I have a tremendous amount of respect for Sec. Clinton, OMalley said. I supported her for president in 2008, was one of the first governors to support her in 2008, and hung with her all the way through to the end of that courageous campaign. I think that as our problems are new, so must our thinking be new. And so must the actions that we take also be new. And I do believe that the candidate that wins our partys nomination will be the candidate that can offer new ideas for a new generation of Americans.
OMalley is right to make an issue of who can speak for the new generation. Traditionally, Democrats have nominated younger candidates than the GOP: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, John F. Kennedy, even Franklin D. Roosevelt who was only 50 when he beat Herbert Hoover back in 1932. Conversely, Republicans have nominated older candidates: Mitt Romney, John McCain, Bob Dole, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower.
But the roles look reversed in the early stages of the 2016 presidential race. Clinton is 66 and Vice President Joe Biden, who places second to her in most polls, is 71. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who has been sending up trial balloons about running in 2016, is 73. And, despite being a new face in the Senate, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is 65. One of the reasons OMalley is wise to play up the generational game is the fact he is only 51, far younger than the Democratic front-runners.
The crop of possible Republican presidential hopefuls appears a little younger. Sure, Romney and Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, are still around in their 60s and former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., is 61, but many of the other Republican contenders are younger. Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., is 52 and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is 51. Some of the potential candidates are even younger. Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wis., is 46 while U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is 44 and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., are all 43.
Its a different dynamic as Generation X members start moving in on the Baby Boomers to lead the nations politics. Usually the Democrats offer the first faces of a new political generation but the GOP looks far better poised to do it this time out.
Still, going younger doesnt always work at the presidential level. Wendell Willkie and Tom Dewey were younger than FDR but never made it work. Even as the president entered into the final months of his life, Dewey actually misplayed the age issue back in 1944 when FDR noted that many of his chief generals and admirals were even older than he was. Sometimes, a younger, inexperienced president does such a bad job that voters turn to an older, more experienced choice the next time out. Reagan was 13 years older than Carter back in 1980. After the disastrous presidency of Franklin Pierce, voters turned to the equally inept James Buchanan, 13 years his senior, back in 1856.
Regardless of the past, voters are likely to get a choice between a younger Republican and an older Democrat come 2016. When he was inaugurated in 1961, JFK famously proclaimed the torch was passed to a new generation of Americans. Increasingly, it appears the 2016 presidential contest could come down to a Generation X Republican looking to grasp the torch from Hillary Clinton, whose husband was the first Baby Boomer to claim the White House.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinstatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
