Is McCain too old?

Congressman John Murtha says John McCain is too old to be president.

"…[T]his one guy running is about as old as me," said Murtha. "And let me tell you something, it's not [an] old man's job. I mean the campaign, the stress, so forth."

Murtha is 75 years old. McCain is 72.

As Steve Benen notes, the McCain camp is hitting back.

The McCain campaign wasn’t happy with Murtha.

McCain’s campaign immediately condemned Murtha’s remarks, saying trail activities like his late-night talk show appearances should eliminate any voter doubt about the Arizona senator’s stamina for the office, in a statement that did not mention Clinton, taking aim instead at Barack Obama.

“I think people will evaluate John McCain through the type of campaign he is running, whether it is through appearances on shows like Letterman and Leno, whether its through the fifteen hour days on the campaign trail,” McCain’s senior advisor Steve Schmidt. “He’s a person who’s in great physical shape, who has outworked every other campaign on the Republican side, and you know, has a much tougher and demanding schedule than Senator Obama.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I found this response a little odd. Is Obama keeping a light and relaxing schedule? It doesn’t seem like it, so I’m not sure what that’s about.

More importantly, McCain’s age isn’t cause for concern because he can appear on Letterman? That’s the response? McCain must be in good shape for a 71-year-old man because he can stay up until 11:30?

Actually, McCain's references to Letterman and Leno make even less sense than that. Those shows air at 11:30 p.m., EST. They are taped at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. McCain could appear on Late Night or the Tonight Show and still be in bed before the sun goes down, just in time for Matlock and a glass of warm milk.

There's a pretty drastic difference between 5 p.m. and midnight. Is McCain so disoriented that he forgets what time of day it is? That's not very encouraging.