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McCain’s real age
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The fact that John McCain turns 72 in August has caused many to wonder whether the presidential candidate is too old for a stint in the White House. But according to Dr. Michael Roizen, co-author of “You: The Owner’s Manual,” McCain’s age is only relative.
Roizen is the developer of the Real Age program, which uses an overall health evaluation to determine a person’s true biological age (in contrast with his or her actual age). Using McCain’s newly released medical records, Roizen walked NEWSWEEK through an assessment of McCain’s physical status. Though some of the information Roizen normally requires was not immediately available–including specifics on McCain’s diet and exercise habits and his resting pulse rate–the details at hand enabled him to make an initial assessment.
Starting from McCain’s chronological age of 71.8, the Real Age program compared him with others of the same age on a variety of measures and added or subtracted years accordingly. And while McCain’s own Mayo Clinic internist noted this week that “it is impossible to predict any person’s future health,” the results of the Real Age assessment should cheer the candidate.
The final prognosis? Biologically, McCain is 8.1 years younger than his chronological age, which would put him at 63.7 years old. But there is a caveat:
Roizen has assessed data on presidential health back to the 1920s and finds that the stress of the job takes a toll. “Every year in office, you age two years,” he says. It’s not hard to calculate the effect this would have on McCain. After two terms, his calendar age and Real Age would be right back in line.
For those of you who’ve expressed concerns about McCain’s age, what do you make of Roizen’s conclusions?
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One more diversion
Mugabe is in his 80’s and he rules with an iron fist and a healthy dose of paranoia. I’m sure McCain can do the same thing.
Aren’t you glad you live in a country that has checks and balances in the government?
Seems more and more of the checks are written for the government, and the balances are filled with false weights and measures.
LOL, Wiglaf!
Part of me doesn’t care how old the president is, as long as he’s older than me! I feel the same way about the pope.
I think McCain’s age should be the least of our worries about him.
It is well known he has a terrible temper and he is not well liked among the other members of Congress.
To have this man in charge of our nuclear arsenal is a chilling thought.
By that reasoning I’m about 105, but I don’t think I could use that reasoning to talk my way into a movie at the senior rate.
McCain’s real age is: old.
McCain would be wise to display more age-appropriate behavior instead of energizer bunny antics and so much passionate podium potency. His stage-managers require him to accomplish long strides and bounding steps to the the microphones and his speech writers require him to perform Churchill during the London Blitz. All that makes him look: older.
Old is good if old is wise, but McCain never has been wise, so we can’t count on time to bring him any improvement.
I spent a recent weekend with my 71-year old father. Like McCain, he’s in good shape physically and mentally, and he’s arguably a little younger than his chronological years.
Still, he is 71 years old, and I saw septuagenarian signs-up close over a period of days I spent with him. He’s in awesome health for 71, but he’s not at the top of his game anymore. McCain is in the same boat - clearly well past the optimal age for taking on an extremely demanding position (physically and mentally) that requires a four to eight year commitment.
The CEO of my company just turned 70 and is soon retiring. You can rest assured that our Board of Directors and their CEO search committee is not going to replace him with someone older.
It’s very unfortunate that McCain and the other 70+ year-old senators/congress are too arrogant and power hungry to step down honorably. At their ages, they should be developing and encouraging up-and-coming leaders. Instead, they hold on pathetically like the aging athlete, unable to let go.
And dumb us, we vote them in year-after-year, for their 6th/9th/19th term.
Wiglaf-
Given the lobbyists McSame has on staff, a dictatorship is not out of the question.
Doug Goodyear: Lobbyist for the Burmese (Myanmar) Dictatorship a few years back.
Thomas Loeffler: Lobbyist for Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments.
Charles Black: Lobbyist for Ferdinand Marcos, Mobuto Sese Seko, Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre,Nigerian dictator Ibrahim Babangida, Equatorial Guinea, “classical terrorist” Jonas Savimbi, Iraqi National Congress, Blackwater, and the China National Off-Shore Oil Corp.
Peter Madigan: Lobbyist hired by the United Arab Emirates’ to improve their reputation in the face of a class action lawsuit over the enslavement of boy camel jockeys.
A problem with being really old is that you don’t have to live with the mess you create.
In a speech today McCain committed to greatly reducing America’s nuclear arsenal. By the time he dies, we’ll be powerless as a nation.
If you outlaw nukes, only outlaws will have them!
Michelle, the day will come when that will no longer be so, and that’s an eye-opener. It’s a shock that GWB is my sister’s age.
TRAVIS #8 offers a humane perspective. Cardiovascular fitness can be verified and documented. Neurological decline appears first in the subjective judgment of a clinician, and doesn’t get written into the medical record until after the fact has become obvious. We don’t honor our elder statesmen by picking them to be executives.
As an unbalanced choleric, McCain’s trouble with people will get worse with age. To my eye he has the mask and the stoop of incipient Parkinson’s. Even if he never develops a neurological disorder with age, his temperament will make him ever more emotional and mentally arbitrary. His handlers will try to portray these traits as strengths for the purpose of election, but they will undermine him.
McCain’s age won’t prevent me from voting for him, but it will lead me to seriously research his vice-president choice. Even though the good doctor has shown his ‘real age’, I still guard concerns about his endurance for four years of grueling work.
Also, Doctor Roizen has proven some common knowledge true with his research. Before and after pictures of the president show extreme aging for such a short periode of time. I noticed it with Clinton and it is just as obvious with GW Bush. Perhaps that could also explain the death of FDR in the beginning of his fourth term.
“Old is good if old is wise, but McCain never has been wise, so we can’t count on time to bring him any improvement.”
He may be wiser than we think. He banned the media from his fund raisers with Bush so there would be no pictures of them hugging.
Just say no to McW
The real question has less to do with “real age” and more to do with “real heart”, “real faith”, “real calling”.
Exactly, Greg. And that’s why we should vote for Bob Barr in 2008!