DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — DOYLESTOWN, Pa. -- Frankie La Rosa likes everything about John McCain's politics. He likes his moderation. He likes his integrity. He even read one of his books. But when the primary rolls around here April 22, he plans to vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Why? Because McCain, 71, would be the oldest president ever elected to a first term and in La Rosa's book, that's just too old. La Rosa knows this because he's old, too - 78. And if he had any doubt in his mind, the pain he woke up with this morning in his bum ankle only served to underscore the point.
"I've got my brain but physically, you're kidding yourself," La Rosa says.
He has just finished a carton of red Jell-O and a banana at the back table of the Bagel Barrel where some locals have gathered to talk politics. La Rosa is a retired financial adviser from Merrill Lynch and his mind is as sharp as a Dow Jones spike. But he discovered after his second bypass surgery three months ago that you cross 75 and - wham! - you never know what's going to hit you.
"The body just can't take it," he says. "I like McCain, I really do. But I am concerned about his age."
McCain's maturity hasn't stopped his steady march toward the GOP nomination. And most voters didn't have any pause electing Ronald Reagan at 69 and again at 73.
In this season of identity politics older voters do tilt to McCain. He has held his own with the 60-plus set in most early primary states, although not by enormous margins. But many seniors seem drawn to the Arizona senator in spite of his age, not because of it.
So here in Pennsylvania - where the retiree population is second only to Florida - we set out to ask older people, who arguably are best positioned to know: Is John McCain too old to be president?
"Hell no!" John Farrell, 83, said, on his way into the Acme to buy food for his cat, Angel.
Farrell spent 21 years in the Navy. Military service, not age, is what he identifies with in McCain - the former Navy fighter pilot who spent 5 1/2 years in a POW camp.
"Just because you're a little older doesn't mean you're senile," Farrell says.
At town hall meetings around the country, at least one voter typically asks McCain about his age. Still, his campaign takes pains to stress his vigor, asserting the Arizona senator's breakneck schedule wears out his younger aides. McCain boasts he can "out-campaign" candidates decades younger and hiked the Grand Canyon only two summers ago with his son, Jack, "29 miles rim to rim in 130-degree heat."
