Is John McCain — the man who calls himself “old as dirt” — too old to be president?

He will be 72 on Inauguration Day 2009. Serve two terms — hypothetically at least — and he would be 80 years old leaving office.

That’s a good bit older than anyone else who ever occupied the Oval Office.

Ronald Reagan was 69 on Inauguration Day. The next-oldest president, William Henry Harrison, was 68 when he took office.

Of course, he only lasted a month.

Watching him campaign in Iowa recently, McCain seemed pretty darn vigorous. Not jumping-up-and-down vigorous, but go-all-day vigorous.

“You’ve got to show energy on the stump,” he told me. “I will compare my schedule with any other candidate’s schedule, as far as the length of the day and the number of events – you’ve just got to show them the energy, show them you’ve got what it takes.”

He also pointed to what he called “my secret weapon” — his sharp, vigorous, 95 year-old mother, Roberta.

Well, at least she was a secret weapon until she recently misfired, on live television, by saying of Mitt Romney, “He’s a Mormon, and the Mormons of Salt Lake City had caused that scandal,” referring to the messes at the 2002 Olympics.

Oops. From now on the secret weapon will have to be deployed more carefully.

Apart from relentless campaigning, and showcasing his mother, what can McCain do about the age issue?

In Iowa, I asked him about the suggestion, made by my National Review colleague Ramesh Ponnuru, that he promise to serve just one term.

McCain rejected it — but his answer indicated he has thought very seriously about it.

“I think part of it is whether you really have been able to accomplish what you could in the first four years, and you’d have a pretty good handle on that after the first couple of years,” he told me. “And second of all, what could you accomplish additionally if you stayed another four years?

“We see one-term presidents in some countries, like Mexico. The guy is a lame duck practically as soon as he is elected, and the jockeying for position begins the day after the election as to his successor.”

On the other hand, McCain added, “The counterargument that I think about is that I would be able to communicate with the American people and they would know that I had no further agenda, that I really believe in this.

“So you balance those things — and I do think about it — but so far I’ve come down on not doing that.”

Personally, I think McCain is right. The lame-duck issue is a serious problem, and beyond that, during the campaign, a one-term pledge would send out this message, loud and clear, every day: I’M TOO OLD TO SERVE TWO TERMS.

That’s not the best way to win an election.

Besides, it’s not like some of McCain’s Republican opponents are spring chickens.

Fred Thompson would be 66 on Inauguration Day — the third-oldest president ever sworn in.

Rudy Giuliani, the leader in the national Republican polls, would be 64 — the fourth-oldest (just a touch older than George H.W. Bush was when he took office).

The spring chicken of the GOP front-runners is Mitt Romney, who would be 61 — the eighth-oldest president ever inaugurated. (Romney does, however, seem jump-up-and-down vigorous.)

So unless Mike Huckabee, who would be 53 on Inauguration Day, suddenly vaults into the lead, this race is among, shall we say, seasoned candidates.

Senator Old-as-Dirt should stop worrying.

York is a White House correspondent for National Review. His column appears in The Hill each week.
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