POLL: Which characteristics are best and worst in a Presidential candidate?

Poll: Which characteristics are best and worst in a Presidential candidate?

The best: "served in the military"

The worst: "is an atheist"

In the eyes of the American electorate, being an older person (in one's 70s) is less electable than being gay. This surprises me because the Gipper was first sworn in two weeks before his 70th birthday, and was 73 when he was re-elected, while no gay person has been a serious presidential candidate in the 20th or 21st centuries, although Jimmy Carter did wear cardigan sweaters. Of course, people's attitudes toward homosexuality seem to be changing at a revolutionary pace, so the results probably would have been very different if the poll had been taken when Reagan was running for office.

Note: we probably did have a gay president in the 19th century: James Buchanan. Historian James W. Loewen wrote: "There can be no doubt that James Buchanan was gay, before, during and after his four years in the White House. Moreover, the nation knew it, too — he was not far into the closet."