Barack Obama no doubt could have lived without the nod he recently received from now-retired Cuban President Fidel Castro, who called the Democratic presidential contender "the most advanced candidate" in America's presidential race. And today, John McCain received the type of backing from a foreign leader that he would just as soon forego.

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, at a joint news conference with President Bush in Rome, initially demurred when asked about the U.S. election, saying, "I cannot express any preference with regard to an electoral campaign going on in another country.

But he then quickly added, "I suppose I could express my own personal preference for one of the candidates: the Republican candidate. And this is for a very selfish reason, and that is that I would no longer be the oldest person at the upcoming (summit of the eight leading industrial nations), because McCain is a month older than me."

McCain turns 72 on Aug. 29 and, as much of the nation will be able to recite by the time the November vote rolls along (and as a website we recently wrote about is devoted to spotlighting), a victory would make him the oldest person to win a first White House term.

Berlusconi gets points for doing his homework -- he is exactly one month younger than McCain.

-- Don Frederick

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