Drudge, Meet Your Future

Matt Drudge apparently cut off the flirtacious looks of the Clinton campaign by posting this (admittedly not great) photo of Hillary yesterday and today and set off a bit of an firestorm. So, this morning I looked it up and found out that Hillary is the same age as my mom (60) and, I think, for a 60 year-old woman freezing her ass off and probably tired, she didn't look so fabulously awful as people have implied. It's not a flattering photo by any means (but that was the point, right, Matt?), but she looks like a cold, tired 60 year-old woman (who is possibly wearing the wrong sort of foundation/powder combo for her skin). Then fucking Limbaugh weighed in on the damn photo , wondering allowed if an "aged" Clinton could beat a hottie Romney, and I thought two could play at that game.

So, here's a really close of shot of Hillary not freezing her ass off and making the face you make when the cold settles into your bones. She's still got her smile lines and her laugh lines and her crows feet and the subtle loosening of skin that comes with age, but she still looks pretty good.

Here's Romney, Hillary's closet contemporary in the race (he's also 60). Looks a little leathered and sun-damaged, doesn't he? Check those age spots, and the bags under his eyes and the white hair at his temples. Does he look "better" or "younger" than Hillary in some way that should make him more electable? I don't think so. On the other hand, it does make it pretty damn obvious that someone wears a shit ton of makeup when he's on stage or on TV, doesn't it...

And, what the hell, for shits and giggles, here's Giuliani (63). Even with his stage makeup going, check the lines, check the jowls, check the receding hairline and the thinning and then get back to me about how absolutely awful Hillary looks.

Finally, let's check out Thompson (65), the only remaining contemporary of these kids. He's got the lines, the jowls, the age spots, the sun damage and the loosening of skin that comes with age all rolled up into one. It comes for us all, Matt.

The other major front-running candidates - Edwards (54), Huckabee (52) and McCain (71) - seemed unfair to compare to these 4 (especially Obama and Edwards, because they are aging really well, which is a lot of good genetics and a lot of avoiding the sunlight), but they've got their flaws as well. People age! Their bodies break down and they do so in hundreds of subtle and unexpected and unique ways (unless, like Cheney, you bathe in and drink the blood of infants, in which case you look like shit but it's cool because you're 200 years old). In the mean time, though, while I still think her (or anyone's) clothes are fair game because those are a conscious choice, can we all just agree to only run the silliest pictures of politicians when possible? Because it took a really long time to find pictures of the dudes that were equally unselfconscious and close up (which, I think, is it's own statement).

 [Photos courtesy of the Associated Press and Getty Images]