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This year's election presents a lot of exciting firsts.

The first black presidential candidate. The first female Republican vice presidential candidate. A mix of pre-boomers and post-boomers on each ticket.

But the origin of the candidates also provides some historical propositions and may point to a shifting electorate.

John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin represent two of the nation's three newest states — Arizona and Alaska, where Palin is governor.

Barack Obama represents Illinois in the Senate, but he was born in Hawaii, the newest state in the union, granted statehood in 1959 — two years before Obama was born there.

And in a real contrast, Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, is a senator from the nation's first state to ratify the Constitution, Delaware — which has never had a veep hopeful.

Palin is the first politician from Alaska to run on a national party ticket.

Following Barry Goldwater's bid for president in 1964, McCain, who was born on a military base in Panama, is the second Arizonan on a national ticket — and would be the first Arizonan to serve as president if he wins.

The birth state of the most presidents: Virginia, where eight commanders-in-chief started their lives.

McCain celebrated his 72nd birthday Friday by introducing the nation to 44-year-old Palin — and underlining the age diversity in this presidential race.

Think about it this way: When McCain graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958, Palin and Obama, 47, weren't born.

When Biden, now 65, was sworn into the U.S. Senate in 1973, Obama was 11 and Palin was 8.

Palin wasn't alive when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and Obama is too young to remember.

Also illustrative of the age differences, the first presidential election Palin was eligible to vote in was in 1984; Obama first got to cast a ballot for president in 1980.

Biden's first eligible presidential election, taking into account the 21-year-old requirement at the time, was in 1964, and McCain would have first gotten to vote for president in the 1960 election.

If she had been in Phoenix in 1982, Palin would have been just old enough to vote in her new running mate's first congressional race.

But she wouldn't have been old enough to drink at John and Cindy McCain's wedding. And Obama probably couldn't even read when Joe Biden and his first wife married in 1966.

Late last year, McCain's campaign was in the dumps and no one imagined he'd be the Republican nominee.

Obama was struggling in the polls, and Hillary Clinton was the anticipated choice for Democrats.

And two female governors — Palin and Arizona Democrat Janet Napolitano — spent some time talking politics on the "Charlie Rose" show.

After a "Women & Leadership" event where the duo spoke together, Palin and Napolitano, one of McCain's chief critics and die-hard Obama supporter, talked about the big issues they saw facing the country and their respective states.

At the time, Palin — who would later support Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential primary — called herself "undecided" in the presidential race.

"I haven't heard as much discussion as I want to hear about doing all that we can to secure the United States, and not just militarily, but with our energy issues," said Palin, sitting across the table from Napolitano.

Palin stressed the need for energy independence and for more drilling in her state of Alaska. "We have to prove that we can do this cleanly and safely," she said.

And in a race where Democrats are aiming to tie McCain to President Bush, here's something telling: Rose playfully asked Palin, "Do you know what the Bush administration energy policy is?"

"Well, we hear about it through the media," she said with a laugh.

"You're presuming there is one," Napolitano cracked back.

Political Notebook

Daniel Scarpinato

Political events around town / B4