Jerry Brown’s Stage of Life

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I’m curious. Jerry Brown has been running the ad on the right for the past week or so here in California. It ends with this line:

We’ve got to pull together not as Republicans or as Democrats, but as Californians first. At this stage in my life, I’m prepared to do exactly that.

Question: is this an effective way to blunt criticism that he’s old and kind of tired looking? Would you buy the idea that Brown is now sort of an elder statesman who no longer has a career to worry about and only wants to do what’s best for the state? It actually seems sort of clever and possibly effective to me, but what do I know? Comments?

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