Bush: Grey-haired folks

Washington, July 1 (AP): The most powerful man in the world turns 60 on Thursday and he just cannot seem to stop talking about it.

Barely a week has gone by this year that President George W. Bush has not brought up his advancing age at least once. “How you doing, sir?” a reporter asked Bush at a news conference a few hours after a middle-of-the-night return from a gruelling sprint to Baghdad. “I’m doing all right, thank you,” the President replied. “A little jet lagged, as I’m sure you can imagine. Nearly 60.”

In his state of the union address, the President referred to his upcoming birthday as “a personal crisis”.

In speech after speech, Bush has referred to himself as the “old President ? getting older by the minute, by the way”, as one of “the grey-haired folks”, as “getting older” and as just flat-out “old”.

He often reflects on how he considered 60 practically ancient as a younger man, but has been inspired by changing circumstances to adjust his perspective. “It’s all in your mind,” he said recently. “It’s not that old, it really isn’t.”

Bush even broods aloud about his life expectancy, estimated to be an additional 19 years for the average American male his age.

“I don’t know about you all, I plan on just kind of stretching it out a little bit,” he told Republican donors in Indiana in March. Like most Presidents, Bush has greyer hair, more lines and a few extra pounds than when he took office. Yet he still has the health statistics and energy of a much younger man.

Those close to him say Bush is entirely comfortable with the milestone, in part because of the discipline that allowed him to turn 20 years ago from a life of excessive partying and career meandering and never look back.

He also revels in remaining in shape.