Age matters, sort of

My friend M did a comparison recently between Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin (the only two women who've run for Vice Prez on the US' major party tickets), which brought to light more than a few of Palin's experience and knowledge gaps - let's call them voids, since gap implies at least a framework of knowledge that's just missing a few puzzle pieces. This gave me the idea of looking into the age of presidents and prime ministers around the world, to perhaps throw a wrench into the argument that Barack Obama, age 46, is too young to occupy the White House. Someone over at CafeBabel had a similar idea, looking at the relationship between progressive policies and leadership age. The conclusion reached by that author: "Europeans have a clear preference for electing leaders who are in their fifties. It seems impossible to be elected if you are older unless the leader is popular while occupying higher functions." The youngest head of state in the EU is 42, Swedish prime minster Frederik Reifeldt. Making a correlation between socially progressive agendas and younger leadership seems to hold up fairly well across the EU spectrum, according to this piece.

While there actually doesn't seem to be a comprehensive list of current world leaders' ages anywhere on the net, i did find a list of the ten youngest leaders currently in office. This includes: Bulgaria's Sergei Stanishev - 42, Cheney's Georgian buddy Mikhael Shaakashvili - nearly 42, and, interestingly enough, Dmitri Medvedev of Russia, who just turned 43 last month. (If you were Medvedev, would you feel better about dealing with a US Prez 3 years your senior, or one who's about the age of your father and probably more authoritarian?) Clearly, the conservative argument that Obama is too young to do the job is yet another house of cards used to scare people who know less about how the world works than the pundits like O'Reilly who are spewing out this type of "advice" to confused, waivering voters.

Looking solely at female leaders, most of those currently in power were born in the 1940's and early 50's, which puts them in their 50's and 60's now. This includes Michelle Bachelet, Andrea Merkel and Cristina Kirschner. Expanding on M's theme, consider potential Commander-in-Chief Sarah Palin's resume compared to Bachelet's (pediatrician with a minor in military strategy), Merkel's (former Federal Minister of Environment, Protection of Nature and Reactor Safety, among other credentials), and Kirschner's (lawyer and former Senator from Buenos Aires). Sorry Sarah, but seeing Russia out your smokehouse window just doesn't cut it compared to what these women bring to an office of national leadership. What would you talk with them about at state dinners, the latest tanning salon oils?

Back to the boys, i'm not sure there's any real conclusion to be made other than stating the obvious: being under 50 - under 70! - is not a matter that should be used to disqualify a candidate for any nation's highest office. That an opposition candidate has to fall on this as a point of contention for voters only shows the extent to which that candidate is grasping at straws, and probably isn't too keen to increase the rolls of young voters. Let's hope that the so-called youth vote in the US isn't buying the age argument and can do better than McCain and Palin both when it comes to thinking on their feet.