One Student’s Thoughts By: Estelle Reardon Though most of you probably still feel that you are living in the aftermath of last election, America's media and candidates are already preparing for the 2016 election! Potential candidates are already being bombarded from every direction, particularly the democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The media has been claiming that Mrs.Clinton is now too old to run for office. It's true that in 2016 at the time of inauguration Mrs.Clinton will be 69 years old, compared to the average age of presidential inauguration 50-54. It's also true that after her head injury in 2012 her health could be questioned. However, since then Hillary's doctors claim that she has made a full recovery from the accident and she appears ready for the campaign trail. Mrs.Clinton isn't the first older candidate to run for office, Ronald Reagan was sworn in at age 69, John McCain ran at 70 and another potential candidate, Joe Biden will be 74. Not to mention how extensive research shows that women are prone to live longer lives then men. (The Huffington Post) Hillary's gender could render her practically equivalent in age to some of her younger male counterparts.
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Yet the battle with those skeptical of her age doesn't end at health and overall longevity. With almost all older candidates there is inquiry to whether or not they have outdated views that could potentially keep our country from progressing. Though there is some inquiry, particularly among republicans an article by Charlie Cook of the National Journal indicates that for Hillary this is not a problem. "According to The Atlantic, during her tenure as secretary of State, Clinton traveled for 401 days to 112 countries, totaling 956,733 miles, a distance equal to more than 38 times around the globe . . . . Assuming that she does run, Clinton would obviously be a formidable candidate." Mrs.Clinton has now been in politics for a number of years and having traveled so extensively she has been exposed to a great deal
of "new ideas" and forward-thinking progressiveness.
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In addition, most female politicians go into politics at a later age due to the fact that they are raising children. If this trend continues then a great deal of America's future female candidates will be running for office at later ages. If America decides that 69 is too old, it will be a huge setback for women in politics. Both Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi entered politics after raising children. When Pelosi was asked if she thought that her decision to run for minority leader prohibits the party from having younger leadership this was her response: "I came to Congress when my youngest child, Alexandra, was a senior in high school and practically on her way to college. I knew that my male colleagues had come when they were 30. They had a jump on me because they didn’t have to stay home with children. Now, I did what I wanted to do, I was blessed to have that opportunity to sequentially raise my family and then come to Congress … You’ve got to take off of that 14 years for me because I was home raising a family, getting the best experience of all in diplomacy, interpersonal skills. No, the answer is no." Despite the age controversy directed by the media the current poles don't seem to care how old Mrs.Clinton is. This "senior citizen" is currently first in national poles.