Senator John McCain told off a kid who asked whether he was too old to be president.
An unflinching John McCain was told Tuesday by New Hampshire high school students he might be too old to be president and too conservative to be respected. McCain, the Arizona senator whose presidential bid has stumbled through the summer, countered the Concord High School students with humor.
“Thanks for the question, you little jerk,” McCain joked back to one student who asked the 71-year-old about his age. “You’re drafted.”
Actually, while his delivery on these things is always odd — he loves to call people “jerks” when joshing around — it was clearly lighthearted. Here’s the video:
And, truth be told, the kid was being a jerk.
“If elected, you’d be older than Ronald Reagan, making you the oldest president. Do you ever worry you might die in office or get Alzheimer’s or some other disease that might affect your judgment?” one student asked. The audience groaned; McCain slid into a joke. “I think it was one of my sons that alleged I’m getting to the point I hide my own Easter eggs,” McCain said to laughter. “When you saw my 95-year-old mother (on a video introduction), you saw the kind of genes I have.”
[…]
“I came here looking to see a good leader,” 16-year-old William Sleaster told McCain, earning himself boos from his classmates. “I don’t.” McCain, a veteran of such candid exchanges in New Hampshire, smoothly pushed forward and told the crowd not to disrespect its peer. “I understand. I thank you,” McCain said. “That’s what America is all about.”
Indeed. Although a little more respect might be appropriate when addressing a United States Senator 55 years your elder who spent five and a half years being tortured in the service of his country.
