If elected president, Texas congressman Ron Paul would be 77 years old by the 2013 date of inauguration, which would make him the oldest person ever to be elected president of the United States.
During a campaign stop in Meredith, New Hampshire Sunday, Mr. Paul reassured his supporters that his health is fine despite his old age. After a Concord Monitor reporter asked him how he felt health-wise, the Republican presidential candidate responded in true Ron Paul fashion.
“My health? Let’s do a bicycle ride!” said Mr. Paul Sunday, in a statement obtained by Politico.
The Concord Monitor reporter told Mr. Paul that a number of voters had told her that they were worried about the rigors of the campaign schedule catching up to his old age, and possibly affecting his health.
The Texas congressman “feels very good,” and is excited about his campaign status, according to a PPP poll released Sunday, he is trailing former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by 18 percentage points.
“I feel very good,” said Mr. Paul Sunday. “Your health depends on your mental status as well too. So there’s nominal ages and then your mental health, but I feel excellent. The only thing frustrating about the campaigning is I don’t get quite as much exercise as I get when I’m not campaigning so energetically. But [I] feel great.”
Ronald Reagan was the oldest president ever elected to office, he was 69 years old when he took over in 1980.
Theoretically, if Mr. Paul were to be elected in 2013 and serve two terms, he would be 85 years old by the end of his second term.
That could be a tough hurdle for him to leap in New Hampshire, when considering the next oldest Republican presidential candidate is former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 68 years old.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the front runner and likely winner of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary will be 64 years old in March.
According to Mr. Paul’s campaign team though, the Texas congressman is more physically fit and healthier than any of the other Republican presidential candidates.
“There is no candidate in this race more physically fit than Dr. Paul. He keeps his former state champion sprinters legs in good shape with three miles of daily walking and regular 15-mile bike rides,” said Jesse Benton, the national chairman for Mr. Paul’s campaign, in a December New York Times article. “With Dr. Paul’s age comes great wisdom, experience and balanced temperament, something America will desperately need as we work our way out of the debt crisis politicians from both parties have left us.”
