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Politics

McCain brushes off age

By JENNIFER LIBERTO, Times Staff Writer
Published January 23, 2008

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, with his wife, Cindy, addresses supporters in New Hampshire on Jan. 8.
	[AP photo]

Fort Walton Beach - At 71, Sen. John McCain is the oldest candidate running for president, as plenty of people point out.

Chuck Norris, the action movie star supporter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, is the latest to say McCain is too old to be president.

McCain laughed it off Tuesday and said he doesn't feel old at all. But he's readying himself for more criticism now that he's the Republican front-runner.

"It's something that surfaces when you're doing well," he said. "I'm really grateful for all the respect and affection and warmth I was paid back in those days I wasn't doing so well. I'm nostalgic for those days."

Voters sometimes ask him about his age at town hall meetings, but McCain said he feels energetic on the campaign trail.

"Watch me campaign," McCain said. "When we went to New Hampshire, I said I can out-campaign all of them. I could out-campaign them in South Carolina. I'll out-campaign them here. Watch my energy, my knowledge, my vision."

McCain likes to point out that President Ronald Reagan was older than McCain is now when he won the Cold War.

"I just thought I'd throw that in," he said.

Physically, McCain says, he feels like he's in good shape.

"I hiked the Grand Canyon rim to rim last August with my son Jack. I challenge anyone to do that. That's 29 miles. Rim to rim. In 130 degree heat. I keep very active," he said.

On a "down" campaign day, like Sunday, he might go to dinner and watch football, all the while making calls. Like Gov. Charlie Crist, McCain doesn't much like e-mail: "It drives me crazy sending e-mails."

McCain says he keeps his memory and mind sharp by reading as much as he can.

"Your memory is like any other part of your body, you keep it fine-tuned," said McCain, who recently read The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam about the Korean War and re-read F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night. "I read every chance I get. I love to read."

And the benefits of age?

"I'm more mature, and ... I hope I'm more understanding. I hope I'm less temperamental," McCain said. "I hope that I'm more understanding of the issues."

Floridians who listened to McCain on Tuesday in rallies in Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach said they're aware of McCain's age as a political issue.

Eileen Montgomery of Fort Walton Beach had been leaning toward Rudy Giuliani until she saw McCain in person.

"For a man his age, he's pretty amazing. He's got it," said Montgomery, 80, who had worried McCain was too old.

"He proves that age is just a number."

[Last modified January 23, 2008, 02:09:50]