Vol. CCLII, Live Free! or Die No. 22 The New Hampshire Gazette First Class U.S. Postage Paid July 25, The Nation’s Oldest Newspaper™ • Editor: Steven Fowle • Founded 1756 by Daniel Fowle Portsmouth, N.H., Permit No. 75 2008 PO Box 756, Portsmouth, NH 03802 •
[email protected] • www.nhgazette.com Address Service Requested The Fortnightly Rant Thinking the Unthinkable, Part Two* John McCain’s 2008 presiden- over a fence, will help us sleep. tial campaign got an auspicious Old And In The White House? kick off last year in Portsmouth’s First and most obviously, photogenic Prescott Park, a mere there’s the math. half-mile from this newspaper’s If elected, John McCain would squalid headquarters. The Naval be 72 when he takes the oath of Shipyard across the river gave the office. Ronald Reagan was a rel- candidate, a former Naval aviator, atively youthful 69, but by the a suitably militaristic backdrop. A time he was hauled before the sizeable mob of New Hampshire Tower Commission in 1986 to residents provided a respectable- explain his minions’ shenanigans, looking audience. Protestors and he could hardly remember any- other scruffy undesireables were thing. Considering the responsi- safely penned up out of camera bilities of the office, Reagan’s Al- range. Whole phalanxes of prop- zheimer’s is hardly an excuse that erly-credentialed media worker would work in McCain’s favor. It bees, representing all the most is simply inconceivable that any profitable national news orga- opposing party could let the Re- nizations, were on hand. Half publicans win the next election a dozen satellite trucks were with a candidate as ancient as parked near the pier to pass their McCain.