SOUNDING OFF:

Now that their joint appearance at Saddleback Church is in the rear-view mirror, one thing is clear to me: The difference in the candidates’ ages — which some people equate with experience — will become a defining issue in the 2008 presidential election.

On the one hand, you have Sen. John McCain, who turned 72 Friday. He was born long before the computer revolution. That is troubling to younger voters. On the other hand, you have Sen. Barack Obama, who recently turned 47. That is equally troubling to older voters.

Not that I agree with him, but here’s how Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer characterizes the Illinois senator: “Has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?”

Interestingly, Harold Meyerson, another Post columnist writes, “What’s more germane, and clearer with each passing day ... is that Obama’s capacities as a national strategist — the most important qualification for a commander in chief — far outshine McCain’s.

“Victory, in McCain’s view, is the result of will and fortitude — an understandable belief for anyone who survived half a decade as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam....

“But fortitude and will are only part of the formula for success. A good president has to know which battles to fight militarily and which diplomatically, which battles are primary and which secondary. By these measures, Obama — who always viewed the Iraq fight as a distraction from hunting down al-Qaeda and who understands that peace in Iraq depends on a political accommodation among Iraqi groups — is clearly the better strategist.”

To this almost 60-something voter, age will not be my deciding factor in this year’s campaign. Judgment will be.

Maybe that’s because McCain basically is the same age as my two older brothers. Despite having second homes in Arizona, or having attended college the same time McCain was at the Naval Academy, neither of my brothers will be supporting him.

Obama’s youth doesn’t bother me. There are hundreds of respected politicians, business leaders and scholars who were born in the early 1960s.

As a boy of 12, I shook the hand of a young Sen. John F. Kennedy three months before he was elected president.

Last month, I stood shoulder to shoulder with the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president at the Balboa Bay Club.

I wish my brothers could have been there with me.

I’m no political genius, but I do have a few thoughts about who or what might impact a McCain or Obama victory. In relative order they are:

 John Wayne, Elvis Voters: They remember the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt died and the end of World War II. They also remember the start of the Korean War, Dwight Eisenhower’s two successful presidential campaigns, the formation of Israel and the Edsel failure. In many ways, their collective view of the world was shaped by Richard Nixon, the Soviet Union’s invasion of Hungary and the surprise launching of Sputnik. If McCain hopes to win in November, he has to keep a huge percentage of these voters in his column.

 Make Love, Not War Voters: Baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. When I was growing up, two shattering coming-of-age experiences took place within weeks of each other. The first was President Kennedy’s assassination in late November 1963. The other watershed event was Neil Armstrong walking on the moon five years later. By the time the first boomers began graduating from college, support for, or opposition to, the Vietnam War was tearing families apart.

Today, many from my generation are grandparents. After poisoning water wells with MTBE additives, spending billions on bridges to nowhere, or waiting for Detroit automakers to keep pace with hybrid technology, we often wonder what kind of world we will leave our children’s children. For Obama to win, he has to continue addressing boomers’ concerns.

If you take tax policies off the table for a moment, it seems McCain’s view of the world is pessimistic while Barack Obama’s is optimistic.

Once in the Oval Office, the way each assesses a situation will be determined by four critical factors: his age, temperament, advisors and life experiences.

First, there’s no fudging McCain or Obama’s age. Second, their composure under fire is being tested every day on the campaign trail.

Third, their picks for vice presidential running mates will send important signals to voters about the kinds of people each hopes to attract in his administration.

I’d rather have a youthful walrus than an older hound dog in the White House.

DENNY FREIDENRICH is the founder of First Strategies consulting in Laguna Beach.