75-Year-Old Rep. Murtha Calls McCain Too Old to Be President
WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. John Murtha said Wednesday that Republican Sen. John McCain is too old to be president.
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.
McCain, in an interview with FOX News on Wednesday, said, “I invite John to come out with me on the campaign trail. I out-campaigned everybody else and that’s why I’m the nominee of my party. I can certainly out-campaign either Senator Obama or Senator Clinton.”
Murtha, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, made the comments while introducing the candidate he has endorsed, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, to the AFL-CIO’s Building Trades National Legislative Conference.
Clinton referred to Murtha’s introduction when she took the stage, saying she was grateful to have his endorsement and agreed with his sentiment that it will be difficult to turn around all the damage of the Bush administration. She didn’t mention his comments on McCain’s age, and the campaign sought to distance itself from the comments.
Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said Clinton “considers Senator McCain a friend, and she respects him. But it’s not his age she has a problem with, its his ideas for the future.”
Earlier this week, McCain was asked about his age and he joked about it, at first feigning sleep.
“Watch me campaign. We keep a heavier schedule. We campaign harder,” he said Monday during The Associated Press annual meeting. “People will judge me by my performance. I am confident that my energy, my intellect, my experience, and my judgment is what American people will — hopefully that they will view me as qualified to be president of the United States.”
His campaign said Wednesday Murtha’s comments were “nonsense attacks.”
Of the Democratic candidates, Clinton is 60 and Sen. Barack Obama is 46.
McCain and Murtha are both Vietnam veterans who have worked closely on national security issues. Age hasn’t slowed Murtha down. After Democrats took control of the House in the 2006 election, Murtha sought the House majority leader position but was defeated.
I dont feel that McCains age should be a contributing factor in this election. As far as I am concerned he is in good health and has shown that he is able to hang in this campaign just as well as Clinton or Obama. I feel that McCain has more life and political expierence that will help him if he becomes president. Some say that McCain’s plans reguarding tax cuts and spending will not work, he made the comment that he can make it work and it will take to the end of his second term. I respect him for his big ambitions for this country, and he has my full support. With age comes wisdom.
They should ALL retire mandatorily like they make the military do!
Well Clinton said what everybody wants to hear, at least Democrats…”it will be difficult to turn around all the damage of the Bush administration” Excuse me but I believe the problems that arose from Bush’s adminstration came from the Democrats partisan based methods of trying to destroy Bush. I firmly believe that a Democrat president instead of Bush would have done the same thing with Iraq and Afghanistan. Plus many other “damages” that the Republicans would be saying the same thing about now. I consider the antics on the side of the Dems as almost treasonous. Their motives weren’t altruistic but simply partisan. The war would have gone much better if the dem’s would have been behind the President. The last war we fought like this was Vietnam. It was democrats that took us down the “slippery slope” that time. We were brought out of that war with the help of a Republican president. Who was then thrown out. Nixon would have been a hero if it hadn’t been for a fairly trivial crime of cover-up that was inflated disproportionatley to the situation. But then I wanted him thrown out too..at the time but I was young and foolish. That’s history. How will history treat the times we are in now?
Murtha is a disgrace no matter what his age! His slamming of our troops over and over again makes me sick! McCain may be in his 70’s (early 70’s) but that does not mean he is not tough enough to go on. My mother is 81 yrs old and is doing more than I am at have her age. She outruns everyone at her job, yes her job….Not only that, even at her age people think her to be 20 years younger AND they do not argue with her - especially when she is RIGHT! Thus, McCain is RIGHT for the job…more so than over-liberal Obama, and witchy (with a B) Hillary.
Today’s 70 is yesterday’s 60, unless of course you are Rep. Murtha.
I find it incredible that Jack Murtha can stand there and make this type of a comment about Senator McCain. It doesn’t surprise me though. The party of everybody has to have every right to everything has the nerve to start practicing age discrimination. How dare them! Over the years Jack Murtha has struck me as another angry Liberal who is angry that there was not a Democrat in the White House when we were attacked on 9/11/01. Every Liberal that I know and have met can’t stand President Brush and condemns the war on terror. They want to be in charge! As a retired Military Officer, I for one denounce Jack Murtha for his anti-war comments and trying to ride to positions of increased power in the congress on the backs of our wonderful military personnel. While the Liberals will readily tell you that Jack is a hero, what I will tell you is that once in his life he had the courage to stand up for what was right. His language, actions and condemnation of our Marines, in my opinion do not allow him to retain the once well-earned respect as a hero. He has either forgotten or abandoned his early leadership training and ethics.
In short like everything else, Jack Murtha is wrong in his comments about John McCain’s age.
With all due respect for John McCain I agree with Congressman Murtha that McCain may be too old to be President. I am 77 years old, a Korean War Vet who has the utmost respect for the eventual Republican nominee. But lets face facts. At 77 years of age I am in pretty good health, am active in numerous veteran and civic organizations read a great deal, and much to my dismay find myself with memory loss on occassion and sometimes short on patience. The memory loss is what bothers me most. If John McCain is true to himself and loves this Country of ours he wouldn’t be seeking the Presidency at his age.
It’s a shame Murtha’s electors were not of the same opinion,we would not have to listen to the stupid comments he makes.
John Murtha needs to get a grip. If there is anyone who resembles a dinosaur it is Big John. He is (hopefully) the last of the adherants of a failed and destructive politics that blames eveyone and serves no one. Time is marching on, with new challenges. He is living in the past right along with the rest of the entire Democratic Party. We’ve seen the results of the last 85 years of “progressive” politics. No thanks, no more.