If McCain lives long enough to be elected, the old coot will be the oldest president ever to take his first oath of office. There are countless interviews with him where he appears to be confused, could it be dementia? (This certainly couldn’t be an early stage of dementia, because the guy is too old for that!)
And the old fogey cannot even use a computer. I never understood how the generation that got us to the moon can’t even set a clock on a VCR… and yet we’re going to trust this old-tard with the button?!
And some clever dude, probably young and full of life, created a website informing us of all the really old things that are still younger than McCain. For example, chocolate cookies, lubricated condoms, and nachos are all younger than McCain. Do you remember a time before any of those things? I certainly don’t. But I’m not a worthless old drain on our medical and social security systems, like McCain is.
Heck, even fellow old fart Chuck Norris thinks McCain is too old! Is electing a feeble-minded, frail, doddering, sputtering and drooling wrinkle-bag worth a round-house kick to the head? Not for me. I’m too young to die from Chuck’s feet of fury! (Or should I say furry feet? Old farts are so grotesquely hairy!)
Now I’m not saying that old “people” should be rounded up and euthanized. But, wouldn’t a peaceful death be better than selfishly continuing to live while wasting away our country’s precious resources? They’ve had their future, they should stop squandering ours!
So what do you guys and girls think? Is McCain too old to lead our country?
— Steve Newlin, Sr. Contributing Editor
I love a poll with neutral phrasing.
I have to say, I don’t like McCain and I was born and raised in Arizona. But, I don’t like Obama even more.
So, is McCain too old with his decades of experience or is Obama just too damned young with his month’s of experience.
Is McCain, too old? Well, he’s doing it so the answer is no. But he IS old and that’s why we have to watch carefully who he picks as his VP.
As for the kid, I think we have to decide how much he’ll raise our taxes and will Michelle REALLY be VP or just think she is – ala HRClinton?
Considering how much has been written and said about Obama, I don’t think McCain will be much of an issue.
The general election will come down to a decision on whether the voters can trust Barack.
Obama is the embodiment of everything despised in a politician: an elitist, morally superior, tax-raising, gun-grabbing, religion-bashing, terrorist-coddling appeaser who threatens all that is good and decent in America. Plus, he bowls like a girl.
“Dvorak Crew Poll: Should an old out of touch fogey like McCain be allowed the Presidency?”
Sure, the Americans already elected an idiot whose own stupidity could cost the world 100 years of hard work to repair the damage; and the worst part was that the idiot was elected twice.
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times. The presidency’s just a distraction. Give the masses a clown and keep em distracted from the REAL power $$$$. Given that, McCain would probrably make a better clown than Obama. I remember fondly all the laughs I got from Ronnie Raygun.
Wes Clark on McCain.
In a word, NO. Old “coots” and the old “coon” wives in politics are exactly what’s ruining this country. It’s the 21st century. We need someone who thinks as such.
McBush shows his mental confusion every day with misquotes and stupid statements. The commedians are hoping he wins since he’d be great one-liner material. Alas, Obama is going to whip him good in November unless the racists and bigots turn out in record numbers.
A couple of points here. In response to #2 bobbo, As wise as the Founding Fathers were, they could not anticipate every situation which might arise. Living to 65 back in 1780 was in itself an accomplishment, and being productive is even more so.
So they probably didn’t seriously consider someone as old as McCain running for President. But being the smart guys that the were, they put in a perfect mechanism to contingency like this one. The vote. Leave it up to the voters to decide.
Here is the one thing the Founding Fathers did not anticipate well enough, which has no good solution, which we are faced with NOW.
What if ALL the Presidential candidates are not qualified for the job? What if each and every candidate is fatally flawed?
Imagine that you own a huge multi-billion dollar corporation and you need to hire a CEO. Now imagine that you are conducting interviews of prospective candidates.
You want someone with evperience, someone who isn’t naive or going to learn “on the job”. You also want someone who isn’t so old that they don’t have the physical endurance or mental capacity to be effective.
Not to mention you DO want someone who will run the company with the best interest of the customers in mind. After all, a successful company does try to make it’s customers happy.
What do you do if none of the prospects fit your requirements, but you still have to choose by November?
Sorry for the typo’s above. Jet lag.. (No, I’m not older than dirt!)
Satire? Hmmm…wait…let me read…
da da da…recognize…da da da…Huckleberry Finn…da da da…technique…
Ahhh. Satire…oh….I get it now.
I’za awffly sorry massa for misunder thankin what its wuz you wuzza trin to be sayin. Pleeze be forgivin poor ignoramuz messa for that terable fopaw.
My apologies for calling you an idiot. There is a difference between an idiot and little comic talent.
You need to go watch the videos of Michael Richards and his famous night club black comments meltdown. He thought he was being clever too.
“No problem. I realize that the ability to recognize satire is a higher brain function that not all primates have. I tried to make it as obvious and over the top as possible, but I can only reach so low.”
Just a side note. As in the case of Richards, once you have bombed a joke, insulting your audience will not remedy the core problem.
Good luck.
#39==Ah Yea–well, most companies either let the current Chairman of the Board, or the CFO serve as CEO until a replacement is found? Perhaps more relevantly in your example, many corportions fire CEO’s who don’t perform??
But, how is this relevant to our political question? Its not.
Your political/constitutional analysis is faulty. Why did the Founders set a limit on youth but not being old? Why did they allow slavery?
Ill be the answer is about the same==some old slave owners wanted to be president or they wouldn’t sign? aka politics.
Now to answer directly–you choose the best person available, cross your fingers, and recognize that with a weak President, the Congress will have to do its job after sleeping longer than Rip Van Winkle?
> Should an old out of touch fogey like McCain be > allowed the Presidency?
If he wins, yes.
Bobbo. A good direct answer. Hopefully congress will step in this time.
If there are legitimate signs of dementia we’d be foolish to vote for him (not that a large minority of people haven’t done foolish things already).
But his incompetency is of more concern. You have to be much more knowledgeable in most any field than anyone else around you. It only helps and does not hurt. Someone who really is out of touch is plain dangerous – just like Shrub. This alone is reason to vote for the other person.
Would I vote for him, never. Would I have a problem voting for a person his age, certainly, as I judge on other items that are more important.
So, decide how this answer meets your poll and put up the results.
So using a computer is a qualification now? That would disqualify every president to date. Bill Clinton couldn’t type, and I’m guessing Dubya never learned either. I assume Obama knows, but it’s not a lock for someone born in the early 60s.
Barack Obama has said there are 57 states and gets confused about what city he is in. Should he be disqualified for dementia?
“Should an old out of touch fogey like McCain be allowed the Presidency?”
Yes, if an out of touch “wet behind the ears” phony like Omama is allowed.
How old’s McCain, 71? No, that’s not too old. I know a few people 71, 72 years old that are sharp as tacks. They’ve been around the block, they know the score. It’s mental capacity as determined by professional testing and evaluation that should be the determining factor here.
Should someone be denied the presidency because of age? Certainly not!
Should someone be denied the presidency because of lack of mental faculties? Of course!
$hit. #13 beat me to it. I guess I’ll never be president. 😉
As far as competence is concerned, GW has shown that the issue is irrelevant.
Ronnie raygun showed me the same thing.
Premise: the Presidency is little more than a role and real power resides with whatever group or individual you care to fear. It can be argued “W” is a pawn for Cheney, the Neocons, the oil industry, etc. but is there really any debate he is a pathetic actor? As was once said about another dolt, “He couldn’t lead a lunch room riot”.
What the US President does display is the ‘face of America’ to the world. Eight years of the smirking chimp after the same span with BJ Bill in the Oval Office and the reason Americans have lost respect throughout the world is obvious.
So the individual elected this year is not insignificant. Both will send a message.
In the case of McCain, the takeaway is America voted for an admitted lightweight in economic matters while the country faces the most harrowing circumstances since the Great Depression due to the credit debacle and greed driven off-shoring. Compound that cluelessness by a claim of military acumen that is totally without merit (being incarcerated does not qualify someone to run the prison system). The clownshoe who sings ‘bomb, bomb, bomb Iran’ is truly the ineptly shortsighted second act of “we’ll be welcome as liberators”.
If Obama gets the nod, to paraphrase Gerald Ford, “America’s long nightmare is over.” And from a variation on a theme by JFK, a message goes forth to friend and foe alike that the United States of America has crossed the Rubicon. Our country’s concept guarantying ‘without regard to race, creed or color’ has finally become reality.
“Change” is needed desperately. Is Obama up to the task? Yes… because his presence as President signals America is willing to change from the path of the last half century where this country lost its way. Ronald Regan may have said, ‘Morning in America’ but Barack Obama embodies a new day.
And remember, the world will see who we elect in 2008. We are either voting to change or we are sealing our fate.
#52–BH==excellent review. So much so, I hate to comment and detract from its impact.
It doesn’t matter to me that it is totally off topic as our Thread Leader (SN) did the same.
Should there be a limit on the age of the President does not touch upon any issues of competency, philosophy, or the contestants.
Should the Office of President be Age Limited?? Hint==it already is on the low side. Why not the high side?
Now, as to your excellent off topic review, to be fair, you should analyze the cabal if any behind Obama, who will pull his strings, as you accurately did with BushCo.
I’ll take a stab at that. The world will see Obama as a statement of the USA that it is open to new ideas and is more inclusive and desirous of joining and being a member in good standing of the world community. That will be the starting point. Where he goes from there will sadly most likely be “politics” as usual? A chance for real change, but he can’t run on real change. Real change scares people. Paradoxically, the Bumper Sticker “Real Change” only means Obama is against Bush.
First, I never insulted you. (You clearly insulted me for absolutely no reason, but that’s a different matter.) I merely pointed out a fact: You lack the ability to recognize even completely obvious satire. You cannot deny it because it’s true. (The fact that you’re comparing what I wrote to what Kramer screamed out in anger shows you still do not get it!) If you have a problem with my pointing out that obvious fact, there’s nothing I can do about it.
And the second problem you’re having is thinking that satire is comedy. While satire can be funny, it’s not actually comedy. It’s social commentary. You take a position on an issue and then stretch it out to show how wrong (and in this case scary) that position is.
bobbo said,
“#52–BH==excellent review. “
Thank You
“It doesn’t matter to me that it is totally off topic…”
Was it? The question: is McCain too old for the office?
Response: his mindset is out-of-date. Chronological age really wasn’t the issue.
Re other inquiry… Obama is a child of Chicago politics so ask not ‘for whom the bell tolls’. As JFK owed his election to Cook County, Barack will be beholden. However, being in debt to the Democratic Party is not at all analogous to carrying water for the oil industry. Nor is a green policy for the future on a par with denying global warming. Above all, personifying the advantages of an education is the opposite of screwing teachers into leaving children ignorant.
But setting that aside, on the single most important matter to confront America since the cold war, Barack got it right in realizing military might had nothing to with winning this time. McCain flew above Viet Nam so far removed from the conflict he never understood Ho Chi Minh and George Washington were brothers; while Obama lived in a world where others had different beliefs and changing their minds with a bullet or bomb wasn’t an option. No less a sage than Sun Tsu taught that war is rarely a solution and never the first option. Greater ignorance of this wisdom has never been shown than that of “W” and the man who would continue the madness.
Barack Obama surely knows attention must be paid. No one reaches any serious office oblivious of that fact. Moreover, I have no illusions about the willingness of powerful corporations to take their hands from the throats of consumers or the military-industrial machine to surrender to common sense. But I choose to believe Barack Obama, more than any other candidate, understands in his soul America’s journey out of the dark begins with a step in the right direction. For too long ‘we, the people,’ have walked blithely in a blind ally. Obama is the light at the end of that tunnel.
Yes, it’s true Barack will be responsible to the liberal forces that want him elected. And it’s equally clear already John McCain is not in control of his faculties. The difference is America can’t afford another four years of dementia.
#54–SN==you weren’t insulting at your post #18? That being the case, I hope you never actually insult me? I don’t know if my simian lowness could take it.
Perhaps you didn’t “intend” to insult him and just got stuck in the high satire mode?
#55–BH==Just reread the OP. You are right. There was no express question asked as to whether or not there should be an (old) age limitation on the Presidency. Only whether or not McSame was too old and that actually dealt exclusively with competency and relevancy, not his chronological age.
So, proofing the question becomes as important as proofing an answer?
Comparing Uncle Ho to George Washington can upset a lot of people. The analogy fits however and is even worse as the British never promised George that they would one day be free. So much stupidity. Will change ever come, or just occassional hiccups?
Ok, I think you miss your own point.
I do get it.
I never said you insulted me. I quoted who you insulted. I also said I apologized for my remark once you explained what you were attempting to do.
I understand satire can be comedy and cannot. Your own definition of satire states:
“There are few things in literature that can amuse, enlighten or anger a reader as much as satire.”
Actually you did attempt an insult at me by saying “You can read more about being an idiot here.” Thus linking to the definition of satire and alluding that I was an idiot for not recognizing that fact. It’s ok, I don’t take it personally.
The problem you are having is the fact that you made a post and you were trying to be cleaver. You wanted a particular response to it and did not get it.
“or anger a reader as much as satire.”
“or anger a reader as much as satire.”
So, you got what your own linked definition shows you.
As stated, it’s just not the response you wanted.
You clearly wanted to amuse and enlighten.
If you have to explain it, it simply did not work for you. I’m not the only one in this long list that sees that thinks it did not work.
Now good luck and please come back with something snappy and cleaver so you can have the last word. I’d hate to know that all those years in college psychology were wrong.
Oh, as to the actual topic of discussion, personally I think that McCain is simply the sacrificial lamb for the Republicans. Obama will certainly be the next president.
They can never let the Cowboys win too many games in a row as people would stop supporting the Redskins.
bobbo said,
“Will change ever come…?”
We have to believe in the possibility lest we all descend into despair.
27 Mister Mustard
Oh for crying out loud Mustard, get with the program. If McCain can be older than dirt, then the inexperienced Obama wears diapers. It’s a figurative thing, like the US public representing Obama’s Pampers.
RBG
59.
Your analogy fails. McCain is at the age where most people die or have died. Thus, it is accurate to call him older than dirt because that’s what happens when you die. You’re buried in dirt.
However, Obama is not even close to the age where people wear diapers. Either as a baby as you imply or as an old person, as McCain probably does.
McClane is not handicapped by his age at all, he is quite active and still the action an hero that the country needs.