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Why are two old, unpopular men the main candidates for the world\u2019s most demanding job?  It\u2019s the question John Prideaux, The Economist\u2019s US editor, gets asked the most. And the answer lies in the peculiar politics of the baby boomers. 

The generation born in the 1940s grew up in a land of endless growth and possibility, ruled by a confident, moderate elite. But just as they were embarking on adult life, all that started to come apart. The economy faltered, and the post-war consensus came under pressure from two sides: from the radical right, who hated government moves on civil rights  \u2013 and from the \u2018New Left\u2019, as boomers rebelled against their parents' generation and its war in Vietnam.

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