December 2, 2008 7:46:20 PM CST
(Newser) – With all the talk about John McCain's advanced age and the suitability of his vice presidential pick, Politico offers up some statistics on mortality rates. According to the actuarial tables that insurance companies use, there is about a 15% chance that a 72-year-old man would die within 4 years—and a 33% chance within 8.
Insurance tables tend to be pessimistic, but even the more conservative statistics show a 10% chance that someone of McCain's age wouldn't survive a term in office. And, one professor of risk management adds, serving as president itself has to be a risk factor: “I think people do believe it tends to age you rather quickly.” Barack Obama's chances are between six and 10 times as good as his opponent's: 2.4% of men his age are likely to die within 4 years, the number is down to 1.6% for non-smokers.
Source Politico
Nov 27, 08 9:21 AM CST Two lawsuits challenging Barack Obama’s right to be president on the grounds that he is not a US citizen are on the Supreme Court;s "to do" list, but the litigants' hopes of overturning the election results are slim, MSNBC reports. One alleges Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii; the other asserts the “natural born” clause in the Constitution means both of a president's parents must be US citizens. More »
Nov 27, 08 7:49 AM CST The smartest people don't always make the best presidents, David Broder writes in the Washington Post, but America's lucky it will soon have Barack Obama's brainpower at the top. We're faced with a financial crisis that stumps even the eggheads, Broder writes, admitting that he, personally, has "not a clue whether Bernanke, Paulson and Co. are on top of the situation or are inadvertently making things worse." Fortunately, he says, "Obama is not similarly handicapped." More »
Nov 24, 08 4:30 PM CST Hillary Clinton has the potential to be a great secretary of state, but only if she once and for all shelves her presidential ambitions, writes Mike Lupica for the New York Daily News. We saw the best of Clinton when she was losing the primary marathon: “She not only found her voice, she looked about 10 times tougher and better than her husband.” More »
Nov 23, 08 12:00 PM CST Joe Lieberman told Meet the Press today that he regrets "some things I said in the heat of the campaign that I wish I'd said more clearly," and hopes Barack Obama will put, er, "country first" by leading in a bipartisan fashion. Lieberman said he called Obama during the campaign, but, oddly, never heard back from him, Politico reports. In other talk shows:
Nov 19, 08 1:55 PM CST Missouri, the last state up for grabs, looks to have gone Republican by less than a 1% margin, leaving John McCain with 173 electoral votes to Barack Obama’s 365, the Kansas City Star reports. There are still 3,000 uncounted provisional ballots, but McCain’s margin is large enough to declare him the winner of the state’s 11 electoral votes. More »
Probably, there is a substantial effect associated with being in an office like the presidency. I think people do believe it tends to age you rather quickly. - Michael Powers, riskmanagement professor
Barack Obama • John McCain • presidency • age • longevity
