Energy of McCain, 71, appeals to many oldsters

Some uneasy despite his vigor

Supporters listened to Senator John McCain during a recent campaign stop in Sun City Center, Fla. Many voters who have come out to hear McCain say that they see one of their own. (Photo by Daniel Barry/Getty Images)

SUN CITY CENTER, Fla. - At John McCain's town hall meeting in Sun City Center Saturday, the topics were the usual campaign fare: Iraq, immigration, the economy. In the back of the room, however, the conversation rather quickly turned to death.

"By the time he's finished with his first term, he'll be 76, which is too old," said Marion Orlofsky, 67, a retiree.

"He could be 40 and he could drop dead tomorrow," said Bill Doland, 83, a veteran of World War II. "The man upstairs has control over that."

"There are things that happen when you get older," Orlofsky replied. "Who knows what four years down the line will bring? Or two years?"

McCain is 71 years old, running to be the oldest newly elected president in American history. Many voters who have come out to watch McCain campaign in the state with the highest percentage of elderly people say they see one of their own, and their reflections - on mortality, memory, and the challenge of negotiating stairs - are as much about themselves as the candidate.

"I lean a little towards McCain, because he's a senior citizen. I can relate to him," said Margie Smiley, a Punta Gorda resident who saw McCain speak in North Fort Myers, at a sports bar adjacent to a store that claims to be the world's largest vendor of shells. "I'm 80 years old, and I don't feel it."

In earlier contests, McCain has found some of his deepest support among seniors, and in advance of today's primary, McCain's approach has become more direct. On Sunday, he visited the Villages, a sprawling retirement community northwest of Orlando navigable by golf cart.

"For everyone that says you're too old, I'm here to say that you look great, you sound great, and you will last another eight years," the first woman to speak at McCain's town hall meeting there told him, by way of welcome.

In order to blunt competing actuarial calculations, McCain explicitly said earlier this month that he would not necessarily expect to serve as president until he was 80. "If I said I was running for eight years, I don't know if that would be a vote getter," McCain said in New Hampshire. "So I am running for a four-year term first."

That pledge has not stopped opponents from raising the issue, however. The actor Chuck Norris, 67, a prominent supporter of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, recently warned that McCain's "vice president would wind up taking over his job in that four-year presidency." At a debate last week, Huckabee said that he did not agree with the remarks.

"That's why my dear mother is with us as often as possible," McCain said in an interview, referring to the 95-year-old whose vigor he often cites to those skeptical of his longevity.

"In this day and age where people are getting better medicine and living longer, it shouldn't be an issue," said Donald Pickering, a retired dentist in Palm Beach. "Anybody who can stand up to this pace has to be in pretty good shape."

McCain likes to make the same point, often crediting restless politicking for his primary victory in New Hampshire, where he often endured a half-dozen events a day.

"I can out-campaign all of them," McCain said while traveling through Florida's Panhandle last week. "I hiked the Grand Canyon rim to rim August before last with my son Jack. I'll challenge anyone to do that - that's 29 miles rim-to-rim in 130-degree heat."

Older voters say they see McCain's spryness reflected in his stage presence, and even those who can recall his medical file with remarkable specificity - the wartime injuries, the melanoma that left a long gash down his cheek - say they witness little in person that leads them to worry.

"It doesn't appear he has any of the problems from Vietnam - it was, of course, not a health camp," said Leo St. Amour, 69, a Michigander who, despite having voted for Mitt Romney by absentee ballot in his home-state primary, came to see McCain at the Villages. "He had energy, his mind was sharp."

The possibility of electing a president who would be 80 at the end of two terms has been greeted with little of the fanfare that surrounds potential pioneers of race and gender, but elderly voters supporting McCain often speak a language of self-affirmation.

"I think he has the experience and the expertise we need, and you get that as you grow older," said Mary Butterfield, 76, a retired educator in Fort Lauderdale.

"He's surrounded by young people," said Grace Kunz, 91, gesturing to staff and press as they filed into the theatre in Sun City where McCain held his meeting. "That's what keeps you young."

Conversations about McCain yield a Hallmark shop's worth of insights about the aging process. In Sun City, a voter rose to cheer up McCain with the news that 70 is the new 60.

"Thank you for that new math on my age," McCain said. "I'm very interested in that formula."