As a challenge to John McCain’s claim that Barack Obama (aged 46) is too young and inexperienced to be President, Al Gore, in his official endorsement of Obama’s candidacy made a statement.The former vice president turned Nobel Prize winner playfully said he recalled one Republican nominee wondering out loud whether his Democratic rival for president was "naive and inexperienced."
"Who were they talking about? Every single one of those quotes came from the campaign of 1960, when the the Republicans attacked John Fitzgerald Kennedy for allegedly lacking the age and experience necessary to be president."
Richard Nixon was the Republican nominee in 1960.
Gore continued, "President John F. Kennedy once read to a rival: ‘To exclude from positions of trust and command all those below the age of 44 would have kept Jefferson from writing the Declaration of Independence, Washington from commanding the Continental Army, Madison from fathering the Constitution and Christopher Columbus from even discovering America.’”
Gore Endorses Obama as a Solver of Problems, New York Times, 17 June 2008.
Dr. Geoff Pound
Image: Al Gore endorsing Barack Obama in Detroit, Michigan (Courtesy NYT).