Is the Grim Reaper Advising All the Candidates?

Nick Gillespie | April 5, 2007

Libertarian Democrat Terry Michael has penned an interesting essay about baby boomers, medically challenged pols, and the presidential election. He asks how the health concerns about the leading contenders (and their spouses) will play out during Campaign '08.

Among the serious Democrats, most seem more fortunate than the Edwards family, though a possible First Gentleman, Hillary's husband, had coronary by-pass surgery in 2004, and potential contender Al Gore is suffering from global girth, an un-youthful appearance problem that has also plagued Gov. Bill Richardson....

If mortality is on the minds of voters in November 2008, it can't hurt Mr. Romney that he looks like he was genetically programmed to be a master of the universe, with Olympic bearing and industrial strength hair. And that picture of 45-year-old Sen. Barack Obama emerging shirtless from the surf is deja vu all over again for those of us who remember a famous black-and-white photo of a slender John Kennedy wading out of the water on a California beach. Ironically, JFK may have been the most health-challenged man to serve in the White House, suffering from a host of illnesses, all concealed from the voting public in a time when that was possible....

We youth-enchanted Boomers may find that healthy-looking faces and sturdy bodies weigh heavily in our decisions about "Leadership for our 60s," to slightly paraphrase the slogan on that big vibrant red, white and blue "Kennedy for President" poster stored in our collective memory.

Pop a Viagra and read the whole thing here.