THE AGE THING AND JOHN W. McCAIN

Yesterday Matthew Grimm did a wonderful satire here about McCain's elderliness. It wasn't really about McCain's physical age as it was about the ancien regime attitudes he holds. This morning, though, John Murtha, who is 75 himself, did get into a discussion about how McCain's age does reflect on his fitness-- or lack thereof-- for the presidency.

Murtha is 75, four years older than McCain. He says they are nearly the same age, and the rigors and stress of running the country is too much for guys their age.

"I've served with seven presidents," Murtha told a union audience. "When they come in, they all make mistakes. They all get older."

"This one guy running is about as old as me," he said, drawing laughter and applause. "Let me tell you something, it's no old man's job."

If elected, McCain would be the oldest man to become president at age 72. Ronald Reagan became president at age 69, but he served as president for eight years and was just a few weeks shy of his 78th birthday when he left office.

Reagan was already senile while he was re-elected for his second term.

This morning I was out for a hike and one of my neighbors told me a tragic story that really shook me up. Another of our neighbors, D., one of the brightest faces in the community, someone who always lights up the day when you meet her, hadn't been seen for some time. She's also around McCain's age. I ran into her walking in the hilly neighborhood last week and I remember thinking how fit she was for a woman of her years. I hear complaints from people in their 20s and 30s about walking up these hills. Well, one of her closest friends got worried and let herself into the home. D had had a stroke and had been laying on the floor alone for 2 days. Now she's in the hospital in a coma and the doctor said he doesn't expect her to see the weekend. It's heartbreaking. It happens, albeit not always that tragically and dramatically. People age and eventually they die. We're going to have to look a lot more closely at whomever McCain picks as his running mate than we normally do.

I bet McCain wouldn't get this one any faster than Larry King did: