Jon Keller gives props to Barack Obama for admitting that he inhaled. “Finally,” Keller writes, “a baby-boomer political candidate who tells the truth!”
But alas — Obama is just 45 years old, which makes him more GenX than Baby Boom. And, as Jon knows, the Xers have always hated us Boomers for our arrogance and dissembling.
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Sorry, but as another very-late-boomer, I can tell you that the demographers at the Census Bureau have defined the Baby Boom as running from 1945 through 1964. Those of us who were born at the end of the Eisenhower throughout the Kennedy administration are definitely boomers — even though we have about as little in common with folks born in 1950 as the Gen-Xers born in 1971. And yes, most of us tail-end boomers inhaled at some point between 1974 and 1983.
Aw Dan, I hope you were kidding about the Xers vs. Boomers comment. I’m almost 40 (and used to hang out with you in the Beverly Times newsroom in the early 1990s) and feel none of that cross-generational animosity. Hope Barb and the kids are well.
I think the GenY’s hate the Boomers, too. If not, they will soon as the Boomers retire more and drain our health care industry to the breaking point.Obama might be chronologically a Boomer, but being of a “generation” is usually more about a state of mind than an age. For example, I was born in 1976, which, depending on who you ask, usually makes me GenY or maybe on the line with GenX. But I’ve got that GenX slacker cynicism in spades.Obama sure as hell doesn’t strike me as GenX; he’s firmly in the Boomer camp in my eyes. And what is this Boomer obsession with whether or not someone did dope 20 years ago? Who gives a crap??
I just want to echo was Aaron said. My best friend and I were both born in 1965 just a couple of months apart (I’m actually the older of the two of us). All of my siblings are younger, and I’ve always thought of myself as GenY, all of her siblings were older, and she’s always seen herself as a Baby Boomer. So, I guess it’s an indivual thing.
In terms of what historians say, you are right. The Baby Boom ends in th eyear of my birth — 1959.But Obama, who in my opinion has no business even thinking about the presidency, in closer to Baby Boom than Gen X.