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How Old Are The Other 2016 Candidates?

by Jenny Hollander

Now that Hillary's gone ahead and made all our dreams come true by running for president, we can begin to prepare ourselves for the ageist, sexist onslaught of "Aren't you too old?" demands that have been coming at Hillary from Republicans and right-wing critics for years. Just look at Rand Paul, who said late last year of Hillary: "It’s a very taxing undertaking to go through. It’s a rigorous physical ordeal, I think, to be able to campaign for the presidency." Yes, we get the point you're making there, Rand. But is Hillary actually older than the other 2016 candidates?

Let's take a look. Hillary Clinton, FYI, is 67; she'll be 68 in October. You know who else is almost exactly Hillary's age? Our very own Mitt Romney, who just turned 68 in March. You probably didn't hear a peep about him being "too old" when he was apparently mulling a third presidential campaign for much of 2014, and you didn't hear much about him being "too old anyway" when he stepped down earlier this year "to give other leaders in the party the opportunity" to run for president.

Joining Hillary in the arena of all the politicians likely to run (or try to run) for president, we have...

Rand Paul

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He's 52. So, whatever the 2016 outcome, you probably won't be seeing the last of this confirmed candidate. I'll leave it up to you to decide how you feel about that.

Ted Cruz

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The second confirmed candidate for the Republican Party in 2016, Cruz is 44, and is apparently the youngest candidate in the race.

Jeb Bush

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At 62, he's six years younger than his brother, former president George W. Bush.

Scott Walker

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The current governor of Wisconsin is 47.

Elizabeth Warren

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OK, Warren has repeatedly and explicitly said that she's not running for president in 2016, but many are still holding out hope for the senator. If not 2016, then maybe 2020 — when she'll be 70, and still kicking ass left, right, and center.

Donald Trump

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God help us, Trump has been making some noises (loudly, I might add) about running for president. Trump is 68.

Rick Perry

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The ex-Texas governor is 65.

Chris Christie

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Christie, who might wait until 2020 just so that Bridgegate is a distant memory, is 52.

Carly Fiorina

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The ex-Hewlett Packard chief is 60.

Martin O'Malley

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The former governor of Maryland is 52, just like Rand.

Mike Huckabee

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The ex-Arkansas governor and Fox News host is 59.

Jim Webb

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The ex-senator is reportedly looking into jumping into the presidential race. He's 69.

Speaking of, the Washington Post reports that the average age of everybody in the Democratic presidential field would be 69 at inauguration. As for the Republican Party? 57.

And the average age of a president starting office, according to this Wikipedia chart, is 54 years and 11 months. According to the same chart, the oldest president to ever take office was Ronald Reagan, who assumed office just a few days before turning 70. If Hillary does the same in 2016, she'll be 69, which would make her younger than Reagan. Which doesn't matter. What does matter is that this whole thing, really, is just another glass ceiling for Hillary to smash.

Images: Getty Images (12)