Who is STATISTICALLY likely to be a good VP for both of our candidates? [View All]

[Bicoastal]

Having no classes today and no work (that can't be put off until the weekend), I decided to figure out what the average age of your winning presidential ticket is...

...which means, that yes, I looked at the winners of every election since 1789 to figure out the average age of the two running mates, and then averaged them ALL out (via spreadsheet) to figure out what the average age of the US presidential ticket was. And you're welcome, by the way. :)

SO--what became immediately apparent is that the magic number is 56. Not only did this come up as the average age for the winning presidential ticket, but it's reflected in the elections themselves. From Washington/Adams to Lincoln/Johnson to Roosevelt/Wallace to Bush/Cheney, it seems like people generally prefer two candidates around the middle of their fifth decade--and if not, a candidate slightly older paired with a running mate slightly younger. Even looking at winning tickets since 1918, or even since 1956, this average remains about the same.

Now, these are just average, and are all but meaningless in the real world. It's notable that one of the most successful tickets in Presidential history, Reagan/Bush (boo!) in 1984 had a 74 year old president and a 61 year old running mate--for an average of 66. Eight years later, Clinton/Gore (yay!) created the youngest presidential ticket in history--46 and 44 years old--for an average of 45. And obviously, age isn't the only factor at work here...

But, anyway--Barack Obama would be 47 years old upon taking office, so his age-appropriate running mate would be around 65.

Hillary Clinton would be 61 years old upon taking office, so her age-appropriate running mate would be around 50.

Finally, John McCain would be 72 years old upon taking office, so his age-appropriate running mate would be around 40.

We shall see how this all turns out--and I'm not very knowledgeable on the names being batted around as Veep for any of these guys. Still, age usually IS a huge factor in these things.

Some more trivia:

* When 64-year-old Truman picked 71-year-old Alban Barkley to be his running mate in 1948, he put together the most geriatric winning presidential ticket in history--68 years average. And even so, they managed to beat the tar out of pretty boy Thomas Dewey.

* The biggest age difference between President and Veep was the 30 years separating lousy President James Buchanan (65) and no-name Veep John C. Breckenridge (35) in 1856.

* In 1860 They were followed by the much less lousy Abe Lincoln who remains the only President to be the same age as his Veep, Hannibal Hamlin--52 years old.