by Bill Harrison

Much has been made in this year’s early presidential campaign of voter concerns about John McCain’s age as an alleged defect for his candidacy. These concerns are clearly indicated in polling on the matter but should they really serve as a cause for worry? History suggests they should not.

By all accounts Senator McCain’s health and energy levels are excellent notwithstanding the injuries he suffered as a result of his service to our country in Vietnam and his bout with skin cancer. And, of course, his genetics would suggest that he is likely to be long-lived if his lively 96 year old mother Roberta is any indicator. But let’s take a little stroll down history’s memory lane of the past century for some examples of “seasoned” leaders who proved crucial to their countries at times of great change and tumult.

Most famously we have the case of Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, born in 1874, who became British prime minister in May1940 having attained the age of 65 and would lead Britain through its “darkest hour” of the Blitz and World War II which ended shortly before his 70th birthday. Although turned out of office in favor of Labor’s Clement Atlee before war’s end, Churchill would be returned to the prime ministership in 1951 shortly before his 75th birthday. During this second prime ministership he successfully ended the Malay rebellion that had plagued the Atlee regime as the British Empire began to unravel.

Across the English Channel we have the examples of two of the greatest political figures of the twentieth century in continental Europe in the form of Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle. Adenauer, fondly (or not so fondly depending on one’s political perspective) referred to as “Der Alte”, became West Germany’s first postwar chancellor at the age of 73 and served in that capacity until leaving office at the age of 87. During this crucial period of German history Adenauer, in concert with De Gaulle, sponsored the German-French rapprochement that has continued to this day along with sponsoring the precursors of what was to become the EU and Germany’s entrance into NATO.

De Gaulle, of course, was a mere younster of 50 when he became head of the Free French forces following the fall of France in the spring of 1940 and the establishment of the collaborationist Vichy regime by the Nazis. Following the end of World War II and playing a brief role in the provisional French government that followed, de Gaulle retired from politics before being summoned to power and forming the Fifth French Republic in 1958 at the age of 68. During this time of crisis for France over independence for the former departement of Algeria, de Gaulle forever marked his greatness by standing up to the revanchist forces who opposed Algerian independence and such opposition was marked by no small threats upon his own life. He remained in power until 1969 and under his leadership France regained some of its former glory by setting forth something of an independent stance between East and West while at the same time standing foursquare behind the forces of liberal democracy against the threat of Soviet communism. If ever a political leader were named appropriately it would be de Gaulle.

Moving further along the timeline of the twentieth century we come to the figure of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir who took office shortly before her 71st birthday on March 17, 1969. Known as the “Iron Lady” of Israeli politics, before that sobriquet was applied to her British counterpart Margaret Thatcher, Mrs. Meir’s term of office was marked by her singlemindedness in hunting down and eliminating the Palestinian perpetrators of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972 and by her stalwart leadership during the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and the acceptance of a “two state” solution to the Palestinian question whose framework, no matter how tenuous, continues to this day. But it was her leadership before and during the Yom Kippur War which will mark her place in Israeli history. Against the advice of such firebrands as General David Elazar who urged a preemptive strike on massing Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, Meir resisted (wisely) along with Moshe Dayan knowing that Israel might need outside assistance if the Arabs attacked and that a preemptive strike no matter how warranted might jeopardize that support. As we all know, Israel prevailed in that war following the “surprise” attack by the armies of Egypt and Syria and the smashing of Egyptian forces finally resulted in what would later become the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty signed during the Carter administration which while hardly guaranteeing peace for the region has prevented another Arab-Israeli war during the past thirty years.

Our tour here ends with a man whose 90th birthday we will celebrate next month, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela of South Africa. Mr. Mandela, long held prisoner under South Africa’s apartheid regime, became president of that nation shortly before attaining his 76th birthday and who, with his deputy president the Afrikaaner F.W. de Klerk, ushered in a new era in the history of that rich and beautiful nation which stands today in stark contrast to the horror of its neighbor Zimbabwe under the ruthless oppression of Robert Mugabe. Under Mandela’s leadership South Africa started the process of racial reconciliation that continues to the present and the reintegration of that country into the international community.

In this silly season of presidential politics before the real game begins in late August, there’s little sillier than focusing on a candidate’s age.

I'm 53 and employed in the commercial real estate industry in Washington, DC. My academic training is in modern European history with an MA from the University of Virginia where I was a Governor's Fellow. I have written for the Richmond TImes-Dispatch, Continuity: A Journal of History and The American Spectator. I consider myself something of a European conservative as I'm not a huge fan of democracy, have no use for Bible thumpers of any stripe and abhor cultural and intellectual philistines.