Steve Benen: The Dreaded Septuagenerian Issue. Looks like the Democrats, officially anyhow, will be pulling their punches with McCain:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean hosted a press briefing yesterday to go over some new polling data from 17 swing states, and mentioned that the party would probably not go after John McCain's age as a campaign issue.

Noting that it's the kind of tactic Republicans would be far more comfortable with, Dean said, "I doubt we will bring it up in the election." He added, "There is somewhat of a higher ethical bar on what we do. We don't have any Lee Atwaters or Karl Roves on our side."

The focus groups not only "health concern" with McCain's age (71), but also "this guy is out of step with what modern views are." Of course, there are plenty of other things to hang McCain on. His health care hand waving and his "refined" subprime mortgage plan have been in the press lately. And he's still trying to squirm out of his 100-years-in-Iraq campaign line (evidently the GOP's focus groups decided that one doesn't fly). But there's hundreds, maybe thousands of more issues, especially comparing what he's campaigning on now vs. what he's said in the past. If you want to talk about flip-flops, the GOP has found their John Kerry. That both of them are Vietnam vets touted as war heroes is another point in common. I don't care much one way or another, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone could come up with a comparably credible "swift boat" case against McCain. You may respect or at least sympathize with McCain's ordeal, but I don't how his sitting out a losing war in a Hanoi POW camp was in any way heroic. (Kerry at least found the courage to protest the war, although it's not clear how clear he still is on that.)

There have been plenty of cases in US history where wars have proven to be springboards for successful political careers, but it helps to have won those wars. I can't think of any successful politician who came out of the Korean War, and the best Vietnam has offered is Kerry and McCain -- low-level officers with no real pull and minimal accomplishments. Even the winners haven't been able to parlay much: Colin Powell might have gotten some mileage out of Iraq I, but he blew that betting on Iraq II. Wesley Clark ran on Kosovo, but didn't get past Oklahoma. At some point even the politicians will have to recognize that war isn't much of a career move.