Happy Birthday, Barack: 47 is the new 46

BE ELECTED
by Amy Weiss

The presumptive Democratic nominee was born 47 years ago today in Honolulu. In those 47 years he's received a bachelor's and a law degree from Ivy League institutions, become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, worked as a community organizer, a civil rights lawyer and a constitutional law professor at a prestigious university, and served the public first as an Illinois state senator for seven years and now as a U.S. senator for four.

"Age" and "experience" are often two reasons, sometimes lumped together, given as criticism of Obama and his readiness to lead. So now that he's a mature 47, is he old enough to be president?

If he wins, Obama will be the fifth youngest (Presidents Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, Kennedy and Clinton were younger, Grover Cleveland was also 47) at the time of his inauguration. (By contrast, McCain would be the oldest president ever inaugurated, but we'll explore that more for his 72nd birthday later this month.)

Barack Obama was born in 1961, the same year as political pundits Paul Begala and Ann Coulter and former Colombian presidential candidate and recently released FARC hostage, Ingrid Betancourt. All of these people are arguably unqualified to be President of the United States for various reasons, but do we look at them and think, "Oh my gosh, they're so young?"

From the McCain campaign and the Republican Party, criticisms of Obama are more focused on his "inexperience" rather than his youth. In terms of experience, it's true the Illinois senator isn't as seasoned as John McCain in the U.S. Senate, but neither are 75 other senators.

The "amount of time in elected office" argument falls apart for the Republicans when it comes to former presidential candidate, top McCain surrogate, and possible vice-presidential nominee Mitt Romney. At 61 years old, he has only served 4 years in elected office as Governor of Massachusetts from 2003-2007. Obama has held elected office for over 10 years, making him more accomplished at a younger age by that measure.

And while Obama is relatively young in national politics, he's now more than 10 years older than the average American, who is 36.4 years old according to 2006 data from the Census Bureau. He's also older than the artificial heart, acrylic paint, soft contact lenses, and Astroturf.

So with over 25 years of real world experience but still 18 years before he'll receive Social Security, 47 may just be the perfect age for Obama to become the first post-Baby Boomer president.

What do you think the Democratic nominee should get for his birthday (besides a November win, of course!)?

BE ELECTED

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