The other day I was talking with my brother, who lives in NYC, and we were comparing pope-visit stories (his attempts to get around the city were screwed up on consecutive days). I mentioned how we had gotten a road repaving out of the visit to DC, and how we seemed to get the for presidential funerals, too, and how this could color my voting strategy.
We’ve gotten a day off for presidential funerals, so in order to maximize this effect, I need to embiggen both the number and age of ex-presidents as much as possible. So I must always vote against the incumbent, or, when there is no incumbent, vote for the older candidate. McCain’s the clear choice under this paradigm.