leagues.
        That's part of the story, confessed talking heads on CNN as Obama shuttled through the Middle East.
        It reminded me of the time that as a ranking aide to then-Gov. Toney Anaya in the early 1980s, I accompanied the governor on a helicopter trip to Albuquerque. Our business completed, the chopper rose noisily as most of the people below dispersed. One TV crew stayed behind, the cameraman aiming his lens at us until we headed north toward the Capitol.
        It fell on me to explain that the dutiful cameraman simply wanted to ensure he was in a position to capture images had the helicopter come crashing down.
        <i>David Roybal can be reached at (505) 351-4053.</i>