Comments on: John McCain’s Age Comes Up In Running Mate Search

By: Sean D. Martin

Sean D. Martin — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:42:06 +0000

To continue with the exacting, although McCain is older now (71) than the four presidents who died of natural causes were at the times of their deaths (68, 65, 57, 63) life expectancy has changed.

Life expectancy for a white male in the US today is a bit over 77 years.

In 1841, when Harrison died at age 68, it was less than 40.
In 1850, Taylor at 65, it was still under 40.
1923, Harding at 57, it was ~57.
1945, Roosevelt at 63, it was ~65.

(http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/haines.demography)

So all of those died before expected, while McCain has another 6 years to go.

By: duros62

duros62 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:14:23 +0000

George W. is the only president in recent memory who looks better going out.

Why is that, d’ya suppose?

By: SpiderJ

SpiderJ — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:42:39 +0000

Well, and let’s be even more exacting–of the four who weren’t assassinated, McCain is already older than each of them were at the time of their deaths. Harrison was 68, Taylor 65, FDR 63, and Harding 57. McCain is already older than the oldest elected president we have ever seen, Reagan, who took office at 70.

McCain is a man who endured a war and endured POW captivity. He has endured three melanomas, a rare and distressing number of separate cancers. He has a well-documented temper problem.

Really, his health issues should have come up long before now. The office does terrible things to even younger men–look at Bill Clinton in 1992 and look at him in 2000; he had aged a sight more than eight years in his time there.

By: Sean D. Martin

Sean D. Martin — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:58:41 +0000

Yes, eight presidents have died in office:

1841 William Henry Harrison
1850 Zachary Taylor
1865 Abraham Lincoln
1881 James A. Garfield
1901 William McKinley
1923 Warren Harding
1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt
1963 John F. Kennedy

But four of those were assassinated (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy). So you’re really only talking about 4 where death in office was of natural causes.