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« Be Happy... | Main | Use it or Lose it... »
July 22, 2008 |Permalink |Comments (2)
Old Age Gaffe Gaffe
Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) said “Iraq” when he apparently meant “Afghanistan” on Monday, adding to a string of mixed-up word choices that is giving ammunition to the opposition.Just in the past three weeks, McCain has also mistaken "Somalia" for "Sudan," and even football’s Green Bay Packers for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Ironically, the errors have been concentrated in what should be his area of expertise – foreign affairs.
McCain will turn 72 the day after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) accepts his party’s nomination for president, calling new attention to the sensitive issue of McCain’s advanced age, three days before the start of his own convention.
The McCain campaign says Obama has had plenty of flubs of his own, including a reference to "57 states" and a string of misstated place names during the primaries that Republicans gleefully sent around as YouTubes.
McCain aides point out that he spends much more time than Obama talking extemporaneously, taking questions from voters and reporters. "Being human and tripping over your tongue occasionally doesn't mean a thing," a top McCain official said.
But McCain's mistakes raise a serious, if uncomfortable question: Are the gaffes the result of his age? And what could that mean in the Oval Office?
Gaffes are not the result of age, they may be the result of...
fatigue
stress
loss of focus
Laying them on the doorstep of age and age alone is wrong.
Comments ( 2)
While I agree that age alone should not disqualify John McCain from the Presidency, it should be a concern. Being an elder I can tell you that memory fails much oftener in the advanced years. Anyone can make a gaffe at any age, but a President should be conversant with the geography of the troubled part of the world that he will immediately be embroiled in. Did he just make a mistake calling one country by the name of another, or is he unaware that Pakistan and Iraq do not have a common border? This is a serious issue.
From my own experience I can tell you that fatigue and forgetting go hand in hand. I was not plagued by forgetting words when in my 60's that bedevil me now. McCain will be starting out at the age of 72 and when he leaves his first term he will be 76. A lot happens to the body during those years and not much of it is good.
Yes, his mother is still alive and McCain must have a good genetic background, but as an elder I can tell you his age does trouble me.
While we shouldn't use age as an excuse for McCain's gaffes, neither should we assume that it doesn't play a part.
Posted by
Darlene
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July 22, 2008 6:12 PM
How interesting that this topic should appear on a blog about changing aging. I was just thinking about this the other day as I was listening to news reports about the two candidates on the campaign trails. There appears to be an aging frame put around some of what is happening in the campaigns since there is such an age difference between the candidates. There are many examples of people with advancing years who remain effective leaders, using their wisdom wisely. By the same token, there are those whose young age belies their level of wisdom. This will be a very interesting election to see how the country handles ageism in a time when a leader is needed more than ever before. Is there hope for those of us who age more everyday or is our age an indication of our usefulness to serve others and our country?