Cross-posted from the Buckeye State Blog because I just had to share that picture.

It'd be nice if Gramps, Mitt, and Rudy would get together to celebrate Romney's 60th birthday today. Romney's big 6-0 got me thinking...

For kicks, this morning I went through the list of prezzies grabbing birthdates. I wanted to get a handle on the age range of the folks running for the WH, where they're coming, their capability to execute the office later down the road, that sorta thing, yadda yadda yadda. I've posted numbers for candidates' age at the time of the election, and when they might exit office following their potential 2nd term. Without further ado, on the GOP side:

Candidate	Birthdate	Age '08/ '17
Guiliani	May 28. 1944	64, 72
Brownback	Sept. 12, 1956	52, 60
Romney	March 12, 1947	61, 69
Huckabee	August 24, 1955	53, 61
Hunter	May 31, 1948	60, 68
Hagel	Oct. 4, 1946	62, 70
Paul	August 20, 1935	73, 81
Tancredo	Dec. 20, 1945	62, 70
Thompson	Nov. 19, 1941	67, 75
McCain	Aug. 29, 1936	72, 80

Between Gramps, Romney, and Guiliani the average age for GOP contenders at the end of a potential 2nd term comes to 73.5 years young.

On the Dem side of things:

Candidate	Birthdate	Age '08/ '17
Obama	Aug. 4, 1961	47, 55
Edwards	June 10, 1953	55, 63
Clinton	Oct. 26, 1947	61, 69
Richardson	Nov. 15, 1947	60, 68
Dodd	May 27, 1944	64, 67
Kucinich	Oct. 8, 1946	62, 70
Biden	Nov. 20, 1942	65, 73
Clark	Dec. 23 1944	63, 71

The average age for DEM contenders at the end of a potential 2nd term comes to 62 years young.

While I was looking up ages, a couple surprises hit me. First, I never realized that Dennis was one of the older candidates on our side of the primary. I was also surprised that the Dems didn't have any candidates from the 30's (the GOP has two, McCain and Paul). Also, I was intrigued by how old Guiliani is compared to the rest of the field. Maybe it's just me, but I think he's played his age down well...I've never thought of him as one of the older candidates in the field.

I wanted to spread the word that Congress Tim Ryan showed up at the Buckeye State Blog this morning for a guest post. Congressman Ryan is currently pushing the Ryan-Hunter bill that attacks China's currency manipulation which has adversely affected our trade deficit. It's a complicated subject which has contributed to the type of job loss states like Ohio have experienced in the last 7 years. With over 200,000 jobs lost in the buckeye state since 2000, and countless more nationally, folks like Tim Ryan are promising results. The Congressman was on the network circuit last week explaining his legislation, but now he's making his way around the 'sphere reaching out so that people understand this bill and see that we can fix some of our trade problems and save some of our jobs.

If you've got a second, check it out

Cross posted at the Buckeye State Blog

My letter to Team McCain:

Danny,

Greetings. My name is Jerid Kurtz and I administer Ohio's political community blog, the Buckeye State Blog.

I'm writing about your recent acquisition of former Senator Mike DeWine as Senator John McCain's Ohio Chair for his presidential campaign. Congratulations on picking up such a prominent name. However, I do have a question.

Your comments the other day to the Cleveland Plain Dealer implied that Senator McCain's campaign condones all of former Senator DeWine's actions during his recent campaign against now Senator Sherrod Brown. Specifically, the McCain campaign stated:

As for DeWine's loss, [Danny] Diaz said, "I think in a very difficult political environment, Sen. DeWine ran a principled campaign that focused on important issues, and we are fortunate to have him leading our effort in the state." (emphasis added)

I'm curious if you're aware of the ex-Senator's doctoring of images of the two towers from the 9/11 tragedy for a campaign ad. In case you're not aware of the incident, you can learn more at this CNN link. While I certainly believe that former Senator DeWine has run fine campaigns in the past, however, I do not believe his recent 2006 loss was of a principled nature. As such, I have to ask if the McCain campaign is tacitly endorsing such campaign tactics.

Once again, perhaps the campaign was not aware of the former Senator's actions, or perhaps I am misconstruing the campaign's official statement. Either way, please clarify your position for me and my readers so we can be absolutely certain where Senator McCain stands on this issue.

All the best,

Jerid

written by Redenemy, crossposted at BuckeyeStateBlog

While we're talking about John Kasich possibly running for Ohio Gov, I was thinking of a certain other GOP elected official: Fmr. Treasurer and current Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Deters.

UPDATE: Romney updated his site within 24 hours, but I still haven't got an email, thank you card, or call from the Romney campaign. Frankly, that's just bad manners. Strike two.

Cross posted at The Buckeye State Blog...

Cruising around presidential exploratory websites tonight, I noticed something interesting: the Republican prezzie hopefuls are all morons. No seriously, they're about as stupid as you can get, follow me here.

These exploratory/presidential website donor pages have $2,100 listed as the max amount any individual candidate can give:

Tom Tancredo (R)
John McCain (R)
Guiliani (R)
Mitt Romney (R)
Sam Brownback (R)
Duncan Hunter (R)
Ron Paul (R)

Problem is...that'd be cool if we were partying like it were 2006, but on January 1st caps were raised to $2,300 (they raise every two years due to inflation). Just kinda interesting none of the GOP movers and shakers campaigns are organized well enough to even ask for the full amount - leaving money on the table is a cardinal sin in politics. If these guys don't have finance directors that are competent enough to ask for the full $bling$, Republicans are going to be in trouble. GOP faithful reading this blog, I'd get on the horn to your boys.

It's funny too...all of the big names on the DEM side got it right:
Hillary Clinton (D)
Barack Obama (D)
John Edwards (D)
Bill Richardson (D)

I mean I'm not complaining...GOP donors, feel free to keep giving $200 shy from what you're allowed to shill out for your team.