As someone on the edge of fossilhood myself, I have developed an appreciation for the wisdom that can come with age and experience. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but laziness is its father and I have learned to be quite inventive to make up for my diminishing capacities. The foxy grandpa stereotype (old meaning of foxy-smart) sometimes has some truth to it. Not in McCain's case. In his 2000 presidential bid, I saw a certain amount of the freedom of being old enough not to give a damn in John McCain's willingness to speak truth to power, or anyone else who'd listen. He's changed. A lot. And I can't help wondering if part of it is that he's eight years farther into the twilight. Does he change his mind and misspeak so much because he is becoming more forgetful? This, I think, is a kinder judgment of his constant gaffes and flip-flops than to believe he has become more cynical. But, hell, as a prisoner of war for 5 years he has to be pretty damned cynical to start with. To get us out of the mess the Republicans have so deliberately and energetically gotten the country into on so many levels, we need the best we've got. Obama may not be the best we've got, but he's by far the best we have to chose from.

It's not the age, it's the mileage and his imprisonment has more to do with that than cynicism.

I really question his judgement on domestic issues. He isn't much different than the other guys on global warming(bullshit) and domestic energy.

Unless he is just lying and will pull a 180 on those issues, he really turns me off.

I'm hoping he picks Bobby Jindal a guy who actually has gotten things done rather than continually ruminating empty rhetoric like Barack Mugabe Obama.

--He's changed. A lot.

Hasn't he though. I remember a SNL bit where the Kerry character kept responding "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy".

I think the same sentiment probably went through McCains mind a time or two, and subsequently he adopted a more Bushy political message. He saw that it worked for that guy... [really, that guy is winning], maybe it'll work for me...

I'm not saying he's the evil/good twin of Bush, but the tone and audience of his message is very Bushy.

You brought up the age thing. 72 may be the new 60, but is 80 the new 70? I sorry if this lets my -ism show, but I don't think 72 is the age to start the most important job of anyones lifetime. Its not the rare 2:00am scrotum crunching phone call that concerns me; its the day to day, 10-14 hour, grind. They do call it the administrative branch of Gov.