The majority of Americans happily cast their ballots in 2020 for the position of US president for a man that was soon to be 78 years of age. This man was running against the incumbent, who was 74 years old.
During the frightening years of the Soviet Union pundits in the free world ridiculed the Russian Commies for selecting aged, withered fossils as their supreme leaders.
That may well have been true in some sense.
Nikita Krushchev became first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1953 at age 59.
Leonid Breznev replaced Krushchev in 1964 aged 58.
The next Communist in line for the top spot, Yuri Andropov, assumed office at age 68.
Konstantin Chernenko, a real Methuselah, took over the position in 1984 at age 73 and died in office 13 months later.
Mikhail Gorbachev took over for Chernenko in 1985 as a 54 year old youngster and is still alive today, having outlived the USSR political entity.
The Communist Party no longer rules Russia but instead is led by Vladimir Putin, who first held national office in 1999 at age 47.
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