This past August 29th, John McCain reached age 72. If elected president, that would make him the oldest person ever to enter upon that office.

Though it can qualify as an achievement, he did not celebrate his birthday with much, if any, hoopla. The public was not treated to photos of John blowing out even a few candles on a celebrative cake. Nor did we see him running around the block to demonstrate his physical fitness.

Two reasons account for the lack of public festivity to mark the milestone. First, that was the day he chose to announce and present his choice of running mate, Sarah Palin. Some candidates need no introduction; at that point, she was not one of them.

The general astonishment at her introduction sucked all the air out of the would-be president’s birthday. Such an unlikely choice ─ the governor of Alaska, and a feminist with strong conservative credentials.

The second reason for soft-pedaling the birthday was, ironically, McCain’s age itself. Despite a resolution from his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, not to introduce age into the discussion, the Republicans seem sensitive to the issue.

It did come up during the Republican primary campaign, and sparked one of McCain’s best lines ever. Chuck Norris, the Hollywood performer who turned into a big supporter of Mike Huckabee, slyly suggested that McCain was too old for the job of president.

McCain quickly snapped back, threatening Norris with appropriate punishment. “I’m afraid that I may have to send my 95-year-old mother over to wash Chuck’s mouth out with soap,” he quipped.

Since then, the public has heard precious little about McCain’s longevity. McCain himself, however, has inadvertently given rise to its relevance by his choice of running mate.

Were he to become incapacitated or to die in office, he would be succeeded by a person with dubious qualifications to be president. That focuses attention on his age much more intensely than before.

Yes, Sarah Palin is a dynamic woman, full of energy and family feeling. But her public record is loaded with contradictions, along with some embarrassing actions.

Her experience of government on a significant level remains remarkably  thin. And living in a state that lies between Russia and Canada does not qualify anyone as a foreign-policy guru.

By choosing a woman of highly uncertain qualifications as his running mate, after what seems to have been a slipshod vetting process, McCain has shaken confidence in his judgment.

If you are an age rooter like me, you might have expected the candidate for president to have shown more wisdom.

But what you have to ask about McCain, ultimately, is not his chronological age but rather his physical and cognitive health. Given his past health history, how likely is he to suffer debilitating illness that would make carrying out presidential duties difficult or impossible?

And how sharp are his cognitive abilities likely to remain over the next few years? Nobody knows, of course, but it’s important to make medically justified estimates.

We cannot be “ageist” in our judgments about a person’s readiness for high office. And yet, we must be realistic about the risks that often come with advanced age.

The question of McCain’s age remains a tricky one. While 72 in our contemporary world no longer seems “old,” the 70s still retain strong potential for causing us health trouble.

Senator McCain is still young by my standards, since I am his senior by eight years. This counts as enough of a gap to give me some perspective on age and suitability for taking on hard jobs.

For me, as for many others, my 70s were a decade of creative opportunity that came as a welcome surprise. Those years gave me the chance to grow and develop in a new career as journalist. Though I had previously enjoyed significant writing experience, I never expected to see hundreds of my columns in print.

But writing newspaper columns, with all the work that goes into them, does not amount to anything like the responsibilities of the presidency. In my seventies, I could never flatter myself about taking on a job that requires high expenditures of energy flat-out.

Fortunately, the U.S. Constitution provides a back-up in the institution of the vice presidency. The person holding this office has the authority to take over temporarily if the president becomes unable to perform his job. And, of course, permanently, if he dies in office.

That is why the choice of vice presidential candidates remains so vital for the national well-being.

I would not have voted for John McCain in any case because of the party he belongs to and his record on the issues. But his choice of a running mate seems to me to have heightened the relevance of his age. I shudder at the prospect of his running mate ascending to the presidency of this great nation.

Richard Griffin