ELEPHANT-DONKEY.com

John McCain has many flaws, age is not one of them.

theyoungdem | 06/18/08

He's spent a great deal of time overseas... how will his age affect his ability to "fulfill overseas commitments?" While Obama's youth supports the "Change" angle, McCain's age and experience adds its own, unique appeal to a different bloc of voters. To dismiss his age as categorically detrimental is folly.

DonkeyDude | 06/18/08

oops

DonkeyDude | 06/18/08

Since when was old age a detriment to politics; most politicians are old as dirt and have been for thousands of years. Queen Lizzy is ancient; the pope is too. But we don't require them to raise their swords and lead the charge toward the enemy like leaders of past civilizations once did. Senator Ed Kennedy has both feet dangling in the grave and yet nobody ever questioned ability to raise his pen and Hancock bills with it based on his age. So why would we make an issue of it with McCain?

Republicat65 | 06/18/08

DDT08- Your argument is not clear to me. Are you arguing that McCain is too old or too lethargic? You seem to switch your focus from age to exuberance, but you have framed the question as "McCain is too old."

thurgood | 06/18/08

Age doesnt matter look at Churchill for gods sake. If they are good enough to lead the country they should lead weather they are black white asian man women old young ect...

Terminator | 06/18/08

DDT08- You cannot assume this correlation unless you have evidence of some age-induced lethargy. (This is as ludicrous as it sounds. I wish I was as spry as my 78 year old grandpa who walks 3 miles a day...)

thurgood | 06/18/08

wait so McCain who's actually been to Iraq recently, is less able to fulfill overseas commitments than Obama who hasn't been to Iraq since before the last stategy change? Does anybody else see a contradiction there or is it just me?

MorgMcA | 06/18/08

for what it is worth, here is a little advice 08, you should be careful how you frame your arguments. debaters like DD clearly prey on poorly-framed arguments. "too old to lead" automatically sets you up for failure. something like "too sick to lead" wouldn't. see the difference? same (but even worse problem) with the other debate: "perfect"=losing argument. nothing is perfect. great, good, exceptional... but not perfect. never perfect. unless you define perfect subjectively, which is clearly not the precise definition. your ideas are good; so don't set yourself up for these lashings.

thurgood | 06/18/08

unless you are tossing DD softballs so he can up his percentage... ;)

thurgood | 06/18/08

It's complete ageism to assume that an older man cannot run the country. Plenty of leading figures have been older (like popes or monarchs) and saying that he is too old is reinforcing the stereotype that once you get past 50 (for example) you have outlived your use to society.

Miral150 | 06/19/08

Terminator - "Age doesnt matter look at Churchill for gods sake." (I'd give God a capital 'G', by the way.) Hardly a good argument. Churchill was a DREADFUL peacetime leader. He couldn't manage the Conservative party save at the most basic level and the electorate got it spot on in 1945 by booting the old duffer out! The leader of the war effort was not going to be an effective leader of the peace and was duly removed. As for McCain, it's ageist to claim that McCain is too old for the Presidency so I have to vote against this one.

mjb22 | 06/19/08

Unfortunately this is a poorly framed debate and I have to agree with thurgood, at least the first upload. The minute you suggest that someone is too old, too young, experienced, inexperienced etc you are basically inviting a rain of rocks upon yourself. Betta think through it, Is your argument structured such that it discredits McCain in this race or is it to raise a natural flaw that the voters have not thought about? I think what ever your reasons, you cannot succeed with such subjective statements. Maybe we could argue better if you raise questions like, "McCain not leveraging on his age", OR "Obama's age: an attraction for youth but deterrant for elderly" (just examples) then we can all participate with our own inputs.

POST | 06/20/08

Donkey, I don't know why you decided to accept this debate. It doesn't sound like your type.

POST | 06/20/08

Howdy, folks. I'm back from Italy, which was fun and not too hot. Looks like I have some reading to catch up with here, but I hope y'all have had a happy and healthy last 10 days without me (as a matter of happenstance, not cause-and-effect. . .). Ciao! :)

USA Pit Bull 63 | 06/20/08

I dunno, POST.. I've taken and started a broad array of debates. Some gimme's, some suicides, some left and some right positions. I thought this would turn out a little better, but at the end of the day, the aff argument just sounds like baseless age-ism.

DonkeyDude | 06/20/08

And Thurgood, you're too new to the site to understand the back story, but I stopped caring about my win % long ago. There aren't any prizes given out for having an 83% vs. an 82% percentage. The leaderboard is pure garbage anyway.

DonkeyDude | 06/20/08

Wow.. as soon as I logged my final "argument," the vote tally went from 1-9 in my favor to 11-9. DDT just became highly suspect IMO, and I warn you all not to debate against him/her.

DonkeyDude | 06/20/08

No offense, DD. I was just kidding. I cannot believe anyone with 1/56 of a brain would vote for DDT's argument here or in the Hillary debate. Wanted to vote for your argument in the latter, but the last set of attacks on Hillary and Bill were too much. Left a comment there.

thurgood | 06/20/08

How could anybody vote for DemDreamTeam?

indieGrl | 06/21/08