Why Presidential Hopefuls Should Be Old 

When Presidential election time comes around, one of the things that often times comes up about each candidate is their health and age. Age can play out in many different ways. When Ronald Reagan was running for President, his age was often brought up, but he always handled it with a laugh, and diffused the issue if some thought he was too old. Quotes like these are considered classics now:

Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.

Or this one...

"I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience. If I still have time, I might add that it was Seneca or it was Cicero, I don't know which, that said, 'If it was not for the elders correcting the mistakes of the young, there would be no state.'"

Sometimes I wonder if it isn't important that our presidential candidates be pretty old before they run, if for no other reason than to prevent this from happening:

Former vice president Al Gore accused President Bush of breaking the law by authorizing wiretaps on U.S. citizens without court warrants and called on Congress yesterday to reassert its oversight responsibilities on a "shameful exercise of power" by the White House.

When the other guys loses, and they're old... they simply call it quits and retire. The only thing Bob Dole did after he lost to Bill Clinton was make Viagra ads. Maybe Al should take a page from that play book.