With age discrimination so rampant in this presidential campaign it may be instructive to recall how other countries have handled the age issue of their leaders. Golda Meir was 76 when she ended her term as Prime Minister in Israel; French President Charles de Gaulle was 78, and Nelson Mandela as President in South Africa was 80. Mandela also was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
In a `you had to be there' moment from an earlier campaign, when Ronald Reagan was 73 he ran for re-election and in a 1984 televised debate against Walter Mondale, then 56, Reagan quipped: "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I will not hold my opponent's youth and inexperience against him." The audience laughed and Reagan won the election.