Whenever I encounter words like “Boomer,” “GenXer,” and “Millennial” used to explain political
So no, knowing my birth date tells you nothing about my politics.
Only that I’m too old to be president.
Not that I’m in danger of being drafted, understand. For that matter, there’s never been a time when I wouldn’t have regarded a politician’s existence as an unmitigated horror. Glad-handing and grinning like an opossum all the time? Giving after-dinner speeches every night? Forever seeking to ingratiate oneself with strangers? Little solitude and no privacy? No thanks.
No matter. I’m definitely over the event horizon. So that’s my answer to a question recently posed by the Boston Globe’s Robert Weisman: “Question for Democrats: Are some candidates too old?” Illustrated by photos of Sen. Bernie Sanders (77), former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg (76), and former vice-president Joe Biden (76), the article asks if it’s “ageist” to think the presidential train has left the station without them.
Supposedly, Weisman writes, “a growing movement of older Americans bristles at the notion that
Um, no it’s not. I’ll tell you what’s “ageist.” Life is ageist. The calendar is ageist. Elsewhere, the Globe cites Eric Schneidewind (73), who recently stepped down as AARP president to the effect that “[s]aying people are ‘too old’ is reflective of an outmoded idea.”
I do hope that Schneidewind is enjoying his well-earned retirement.
Anyway, I can’t tell you Applewhite’s age, because her Wikipedia entry doesn’t say, and google’s no help.
So anyway, here’s the deal: my hair’s not
And still too damn old to be president.
Anybody in their mid-70s who tries to tell you they don’t feel the transmission slipping as time’s winged chariot draws nearer is definitely bluffing. Maybe your judgement’s sounder, but your memory’s not what it was, solving complex problems is more difficult and new ideas are harder to absorb.
Maybe not too old to write newspaper columns nor even to serve as a Supreme Court justice like 85-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Although I’m guessing she’s hanging on out of patriotic duty.) While hardly comparable, both are sit-down jobs well-suited for old duffers with their wits about them.
Think of the wise
Although, come to think of it, “The Old Perfesser” himself retired at 75.
So should all three putative over-75 Democratic candidates retire from presidential
Well, it says here that the amiable former vice-president is definitely kidding himself. By now, Sanders is a cult candidate, overshadowed by younger members of the progressive movement he did much to promote — bless his cantankerous heart. Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and possibly Sherrod Brown all share Bernie’s appeal to progressives without his advanced age and grating personality.
Also, few establishment-oriented Democrats — they’re still permitted to vote — are ready to forgive the personal attacks that helped Trump pillory the 2016 Democratic nominee as “Crooked Hillary.”
Meanwhile, Biden remains 76 years of age and pondering a
Always assuming the job didn’t kill him first.
I had a talk about this with an eminent brain scientist recently, a bit younger than myself and contemplating his own retirement. He mentioned differential rates of physiological
Then he said, “Honestly, I couldn’t vote for anybody over 75.”
Honestly, nobody should.