The Freshness Test

Interesting observation from Jonathan Rauch in Reason Online on “who can win in 2004?” (via Political Wire)

With only one exception since the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, no one has been elected president who took more than 14 years to climb from his first major elective office to election as either president or vice president.

That means Gephardt, Kerry, and Lieberman are past due while Clark, Dean, and Edwards are still “fresh.”