“…neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years…”

For the first time in the five years it’s been on the air, I am watching “24” on tv. I don’t necessarily mind a tv drama with a black president (last year I gave that show with a female president a chance and felt it had interesting possibilities and only gave up on it because of the excessive commercials), but I do mind a show with a president who looks as if he’s at most 32 years old, has a shaved head, and—while he’s discussing grave matters of national security with his aides in the Oval Office—stands with his legs apart and his hands stuck in his pants pockets looking like a dude on a street corner sizing up the scene. Somehow the willing suspension of disbelief breaks down, you know what I mean?

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Paul K. writes:

Actually, the actor who plays the president, Dennis Haysbert, is 52. I have an aversion to TV sshows and movies where the president is black, as are the top surgeons and computer experts. The implication is that “this is the way the world will look when we at least drop the blinders of racism,” or some such wishful thinking.

LA replies:

While I’m amazed he’s over 50, it’s still looks we’re talking about here, and he looks very young.

Like you, I can’t stand the ubiquitous artificial placement of blacks in positions they don’t occupy in real life. The most ridiculous is judges. For the last 15 years, almost every judge on tv is black. At the same time, while I detest the wall-to-wall official diversity, I have an interest in genuinely unusual dramatic situations, say a woman president or a black president.

Andy K. writes:

When the Constitution was written regarding the minimum age (35) required for the presidency, the average life expectancy was about 45 years.

Since that age is now about 75, I submit the following “modest proposal”…the minimum age for the presidency should be 65!

This would disqualify Hillary until 2012, and Barack Obama until even much later. In fact, it would disqualify just about everyone but John McCain.

On second thought… perhaps it should be raised to 75.

Alex K. writes:

You and Paul K. are talking about two different actors/characters.

The President in the early seasons of 24 was an actor named Dennis Haysbert who certainly did not look too young. Nor bald or goateed. Pretty presidential actually, and he acted it. They killed him off in season 5.

The new guy is the way-too-young-guy you saw. The actor, DB Woodside, is about 37. (The two characters are brothers; kind of a JFK/RFK thing.)

James S. writes:

Dennis Haysbert is in those ubiquitous Allstate insurance commercials. But if you don’t watch a lot of TV, maybe this won’t help. He was about as good as a TV president could be.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 15, 2007 09:39 PM | Send