Lest you think the summer is a time for bogus trend stories — though it is! — there's one burgeoning trend item that actually has footing: John McCain is old!

That this line item could actually be a new story might come as a surprise, since the story is so far along that McCain already parodied himself on Saturday Night Live. But all of a sudden, all of McCain's old fogey mistakes are catching up to him. And there are enough to write a … trend story about 'em!

Politico kicked things off yesterday by listing McCain's most recent flubs:

• Confusing Iraq and Afghanistan
• Confusing Somalia and Sudan
• Confusing Germany for Russia
• Claiming American troops in Iraq were "down to pre-surge levels," when they weren't
• Confusing Sunnis and Shiites

This nudged Huffington Post to notice McCain's interview with Katie Couric also included a series of mistakes. Today Howard Kurtz rounds up the coverage of McCain's "gaffes," which really just furthers the story into one where McCain's credentials as a leader are questioned.

See? This story has all the earmarkings of a trend, and reporters writing about McCain's age get to use go-to trend buzzwords like "increased," "heightened," and "growing" to describe the number of times McCain screws up. See you in Sunday Styles!