“You are old, Father William,” the young man said...

Here, in descending order by their age upon becoming president, are the 44 individuals who have been president of the United States:

Ronald Reagan 69
William Henry Harrison 68
James Buchanan 65
Zachary Taylor 64
George Herbert Walker Bush 64
Dwight D. Eisenhower 62
John Adams 61
Andrew Jackson 61
Gerald R. Ford 61
Harry S. Truman 60
James Monroe 58
George Washington 57
Thomas Jefferson 57
James Madison 57
John Quincy Adams 57
Andrew Johnson 56
Grover Cleveland (2) 56
Woodrow Wilson 56
Richard M. Nixon 56
Benjamin Harrison 55
Warren G. Harding 55
Lyndon Johnson 55
George Walker Bush 55
Martin Van Buren 54
Rutherford B. Hayes 54
William McKinley 54
Herbert Hoover 54
Abraham Lincoln 52
James Earl “Jimmy” Carter 52
John Tyler 51
William Howard Taft 51
Calvin Coolidge 51
Franklin D. Roosevelt 51
Millard Fillmore 50
Chester A. Arthur 50
James K. Polk 49
James A. Garfield 49
Franklin Pierce 48
Grover Cleveland (1) 47
Barack Obama 47
Ulysses S. Grant 46
William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton 46
John F. Kennedy 43
Theodore Roosevelt 42

[Note. Because Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms as president, he is listed twice. --RWP]

“So what?” you say. Ho hum. Big yawn.

Perhaps you will find the following interesting.

Here is the current crop of candidates who have formally announced that they want to become president and the ages they will be on election day in November 2016:

Former New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D, NY) 69
Texas Senator Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz (R, TX) 45
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul (R, KY) 53
Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R, FL) 45

There are still others whose names are being mentioned as possible candidates:

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren (D, MA) 67
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R, NJ) 54
Former Florida Governer John Ellis “Jeb” Bush (R, FL) 53
Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan (R, WI) 53
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R, LA) 45
Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson (R) 65
Former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina (R, CA) 62
Businessman Donald Trump (I kid you not) (R, NY) 70

There may be still others who will rise to prominence, but since I don’t know who they are, I cannot tell you their ages.

Is age important? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I’ve heard that experience is the best teacher, but it probably depends on just what experiences one has had. Some people never learn. For every proverb, there is an opposite proverb, as in (1) Absence makes the heart grow fonder and (2) Out of sight, out of mind.

One of the current presidential candidates said (not about age but about a completely different topic) , “At this point, what difference does it make?”

Perhaps none. Perhaps a great deal.

Another of the current candidates says, “This is not about yesterday. This is about tomorrow.”