When the 69-year-old former governor of California ran for president in 1980, his political adversaries and the establishment media often focused on the same theme: Ronald Reagan was "too old."

Gannett News Service published a story in February that explained how George H.W. Bush -- who was running against Reagan for the Republican nomination -- would make Reagan's age an issue.

"George Bush won't come right out and say Ronald Reagan is too old and decrepit to be president," reported Gannett.

"But you can't miss the drift," it said.

When a person in New Hampshire asked Bush if "69 is too old to be president," Gannet reported, Bush responded: "I intend to serve two full terms."

"The point is pretty clear," reported Gannett. "George Bush is 55 and Ronald Reagan is 69. Bush doesn't have to tell you to add the eight years of two terms in office to Reagan's 69 and see how old that is."

After Reagan defeated Bush for the Republican nomination, syndicated columnist Jack Anderson reported that "the subliminal message in the Carter campaign, sources say, will be that Reagan is too old and tired to handle the grueling tasks required of a president."

An Associated Press story published on Sept. 16, 1980, carried this first paragraph: "It was Ronald Reagan's day to be the whipping boy of the 1980 presidential campaign. Jimmy........

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