Here is why McCain not too old to be president

I want to put aside the notion that John Sidney McCain is too old to become president of the United States of America.

Let's look at it this way. In 1900 the life expectancy was 47 years, according to wikepedia.

Also according to this wikepedia chart, William McKinley was 54 years old when he assumed the office of the president of the U.S., which was seven years older than the life expectancy at that time.

Then, in 1901 when McKinley was assassinated, Theodor Roosevelt became the youngest person to assume the office of the president, and he was 42 years old, only five years younger than the average life expectancy.

The average age of all presidents is 55 years old. According to 1900 standards, this is eight years older than the life expectancy.

Putting this in perspective, the average life expectancy in 2004, according to infoplease.com, was 77.9. Right now, John McCain is 73, that is five years younger than the average life expectancy. Or, to compare him with the youngest to assume office, he is the same number of years younger than the average life expectancy of his time as Teddy Roosevelt was in 1901.

So, you might ask, why then was 35 chosen as the minimum age to be president.

According to information compiled by Dr. Benjamin Rush "that of 100 people born in the city of Philadelphia, more than one-third died before the age of six and only one quarter of the population survived beyond 26. Life expectancy in 1790 for the US population was 34.5 years for males and 36.5 years for females."

Thus, when the Constitution was signed in 1787, the life expectancy was 35.5 years old. That is one of the reasons that 35 was chosen as the minimum age of being president. They also wanted to make sure a person was old enough to have real world experience, but young enough so the person could succeed as president.

In 1789 when George Washington assumed the office of the president, he was 57. That is 22 years older than the life expectancy. Thus, George Washington was perhaps the oldest serving president by life expectancy standards.

But that's not true either, because the second president, John Adams, was 61 years when he assumed that office, which is 26 years older than the life expectancy.

So, with the average life expectancy of 35.5 in 1789, every president ever has been older than that age. With the average life expectancy in 2004 78, every president, including McCain, were under that age.

So, is John Sidney McCain too old to assume the office of the president? According to our own review of history, and some basic math and statistics, the answer to that question would be no: John McCain is not too old to be president.

In fact, according to history and the average life expectancy to president age ratio, he is actually quite young in comparrison.