August birthdays highlight McCain-Obama generational split

WASHINGTON -- John McCain and Barack Obama are approaching August birthdays that will highlight the biggest-ever age gap between major American presidential candidates.

Obama will be 47 on Aug. 4. McCain will be 72 on Aug. 29.

Their 25-year gap, and the questions it inherently raises about experience and vitality, is part of a powerful generational subtext of the 2008 campaign.

This is the first presidential contest to substantially involve the emerging "millennials," a generation that some political and social scientists predict will be the most politically active and powerful of any since the "GI Generation" that won World War II.

McCain comes from what social scientists call the "Silent Generation," those tucked between the "GI Generation" and the baby boomers that followed the war. McCain's generation fought in Korea and Vietnam and has been split over baby boomer politics since the 1960s.

If McCain does not win in November, his generation could be the first in American history to not produce a president, according to Morley Winograd, who co-authored with Michael D. Hais the new book, "Millennial Makeover: My Space, YouTube & the Future of American Politics."

Obama is a tail-end boomer, but his political appeal is heavily focused on the "millennials" who have begun voting in the last three presidential elections. Millennials are 26 and younger, and the 100 million of them born between 1982 and 2003 constitute the largest and most diverse American generation ever.

Both McCain and Obama have traits that appeal to this generation: McCain for his reputation as a maverick, Obama for his focus on casting off the divisive politics of the past.

Generational experts view McCain and Obama as bookends of a rebellion against the culture-war politics over abortion, marriage and other social divides of the baby boomers.

The McCain-Obama match "is in some ways a reflection of the country's lack of interest in continuing the boomer political debate that has gone on between the two boomer presidents, (Bill) Clinton and (George W.) Bush," said Winograd, who advised former Democratic Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration.