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.

"It's that whole culture-war gridlock, that type of politics that this country is really tired of," Winograd said. "What (voters) have managed to choose are the two candidates least likely to continue that kind of politics."

A June survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press concluded that slightly more voters are concerned about McCain's age (51 percent) than are concerned about Obama's inexperience (42 percent).

Recent McCain gaffes, such as his reference to a border between Iraq and Pakistan that doesn't exist, prompted critics to again raise the age issue. McCain's defenders say they were human slips by a candidate who is often accessible to the media.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert in political communication, believes McCain has been unfairly attacked, especially on late-night television.

"Treating McCain as if he had dementia is as absurd as caricaturing Obama" as a Muslim or a terrorist, Hall Jamieson said, referring to a controversial New Yorker magazine cover on Obama. "We have no evidence to support either claim, and there is evidence to contradict both claims. We ought to be offended by both."

The 25-year gap between Obama and McCain is bigger than the 23-year age difference between Republican challenger Bob Dole and incumbent Bill Clinton in 1996. It's also bigger than the 17-year-gap between Republican incumbent Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale in 1984, when the 73-year-old Reagan famously quipped that he would not hold his opponent's relative inexperience against him.

McCain also has used humor, saying he is "as old as dirt" and talking about the feistiness of his 96-year-old mother, Roberta, who has been on the campaign trail with him. Her presence is a subliminal message about familial longevity. McCain's father died in 1981 at age 70.

Obama's just-concluded trip to the Middle East and Europe was designed to answer questions about his readiness for the world stage and to demonstrate the overseas appeal of a new generation of American leadership.

"He always starts (rallies) by saying I respect McCain's service to the country even if he won't respect or honor mine," Hais said of Obama. "That is a classic millennial comment. They love their parents, but they are also expecting the same kind of honor in return and are quick to point out when they don't get it."

Initially, some of those with qualms about McCain's age were his fellow senior citizens. But he has maintained a vigorous campaign schedule, and Pew discovered that the percentage of those over 65 who thought McCain was too old to be president fell from 30% in February to 18% in June.

"I think they are trying to do as much as possible to convert age into experience," said Tony Fabrizio, a pollster for Dole in 1996. "But the contrast between John McCain and Barack Obama is there. You can't change the fact that John McCain has white hair and Barack Obama looks younger."

McCain hinted recently that youth is an important consideration as he considers a running mate.

In Albuquerque, a 9-year-old reporter from the youth publication Scholastic Kids asked McCain what qualities he was looking for in a vice president.

"Someone exactly like you," McCain said. "Young, vigorous, talented."