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Seniors As Divided As Others On McCain's Age

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The Asssociated Press

Published: November 2, 2008

MIAMI - Think John McCain will seal the votes of senior citizens simply because they may share the aches and wrinkles of age? Not so fast.

Polls and informal surveys alike show older Americans as divided as all others on whether the 72-year-old Republican's age should be an issue this Election Day. Regardless of their position, seniors know the fact: McCain would be the oldest man to assume the presidency.

"You shouldn't hold it against him but you can't help it," said 78-year-old Betty Mason, a registered Republican in The Villages who says she hasn't made up her mind for whom to vote.

In an AP-Yahoo News poll conducted Aug. 27 to Sept. 5, 40 percent of those aged 65 and up described McCain as "past his prime," more than any other age group.

Among those aged 65 and up who participated in another AP-Yahoo News poll taken Sept. 5 to 15, some 21 percent thought "too old" described McCain very well, within a couple of points of every other age group, and only one percentage point higher than those aged 18 to 29.

In informal surveys, seniors' views of McCain's age often seem shaped by their own party affiliations. Take, for example, two men who share the candidate's Aug. 29, 1936, birthdate.

Bill Everritt, a Republican from Panama City, is a retired Marine who can still do 100 push-ups and raft the Colorado River and thinks McCain's spirit is still as strong as his. Donald Snyder, a Democrat from Hudson, is a retired auto body worker who notices what took him an hour to do now takes him all day, and he says he sees signs McCain is slowing down, too.

Everritt will vote for McCain. Snyder won't.

It's just as divided in the sprawling central Florida retirement community of The Villages.

Rich Wesko is a 68-year-old retired steelworker who supports Obama, seeing in him hope for the future. "I want to see change and I think McCain is too old. I want to see some youth," he said. "He's too old. I would be too old. We need new ideas."

But 66-year-old Courtney McClendon supports McCain and makes an argument heard frequently among older voters. "They said the same thing about Reagan being too old. And he turned out to be one of the best," he said. "To me, Barack has nothing experience-wise."

Many older voters see a big difference between the age of a 72-year-old and an 80-year-old, and so they discount concerns about McCain being too old. And many others note if McCain could survive years of torture in the Navy, he should have no trouble surviving a four-year term.

"They understand where McCain is coming from, and the appeals that he makes to patriotism and to honor and to sacrifice is a theme that resonates with that era," said Linda Fowler, a professor of government at Dartmouth College. "But on the other hand, older people are skeptical that someone who is 72 is up to the job."

Some seniors say they've been through so many elections they know promises will go unfulfilled and they're simply forced to choose, regardless of a candidate's age.

"What's the difference? The other guy will screw me too," said 83-year-old Helen Stewart of Boca Raton. But Stewart will vote Republican as she long has. "Youth and stupidity go together," she warned.

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