Apparently some Americans think that McCain is a little too old to be President (he’s 71, will turn 72 before the elections are over).  Just a tad too old.  Okay, maybe really really ancient.

It seems that the topic keeps coming up during his campaign, and it’s certainly not going to go away.

In fact, some people are rather transfixed by it.  This website keeps a rather lengthy list of things that McCain is older than:

Six-packs, automatic transmissions and the American Express card were all introduced after he was born – not to mention computers, which McCain admits he doesn’t use.

That quote is from an article that examines some of the numbers behind this issue.

Overall, 38 per cent said “too old” describes McCain somewhat or very well….

Personally, it’s the computer comment above that would worry me most, and not just because I’m a geek.  I just have to think that someone who doesn’t even use a computer in this day and age is not really qualified to have any global power, whatsoever.  I mean I don’t expect him to be an expert, but come on, most grandmothers his age can check their email.  That’s a pretty grim outlook in my mind.  How will he make intelligent decisions in any capacity in the globalized world today?  Sure, he will have expert advisors and such, but I think it reveals a certain “out-of-touch”ness to his attitudes that would be a disaster if he actually won.

My 2 cents.

**** Update:

Apparently I’m not the only one with these kinds of crackpot ideas.  The Russian President just issued a warning to all of his elected officials to brush up on their computer skills, or they could be out of a job.

President Dmitry Medvedev says the government doesn’t hire people who can’t read and write, and computer literacy today is the same.

So there you go.  I completely agree with basic computer literacy as a minimum for most jobs these days, even if you are swinging a hammer you need to be able to interface with the rest of us.