The twenty-five year age gap between the Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama could be a deciding factor in this election. This election is a contest of age and experience versus youth and change.
Older voters tend to vote conservative and turn out to vote in higher numbers. Curtis Gans, director of the nonpartisan Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University, stated on the U.S. government’s website “seniors vote at a rate of about 60 percent more than young people and about 10 percentage points higher than the national average.”
Sen. Obama has youth on his side. The age group 18-29 tends to support the Democratic Party. According to Declare Yourself, a national non-partisan, non-profit youth voting initiative, a record turnout of 6 million people between the ages 18-29 voted in the 2008 presidential primaries. Of those 6 million, about 4.9 million voted for a democratic candidate.
As they say, with age, comes experience, and that is at the forefront of this election. Sen. McCain has been in Congress for 26 years, four years spent in the U.S. House of Representatives and twenty-two years spent in the U.S. Senate. Over the years, McCain’s work has involved campaign finance reform which led to the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002, and he was involved in restoring relations with Vietnam in the 1990’s. Sen. Obama began his political career in 1996, winning a position in the Illinois State legislature. In 2004, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he has served less than four years.
These could have been factors in the candidates’ appeal to voters until less than a month ago. Each presidential candidate addressed the age and experience concerns by choosing a running mate who is similar to their opponent. Sen. Obama balanced his ticket with Sen. Biden’s experience and Sen. McCain balanced his with Gov. Palin’s youth and maverick persona.
Both Sen. McCain and Sen. Biden were children during the Second World War, grew up in the Golden years of the 50’s, and lived through the Vietnam War. Biden was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 and has served for thirty-six years, ten more years than McCain and twenty-four more years than Sen. Obama.
Barack Obama and Sarah Palin were children while McCain was in Vietnam and Biden was elected to the Senate at 29. Obama and Palin, though, both represent change. Obama promotes himself as the candidate that is going “to change the way they do business in Washington.” Palin, a former mayor and the governor of Alaska for the past two years, pushed through bipartisan ethics reform and reduced the number of earmarks in Alaska.
Despite attempts to close the age and experience gap, it is still on the minds of voters. While Obama utilizes his youth and short experience to promote change, McCain has used his age and experience to gain the trust of voters. Rasmussen reports that 48% of Pennsylvania voters said they trusted McCain more than Obama, while only 41% said they trusted Obama more than McCain.
I believe few voters will leave the choice up to age alone. With gas prices around $3.60, an uncertainty in the financial system, and the credit crunch, anything is possible. |
