More Special Series
In this 5-part series, IBD will explore why age and experience are crucial in selecting and judging presidential candidates.
Part Five
Another of our youngest presidents, Bill Clinton, was 46 when sworn in and became the first Democrat since FDR to serve two terms.
Part Four
Jimmy Carter became our 39th president at the young age of 52. He was a one-term governor from Plains, Ga., where he managed the family peanut farm and taught Sunday school. He was also a graduate of the Naval Academy and served seven years in the Navy, leaving as a lieutenant.
Part Three
Young, handsome and charismatic, John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in 1961 when he was 43 years of age. Harvard-educated and highly articulate, he was exceptionally popular with young people and academics. The Kennedy family, and especially his attractive wife and children, had an aura of celebrity about them that influenced people.
Part Two
When President Reagan assumed office on the eve of his 70th birthday, U.S. inflation under his predecessor had zoomed from 5% to 15%, the prime interest rate had soared from 6% to 21% (the highest since Lincoln), 30-year mortgages were 18%, gas stations had long lines and even-and-odd license-plate days, and the communist Soviet Union had overthrown and seized seven more countries in strategic areas around the world.
Part One
Leadership: Are age and experience important in judging presidential candidates? If history is any guide, the answer is "absolutely."
More editorials on Election 2008 and Politics
