Can a 72-year-old rich white man be an agent of change?

JEFFREY SIMPSON
From Friday's Globe and Mail
September 5, 2008 at 12:27 AM EDT

... It's not easy for any 72-year-old to appear as an agent of change, let alone someone who has voted so often with George W. Bush. Try as the Republicans might to avoid mentioning Mr. Bush, Mr. McCain supports the President on most of the major issues: staying the course in Iraq, more tax cuts, extended offshore drilling for oil, privatization of Social Security accounts, higher defence spending, appointing strict constructionist judges to the Supreme Court, opposing abortion ...

Affluent Americans usually vote far more than poor ones. Older voters turn out in much larger numbers than younger ones. White voter turnout far eclipses that of blacks or Hispanics. Evangelical Christians, if they find a ticket to their liking, flock to politics.

These advantages have eroded for the Republicans. Blacks are expected to vote in huge numbers for Barack Obama, and young people have been fired up by his candidacy. In state after state, Mr. Obama has more money, organizers, campaign workers and offices than Mr. McCain. Before the Republican convention, Democrats were far more enthusiastic about their party and their candidate than Republicans.

With the economy struggling, the party slumping, the President unpopular, two wars ongoing, and the country wanting change, it's astonishing how little Republicans are prepared to alter course. They appear, if this convention and their platform is any guide, to have learned nothing from the past eight years. They've even forced Mr. McCain, who once showed sparks of independence, to conform to party dogmas rather than adjust those dogmas to new ideas ...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080904.wcosimp05/BNStory/specialComment

...he wouldn't be offering the US the change we need, either.

We need a Democrat in the White House. It's a matter of party, not race or age or the politician's wealth.

99% of the people in the Xcel Energy Center were like that.

or Lyndon Baines Johnson, to name two that come to mind.