"neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States."
Look at how everyone is complaining about Pelosi being "too old". It's a totally disingenuous argument. No one cares about his age, they just don't like his agenda.
Donald Trump is 72 (too old?)
Joe Biden, 75. (so he's out, too)
Nelson Mandela was 77 when he was inaugurated. So he was too old as well?
Age has little to do with a serious discussion about a viable president unless pragmatism is your centeral criterion. Clinton was the pragmatic choice... she lost. Warren and trump are old, Clinton was old.
The central criteria for choosing a president should be their choices and moral compass, a strong voice and leader, the ability to turn a movement toward generating money for the candidate and a finger on the pulse of what’s actually going on.
If he or she dies while in the office, none of the goals would be achieved. I am not even talking about the mainstream media, which would tear the old man apart, because of his age. It is not like I am discoaraging you to vote for Bernie, but it is that he is not gonna win, period. So you need to chose the closest to Bernie and vote.
It has a lot to do with the discussion when the average lifespan of a U.S. male is 79 and people generally vote for Presidents, not VPs.
It also has a lot to do with it when the current 72 year old President shows -- at the very least, arguable -- signs of cognitive decline, and the oldest President ever also showed similar signs towards the end of his term. There are exceptions, but these cases are representative of the typical case, not the exceptional case [1]
Stress is a factor in the above.
Nuclear weapon deployment (not even war) remains one of the greatest threats to civilization and would likely impact another (climate change). The U.S. President must be able to make a fast & sharp decision on this matter should the need arise (though I have to say, Bernie seems likely to make the right choice, which is always "do not launch")
[1] “…most abilities tend to peak in early midlife, plateau until the late fifties or sixties, and then show decline, initially at a slow pace, but accelerating as the late seventies are reached.” (Schaie, 1989).
I trust Sander’s political positions over all other candidates, and if we get a good three years of Bernie and 1 year of his choice of VP, I’m ok with that. He’s clear and right about most issues and he’s right that climate change is the number 1 issue and he’s the only one saying that.
