illini07, no one ever said that is why he should be president. it does, though, tell us of his character. that is very important in a president. as for palin, she is still more qualified then obama, and she isnt the presidential nominee. obama is.
funny thing about statistics, its all how you make them sound.
the one being knocked around today is that their is a 40% chance mccain wont make it. ok, lets take a look.
43 presidents. 8 died. ok, to me i cant see how its 40% percent. that makes it 20 percent. now they use charts to figure out the rest of the 40%, past smoking habits, previous melanoma. fine. all good. except:
the original 20% isnt accurate at all! here is why, and i see no-one talking about this. this is why i hate statistical proofs, they are nonsense in teh wrong hands.
8 dead presidents. no say as to how.
4 were killed (lincoln 56, garfield 49, mckinley 58 kennedy 46), making obama the biger risk i would think. nothing to do with age, but by being a political or racial target, and he is clearly a bigger one. the 4 assisinated were, by the way, were of the younger of the 8.
now we put that original number to 10%.
out of the the 4 remaining ones lets take the 2 that died before 1850 (harrison 68, taylor 65), 56 & 47 years before the invention of anti-biotics and modern medicine as we know it. pneumonia and gastroenteritis are both now curable.
now we put teh number down to 5%.
one more: heart attack (harding). ok, ill give you that.
last: cerebral hemorrhage which has nothing to do with age, but ill give that one too.
so we are at 5% chance, plus the 20% possible points. i will argue agains ttaht also, that his mothers long healthy life was not taken into account, the fact that he is fit as an ox , as well is not taken into account. the tables drawn up by so called actuaries, have not seen his medical reports, and are talking out of their tachtonim. i will be fari and take of 5 points for partisan politics. so we are left with 20% chance. now you want me to believe that 10 minutes after taking oath, mccain will die?
doubtful. she will get more experiance as vp, flying around the world meeting people. executive skills she has aplenty.
now obama has no executive skils, nor really any legislative, since he has not written one piece of important legislation, not in illinois, nor the us senate. and he has to take the oath on day one. as hillary said, the presidency doesnt lend itself to on the job training.
(about the 57 states and 3 more he was going to, ill chalk it up to tiredness).