Putting The "O" In GOP -- Will Republicans Nominate Their Oldest Ticket Ever?

John McCain (R) and his soon-to-be running mate will be formally nominated in a few weeks as their party's 39th ticket since the Republican Party was founded in 1854. It fielded its first presidential ticket in 1856 with the not so memorable slate of Fremont-Dayton.

We know that that McCain -- who turns 72 about a week -- would be the oldest man ever elected to a first term in American history. But this evening I decided to find out where he, and his potential running mate, rank among all Republican nominees.

As far as presidential nominees go, McCain will be his party's third-oldest nominee, trailing only Ronald Reagan in 1984 and Bob Dole in 1996. Both men were 73.

But McCain has a shot at one record -- the oldest Republican ticket ever. Here are the current leaders:

1. Dole-Kemp (1996):     134 years
2. Reagan-Bush (1984):   133 years
3. Hoover-Curtis (1932): 130 years
4. Reagan-Bush (1980):   125 years
5. Hoover-Curtis (1928): 122 years
6. Bush-Cheney (2004):   121 years

Here are the scenarios of likely McCain running mates:

McCain-Lieberman (66): 138 years (oldest ever)
McCain-Ridge (63):     135 years (oldest ever)
McCain-Romney (61):    133 years (tie 2nd oldest)
McCain-Portman (52):   124 years (5th oldest)
McCain-Crist (52):     124 years (5th oldest)
McCain-Pawlenty (47):  119 years (7th oldest)

So, if McCain opts for either Lieberman or Ridge, they'll hold the all-time GOP record for oldest presidential ticket adding new meaning to the Grand Old Party.

By the way, the average age of a GOP ticket is 110. The youngest was the 1868 ticket of Grant-Colfax who were a combined 91 years.

Here's a list of all GOP tickets since its inception:

Mark Nickolas is the Managing Editor of Political Base, and this story was from his original post, "Putting The "O" In GOP -- Will Republicans Nominate Their Oldest Ticket Ever?"

Comments

[BADEN]

Reminds me of the old USSR.....

Old, embedded whiteguys without a thought other than their only financial and power bases.

[camb94]

Interesting post. My small bone to pick is that the first candidates of the Republican Party were not "forgettable". Imagine -- a brand new party (somewhat equivalent to a 3rd party) and they actually did rather well. Nobody expected them to win. However Fremont's wife, Jesse Benton, daughter of Thomas Hart Benton was a brilliant political strategist and actually did well enough that it basically created a strong party that was positioned to possibly win the next presidential election -- which it did. Fremont was able to pull in strength from the west and not alienate the north, he was already a legend.

[BusGreg]

GOP = Greatly Outdated Policies

[chucklasker]

Age doesn't have to be a negative - health is more relevant, although they are sometimes tied together. In the case of John McCain, his cancer, his prior health issues, combined with his age, is a cause for concern. Normally, an older candidate would choose a younger VP to counter the thought that both might die during a term. McCain's most likely choice, Joe Lieberman, is older than most of the oldest presidential candidates of the past. It shows the agism of McCain and the current Republican regime to only look to older candidates, prejudiced against youth.