Bill Clinton Turns 60

By
JAKE TAPPER
via
August 19, 2006, 8:56 PM ET
3 min read

Aug. 19, 2006 — -- Cher, Donald Trump, Sylvester Stallone and Reggie Jackson are among the baby boomers to turn 60 this year.

In their company are President Bush and -- as of today -- former President Bill Clinton, who turns 60, even though he says he doesn't feel his age.

"No, I don't. I don't," he told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "I mean, you know, when I'm on the golf course and I can't hit the ball as far as I used to, I can't run as fast as I used to or something. I know I'm older than I used to be. But I feel fine. As long as my mind holds, I'll feel young."

Experts say it's pretty common for aging boomers to focus on their new physical limitations, perhaps because this narcissistic generation still can't believe it's actually getting old.

Even the famously physically fit President Bush told ABC News that he felt a little jetlagged after his recent trip to Baghdad.

"I'm sure you can imagine -- nearly 60," he said to a 37-year-old reporter. "I'm not sure you possibly can empathize, but nevertheless."

Of course, the president is in excellent health, while Clinton had emergency quadruple bypass surgery two years ago.

"I feel very grateful," Clinton said. "I could have died from my heart problems, and I didn't. I got another chance at life, and whatever happens now, every day is a little extra gift."

There was a time when Clinton said 60 seemed ancient to him.

"If you get to be 65 in America, your life expectancy is like 85 or something," he said. "But for me, it's old. It's longer than my father lived, longer than my stepfather lived, longer than my grandfather lived."

For the third-youngest elected president of all time, entering senior status is strange, he said.

"It's funny, you know: I've spent most of my life being the youngest person doing whatever I was doing," he said. "And one day, I woke up and I was the oldest person in the room."

Clinton has lived longer than Elvis, his musical hero, lived. So in honor of Clinton reaching the six-decade mark, ABC News presented him with some Elvis sunglasses, direct from Graceland.

"I'm going to wear these over the weekend, when I have the right togs on," he said.

He will have those togs on tonight as he kicks off the first of two months' worth of birthday parties, ending with a special concert by those other old men rock-stars, the Rolling Stones.