Here's a rather fascinating data point:
Crazy stat of day: 69% of 18-29 yr olds thnk Hillary Clinton is in her 50s or younger. http://t.co/QHIB0dXomE
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) November 11, 2014
Clinton, of course, is not in her 50s or younger. In fact, she is 67 years of age. As we have noted here at the Free Beacon, Hillary Clinton would be one of the oldest world leaders in human history if, at the age of 69, she were to be inaugurated president.
Two explanations for this shocking level of ignorance spring to mind.
The first is that, let's face it, Millennials aren't terribly bright. Additionally, they have no conception of age, given their lack of it. So they see the old woman on the stage and just kind of guess, "eh, fifties?" while shrugging. Given that many of them are too young to even remember the Clinton years, none of this should be terribly surprising. As always, never overlook the "Millennials are the worst" factor when considering stories such as this.
Still, if the Millennials are ignorant, it's not entirely their fault. And this plays into my second explanation, which is that Hillary Clinton has been the beneficiary of the one of the great double standards in modern American life. Generally speaking, it is considered to be remarkably rude to ask a woman her age. We avoid engaging in such discussions publicly because it is gauche and we do not like to appear gauche in the eyes of others. Indeed, this imperative is so strong that crazy people sometimes launch lawsuits when a woman's age is revealed.
This helps explain why the media has been so oddly reluctant to really discuss Hillary Clinton's advanced years. The urge to protect her leads to some strange places. For instance, the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus was unable to handle this here "anti-Clinton website" making some jokes about the potential presidential candidate using a walker to get around. Why was she driven to such madness by my colleague Andrew Stiles? She couldn't stand the fact that someone would make a female politician's age a factor in the debate.
The double standard here is glaring, of course. When Bob Dole ran for the presidency in 1996, all anyone wanted to talk about was whether or not the then-73-year-old GOP candidate would literally survive four years in office. (Note: Bob Dole lives yet!) In 2008, the then-72-year-old John McCain received similar treatment. Ronald Reagan spent eight years being derided as a deluded old fogey, and all he did was crush communism and the Democratic Party in the fog of old age. But make a few cracks about Hillary needing a walker to get around or using a prototype of an exoskeleton to haul her musty old bones about the nation and just wait for the cries of sexism to rain down.
All of this is to say that we in the media should, perhaps, cut the millennials some slack for their ignorance. Hillary Clinton is the beneficiary of female privilege. It's the privilege to never be questioned about one's age, to have polite company quietly decline to discuss the glaringly obvious fact that Hillary Clinton, who recently suffered a serious and debilitating brain trauma, would be super-duper-old if she were to take office. Allow me to be the first to suggest it may be time to have a discussion about whether Hillary should check her privilege.
For the good of the nation, of course.