McCain's Unseen Adversary: Ageism

You touched upon, whilst completely underplaying, the true message behind age/gender/race polls. Race was purported to be least important followed by gender and then age as the most important voter discouragement. That simply reflects each factor's cultural position in terms of being a publicly unacceptable prejudice. People are simply least likely to admit to being racist followed by being sexist and most likely to admit to ageism. It says nothing about a person's deeply ingrained beliefs. Be real sir.

Ageism - is that the card McCain plans to play? For real, Matisse designed a chapel while bedridden in a wheel chair, Michaeangelo was an old man when he designed the basilica of St. Peters. This issue is not the physical age - but the mental age. McCain, unfortunately, lives in the past. His entire campaign revolves around re-fighting the war in Vietnam in Iraq. According to the McCain narrative we lost Vietnam because we were stabbed in the back, (Can you remember when you heard that before?) but if we stay the course we will win Iraq - as if countries were ours to win and loose. McCain is really our version of the ossified Leonid Brezhnev of the late great USSR. Like McCain, Breshnev believed in staying the course - especially in Afghanistan - which the Soviets were liberating from centuries of barbaric feudalism. Like McCain, Brezhnev venerated deceased leaders, For McCain, it's Reagan; for Brezhnev, it was Lenin. In fact, under Brezhnev we could say all Soviet society was involved in corpse worship. The recent Republican debate held at the Reagan library reminded me of the old Soviet Politburo congregating by the Lenin Mausoleum - only in place of Lenin in a glass coffin we had Air Force One. There's a serious problem with mentality - it's didn't work for the USSR and it won't work for us. Barack Obama framed campaign when he said this campaign is one of the past vs. the future. The only constant in the universe is change. McCain just doesn't get it. For that reason, he's too old to run this country

I am one of the many independent voters who can decide this next presidential election.Lets see who will bring our troops home from Irag within one year, this war is breaking our country's financial backbone, diverting funding for numerous domestic neeeds such as education, health care, roads and bridges, environmental issues, reduction of foreign fuel imports, overhaul of our tax system, immigration issues, lower drug costs and ressurecting our foreign diplomacy and respect- The candidate that can committ to dealing with these issues will get my vote.
Marlin G

The Repubs will never learn. One more senile, spineless, old man.... a warmogering lackey for the bushies. Go ahead and run this flip-flopping rubber stamp. You guys are funnier than anything we could make up.

The last thing we need in this country is another confused disconnected old guy from the vietnam era making decisions about how we should guide this country into the future. Guys like mccain and bush are always trying to figure out how to go backwards rather than forwards i.e. the last 8 years.... these guys are going to babbling over oatmeal in 20 years their time is over. We have to have a young progressive thinker someone that still has a future and has perspective we don't need someone who thinks talking tough is necessary, i'm sick of wars, stop with the warring you freakin' old people, us young people have found better things to do with our time, like trying to solve the problems you old idiots keep creating and having our arms and legs blown off on baghdad streets . WE DON'T CARE YOU WERE IN VIETNAM. What the hell does anything have to do with vietnam man! -Lebowski