“I think it’s reflective of the larger culture in that if you look at cable television, there’s a bias toward young people; advertising is aimed toward young people,” Shirley said of the new emphasis on fresh blood in GOP politics. “In the minds of some, it’s an antidote to the Republican Party’s problem with young voters. Whether that works, I don’t know.”

Facing the prospect of a general election bout against Hillary Clinton — who would boast one of the most extensive resumes of any non-incumbent president in U.S. history — this youth-oriented reality poses a challenge for a party eager to return to the White House.

If Clinton does become the Democratic nominee, whoever is the Republican standard-bearer almost certainly will try to use her experience against her and will have no shortage of public record to draw upon given her time as secretary of state, presidential candidate, senator and eight years in the White House as first lady.

And the GOP nominee will be able to look no further than President Obama for encouragement. Though his margin of victory in the 2008 Democratic primaries was thin, Obama suffered little damage when Clinton leveled the inexperience charge against him, as she did in March of 2008: “I will put forth my lifetime of experience. Sen. Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002.”

McCain’s subsequent general election efforts to attack his opponent’s “naiveté and inexperience” proved equally inadequate, and when the Republican nominee selected Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who had spent less than two years in that office, as his running mate, he effectively ceded the argument.