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March 14, 2008 |Permalink |Comments (1)
More Age-Bashing McCain
[Guest-post by UMBC's Kavan Peterson]
Following-up on Bill's post "Age Bashing McCain", The New York Times explores how "codger jokes" have become a mainstay of late-night-comedy in contrast to taboos over gender and race jokes:
“Mr. Leno and his counterparts have been merciless with Mr. McCain, peppering their monologues with digs about dementia, pills, prostates and Miracle Ears. In a nightly schtick, David Letterman compares Mr. McCain to ‘the old guy in the barbershop,’ ‘a mall-walker,’ ‘a Wal-Mart greeter’ and more. Conan O’Brien said recently, ‘After John McCain swept yesterday’s primaries, he purposely stole a line Barack Obama’s been using: I’m fired up and ready to go. When Obama heard this, he stole a line McCain’s been using: I’m old and not sure where I am.’”
Hat-tip to Ronni Bennett for dissecting this story.
Comments ( 1)
I agree. Regardless of your political views, perpetuating ageist thinking is a disservice to our elders and society in general. Of greater concern than the “McCain-is-old-bashing” going on late night TV shows, is how ageist views also crop-up in “serious” discussions about the election or candidate qualifications, but in more subtle ways. The presumption seems to be that the chronological age of a candidate (such as Senator McCain or Ralph Nader) in and of itself creates a “negative” hurdle that the candidate must explain away. But where are the questions about whether or how the chronological age of these candidates could be a positive characteristic in relation to carrying out the duties and responsibilities of the President of the United States? Even it we can’t stamp out ageist thinking in the short term, the debate needs to be expanded to take in to account the positive and developmental aspects of aging as well.