How Healthy is John McCain?

[RunInRed 16,438]

How Healthy Is John McCain?

Wednesday, May. 14, 2008 By MICHAEL SCHERER AND ALICE PARK

It was the size of a dime and as thick as a nickel—a discolored blotch on John McCain's left temple. He didn't pay it much mind during the heat of the 2000 Republican primary campaign. But after losing the nomination to George W. Bush, the Arizona Senator found himself with time to spare. So as Bush celebrated victory, McCain headed to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., to have the spot checked out.

Less than three weeks later, McCain endured 5½ hours of surgery to remove a patch of skin including the blemish, roughly 5 cm (2 in.) wide. The diagnosis: Stage 2A melanoma, an invasive form of skin cancer that claims the lives of up to 34% of those diagnosed within 10 years. Doctors also made an incision down his left cheek to remove lymph nodes in his neck in case the cancer had spread; they found it had not. The surgery left a large scar, and for weeks McCain retreated from public view to recover.

Losing the G.O.P. nomination in 2000 gave McCain time to catch and treat the cancer at an early stage, which possibly saved his life. "If it was left alone, the risk was high that that melanoma would not just have become thicker but would also almost certainly have spread to the lymph nodes," says Dr. Jeffrey Lee, a cancer physician at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, who did not participate in McCain's care. "And the assumption would be that could occur within a period of a few months, if it hadn't happened already."

Eight years later, McCain at 71 finds himself on his way to another Republican Convention, and the questions about his health are no longer secondary to his political fortunes. If he were to win in November, he would become the oldest first-term President in U.S. history. To make the issue more pronounced, his likely opponent is young enough to be his son; at 46, Barack Obama hopes to become the fifth youngest President ever.

McCain's handlers know his age is both a strength and a weakness, one that his campaign is acutely sensitive about. Early this month, aides pounced on Obama's suggestion in a television interview that McCain was "losing his bearings as he pursues the nomination" by making negative attacks. Within hours, adviser Mark Salter had released a blistering memo saying the comment was a "not particularly clever" knock on McCain's age. "We have all become familiar with Senator Obama's new brand of politics," Salter concluded.

But if McCain intends to make his experience a plus with voters, he must also make sure that his health is at the very least not a negative. And so, after weeks of delay, the McCain campaign plans to deal with the issue later this month, with a release of his medical records and a briefing by his various doctors in Arizona, where he underwent the surgery. Though details are still being firmed up, the campaign says it expects to offer enough documents and medical opinions to lay to rest any concerns about the candidate's condition. "What you are going to find is that he is in good health," says Charlie Black, a senior adviser to the campaign.

On the trail, McCain likes to deflect questions about his age and health with jokes. "I'm older than dirt—more scars than Frankenstein," he says, often before telling a story about the spry antics of his still vibrant 96-year-old mother Roberta. At a recent meeting with newspaper editors in Washington, McCain pretended to fall asleep when asked about his age. Humor aside, the campaign has clearly decided that the candidate is his own best defense. "Obviously, I think there will be a greater observance of me," he said about his age while on a bus tour through Iowa last year. "Whether it has an impact or not will be directly related to my performance."

He is religious about taking precautions. When outdoors, he usually dons a baseball cap, even in the dim light of winter. His chalk-pale skin is a testament to the care he now takes in the sun. "I hope everyone has some sunscreen," he told the traveling press at a recent campaign stop in the coal hills of Kentucky. His doctor checks for new blemishes every few months, with his last announced checkup taking place in March. "Everything's fine," McCain said the following day.

The campaign schedule, meanwhile, has provided McCain with perhaps the best opportunity to try to prove that his age is not an issue. With alacrity, he has routinely worked 16-hour days and six- or seven-day weeks for more than a year. While other candidates recline in privacy in the bus or on the plane between events, he grabs a candy bar or a bag of potato chips and engages reporters for hour-long interviews. Asked during one bus-ride gabfest if the issue of age had been raised by anyone during the campaign, McCain deadpanned, "Yeah, especially by my wife."

In fact, McCain has spent the majority of his life living with the physical disabilities and the mental trauma he suffered as a young Navy pilot. When his plane was shot down over Hanoi in 1967, McCain broke both his arms and his right leg at the knee. He was stabbed twice by a bayonet, had his shoulder smashed by a rifle butt and endured the angry kicks and punches of the mob that discovered him. Those injuries, along with the more calculated torture that followed during 5½ years of captivity, left him unable to raise either arm more than 80 degrees. Depending on the weather, his right knee aches, causing a visible limp.

After his release from Vietnam, McCain was evaluated for years by Navy psychiatrists and deemed on the whole to be coping well with the horrors of his captivity, which included malnourishment, regular beatings and two suicide attempts. Doctors determined that he had an "overdeveloped superego" and an "unrealistically high" need for achievement, two characteristics that have put him in the mainstream of presidential candidates. In 1999, before his first White House bid, McCain released 1,500 pages of medical records dating back to his days in the Navy, as well as the psychiatric evaluations he received after his return from Vietnam. He has long maintained that he never suffered flashbacks or posttraumatic stress disorder, though he admitted in his memoir that "for a long time after coming home, I would tense up whenever I heard keys rattle," a sound made by his prison guards.

The sunburns that blistered McCain's skin as a child may prove far more of a threat to his longevity than his time as a prisoner. McCain's 2000 brush with melanoma wasn't his first and, experts say, may not be his last. He had a melanoma removed from his left shoulder in 1993 and had other noninvasive skin cancers removed from his upper left arm in 2000 and his nose in 2002. All were picked up and treated in the earliest stages of the disease, but because melanoma is one of the more unpredictable types of cancer, doctors say he remains at risk for not only spread from the excised cancers but new growths as well. "We know that there is a 40% risk of melanoma coming back with metastases even though the primary lesion is taken out," says Dr. Antoni Ribas, a cancer surgeon at UCLA Medical Center, who has not treated the Senator.

If either happens, McCain has several options. New lesions could be removed by surgery, as his previous ones were. Recurrent growths are trickier, since they are more likely to originate not on the skin but deeper in the body. Once melanoma spreads, it generally cannot be effectively treated with surgery or radiation, which are designed to target contained growths. Chemotherapy drugs and medications that stimulate the immune system are options, but some may not be suitable for McCain, doctors say, because of his age and the toxicity of the treatments.

As for his general health, McCain says he tries to get exercise when he can, like hiking with his wife and children in Arizona, including an August 2006 trek with his son 30 miles (48 km) through the Grand Canyon over three days. "In the Senate, I try to walk up the stairs most of the time," McCain says. "I don't take the subway." On occasion, he swims, and the old Navy captain still endeavors to do his sit-ups and push-ups, though the exact number is a matter of some discussion. "I can do at least 30 or 40," he said last spring of the push-ups, as his campaign bus crossed the countryside. "But it's pretty easy to cheat on a push-up." He paused, aware that he had grabbed the attention of his traveling press. "I would never do such a thing, of course," he added, smiling.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/...1779596,00.html

[TitanTiger 20,499]

I have to ask, how is this "elevating the political discourse", rir?

[CCTAU 3,336]

I guess it makes our choice of VP more important?

[otterinbham 0]

Heck, if you're going to discount people on the likelihood of their dying, then you pretty much have to eliminate anybody who's ever had skin cancer (I know several who have had melanoma), ever had a positive on a colonoscopy, or had heart disease in their family.

Here's the skinny. If he's been cancer-free for eight years, and is elected president, I'm pretty much guaranteeing that he'll get top-notch medical care if it ever crops up again.

Then again, his VP pick gets extra scrutiny. Which means somebody besides the halfwit Huckabee.

[RunInRed 16,438]

I have to ask, how is this "elevating the political discourse", rir?

Relevant disclosure about a candidate seeking the highest office in the land. Further, I thought the article was beyond fair so I'm not sure I see your beef.

If you are really this bored, go gripe at those who constantly post attacks and source them back to radical sites.

[RunInRed 16,438]

Heck, if you're going to discount people on the likelihood of their dying, then you pretty much have to eliminate anybody who's ever had skin cancer (I know several who have had melanoma), ever had a positive on a colonoscopy, or had heart disease in their family.

Here's the skinny. If he's been cancer-free for eight years, and is elected president, I'm pretty much guaranteeing that he'll get top-notch medical care if it ever crops up again.

Then again, his VP pick gets extra scrutiny. Which means somebody besides the halfwit Huckabee.

I'm much more concerned about his policies than his health. And more concerned about his age than his skin cancer. To state the obvious, he's old, dull, and boring. He could not inspire an eager college graduate who just consumed a case of red bull.

As for VP, some youth would certainly help him. I don't see how he appeals to any one under 50.

[otterinbham 0]

Heck, if you're going to discount people on the likelihood of their dying, then you pretty much have to eliminate anybody who's ever had skin cancer (I know several who have had melanoma), ever had a positive on a colonoscopy, or had heart disease in their family.

Here's the skinny. If he's been cancer-free for eight years, and is elected president, I'm pretty much guaranteeing that he'll get top-notch medical care if it ever crops up again.

Then again, his VP pick gets extra scrutiny. Which means somebody besides the halfwit Huckabee.

I'm much more concerned about his policies than his health. And more concerned about his age than his skin cancer. To state the obvious, he's old, dull, and boring. He could not inspire an eager college graduate who just consumed a case of red bull.

As for VP, some youth would certainly help him. I don't see how he appeals to any one under 50.

Kind of like that Spring chicken, Ronald Reagan. Sorry. You're grasping at straws now.

[AURaptor 1,125]

His mom is still alive at 90. Case closed.

[TitanTiger 20,499]

I have to ask, how is this "elevating the political discourse", rir?

Relevant disclosure about a candidate seeking the highest office in the land. Further, I thought the article was beyond fair so I'm not sure I see your beef.

If you are really this bored, go gripe at those who constantly post attacks and source them back to radical sites.

There are some here who have never pretended to be trying to elevate the discourse. You have, taking a cue from your candidate. I expect better than articles purporting to be fair that are really just subtle jabs at his age, trying to put doubt in people's minds about his ability to serve out his term.

[RunInRed 16,438]

I have to ask, how is this "elevating the political discourse", rir?

Relevant disclosure about a candidate seeking the highest office in the land. Further, I thought the article was beyond fair so I'm not sure I see your beef.

If you are really this bored, go gripe at those who constantly post attacks and source them back to radical sites.

There are some here who have never pretended to be trying to elevate the discourse. You have, taking a cue from your candidate. I expect better than articles purporting to be fair that are really just subtle jabs at his age, trying to put doubt in people's minds about his ability to serve out his term.

The article was fair, balanced, and discussed a legitimate issue. If I'm "lowering the discourse" by posting a fair article then so be it. But let's get some thick skin, people aren't running for city council here. I stand by my post.

BTW I'm glad you never posted any articles about Wright.

[Tigermike 3,041]

BTW I'm glad you never posted any articles about Wright.

And we are all so thankful you never whinned about those articles.

[TitanTiger 20,499]

I have to ask, how is this "elevating the political discourse", rir?

Relevant disclosure about a candidate seeking the highest office in the land. Further, I thought the article was beyond fair so I'm not sure I see your beef.

If you are really this bored, go gripe at those who constantly post attacks and source them back to radical sites.

There are some here who have never pretended to be trying to elevate the discourse. You have, taking a cue from your candidate. I expect better than articles purporting to be fair that are really just subtle jabs at his age, trying to put doubt in people's minds about his ability to serve out his term.

The article was fair, balanced, and discussed a legitimate issue. If I'm "lowering the discourse" by posting a fair article then so be it. But let's get some thick skin, people aren't running for city council here. I stand by my post.

BTW I'm glad you never posted any articles about Wright.

I posted articles about Wright because they went to how much the man's views impacted the candidates, since he sat under his teaching for 20 years.

Then of course, I went and listened to the sermons and read the fuller context, gave it considerable thought and stuck my neck and put my reputation on the line to actually defend some of the general points he made, knowing I'd get blasted from jump street for it.

red, you'd better get used to something with me...I'm equal opportunity. If I think something is right or fair I'll say so no matter who the mouthpiece is and if I think something isn't, I'll say so also (obviously I won't hit every thread of either side as I have a life outside this board). As such, I think these articles about his age and health have little to do with his actual fitness for office and more to do with taking shots at his age and coming from someone like yourself who has repeatedly lamented that we're not talking about the issues that impact hard working Americans when we divert on to subjects other than the issues, I find it disappointing.

[RunInRed 16,438]

I guess I'm struggling a bit with your premise of it being a non-issue. Here is why I think it will be a legitmate topic come November:

1) The next President will have to be able to rally the nation around passionate causes if we have any chance of confronting and actually solving the big problems we face. The last thing we need is another 4 years of disaffected citizenry - nothing will get done. We need a President who can lead, fight, take on bold initiatives, and inspire a coalition to enact change. So I ask myself, is age and health of a candidate important to this requirement and my answer is yes.

2) The presidency is a position that is uniquely and awesomely demanding, extending well beyond thoughtful, meditative policy decisions. It includes many large and pressing operational components, interacting with the White House staff, the cabinet, the Congress, the media, the public, the international community and many elements within the political party system. It is a stressful, power-packed, exhausting job, requiring stamina and energy during long days, weeks and months. It may involve rapid responses to emergencies and crises, with decisions based on a level of accelerated information retrieval and processing ... so again I ask myself is age and health an issue...and again my answer is yes.

Bottom line: I think the presidency is a demanding job - physically, intellectually, psychologically, and emotionally - and therefore, it's relevant to to ask the health of a senior citizen before putting such a burden on him. And if you don't think age and health are issues just ask Bob Dole. Or just wait until McCain has an accidental stumble across stage....

[TitanTiger 20,499]

Fine. If you think something like this is a real issue, don't whine when the FUD starts about peripheral things with Obama.

[Auburn85 432]

Bottom line: I think the presidency is a demanding job - physically, intellectually, psychologically, and emotionally - and therefore, it's relevant to to ask the health of a senior citizen before putting such a burden on him. And if you don't think age and health are issues just ask Bob Dole. Or just wait until McCain has an accidental stumble across stage....

FDR apparently did ok...enough to get elected for not 2, but 3 terms.

[autigeremt 6,653]

Heck, if you're going to discount people on the likelihood of their dying, then you pretty much have to eliminate anybody who's ever had skin cancer (I know several who have had melanoma), ever had a positive on a colonoscopy, or had heart disease in their family.

Here's the skinny. If he's been cancer-free for eight years, and is elected president, I'm pretty much guaranteeing that he'll get top-notch medical care if it ever crops up again.

Then again, his VP pick gets extra scrutiny. Which means somebody besides the halfwit Huckabee.

I'm much more concerned about his policies than his health. And more concerned about his age than his skin cancer. To state the obvious, he's old, dull, and boring. He could not inspire an eager college graduate who just consumed a case of red bull.

As for VP, some youth would certainly help him. I don't see how he appeals to any one under 50.

I don't see how anyone with little or no experience as the head of any form of goverment appeals to anyone over the age of 25.

His age has NOTHING to do with it, but be sure the Dems will make a case about it. Just another smear tactic by the typical politcal process. I thought the article was fair, and it has some merit, but not for the intended use.

[aumd03 2]

Sorry, but even runinred's tag is an attempt to smear the man with association. Politics isn't about real issues anymore. Thats why Obama and his talk of change without a real plan had been successful until his Rev. Wright association reared its ugly head.

[Tigermike 3,041]

As for VP, some youth would certainly help him. I don't see how he appeals to any one under 50.

Profiling, plain and simple. Typical of the left. Denounce something then use it when it suites them and advances their agenda.

Profiling, plain and simple.

[RunInRed 16,438]

Guess I'm not the only one who thinks this is an issue...McCain tries to defuse with SNL appearance.

-------------------------------

McCain makes age jokes on 'Saturday Night Live'

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ho8dr4x...b2gTHQD90NRCV80

WASHINGTON (AP) — John McCain is 71 years old, and his age has provided late-night comics with some easy punch lines. On "Saturday Night Live," he joined in.

"I ask you, what should we be looking for in our next president?" McCain said. "Certainly, someone who is very, very, very old."

The certain Republican presidential nominee appeared in a phony campaign ad in which he promised to put an end to runaway government spending, claiming he had never sought money for his home state, Arizona.

"Controlling government spending isn't just about Republicans or Democrats," he said. "It's about being able to look your children in the eye. Or in my case, my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren and great-great-great-grandchildren, the youngest of whom are nearing retirement."

"I have the courage, the wisdom, the experience and, most importantly, the oldness necessary," McCain said. "The oldness it takes to protect America, to honor her, love her and tell her about what cute things the cat did."

Later, during the program's "Weekend Update" segment, McCain urged Democrats not to rush to choose between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

When McCain hosted "SNL" in 2002, he performed a medley of Barbra Streisand songs. In an interview earlier Saturday, Glamour magazine asked if he would be singing again.

"I think once is enough," McCain responded.

[CCTAU 3,336]

We'll just have to change McCain's motto to:

"McCain. Too old to cut and run."

[RunInRed 16,438]

Sorry, but even runinred's tag is an attempt to smear the man with association. Politics isn't about real issues anymore. Thats why Obama and his talk of change without a real plan had been successful until his Rev. Wright association reared its ugly head.

Incorrect. My tag goes directly to the issues. Bush's policies = McCain's policies.

[Ranger12 46]

RIR, you just set yourself up with such a ridiculous post buddy.

Obama smokes and even admitted in April on MSNBC he is having a hard time kicking the habit. So I guess we better not elect him because he runs a high risk of getting lung cancer.

Keep posting irrelevant and moronic stuff like that, and like Titan said, don't complain when others attack your candidate the same way.

BW..for those of you that missed it, McCain was actually on "Saturday Night Live" this past weekend even making fun of himself. He kept saying he has the "oldness to get the job done".

Here is the SNL clip:

Link

[RunInRed 16,438]

For the record, I believe Obama has stated he has quit smoking. But if you would actually read my responses above, you would see I was more concerned about the President having the intangibles (energy, passion and vigor) to inspire a nation and lead the world. JM is old and boring. Disaffected would just be the start of how the citizenship would feel if he was elected and the world would give a collective yawn.

[Tigermike 3,041]

For the record, I believe Obama has stated he has quit smoking.

And if he said it Obama Boy believes it! And everyone else can go to hell. Everyone else is stupid.

Obama is Smokin'

April 03, 2008 9:29 AM

Last August, I ran into Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, outside the Senate chamber in the Capitol.

This was before the Obama surge, before he had omnipresent Secret Service agents, back when you might see him strolling solo.

We chatted for a second, mainly about the Pakistan speech he'd recently given and about how the media had covered it. He was in good spirits.

As any close friend or family member can attest, I have an unusually keen sense of smell and immediately I smelled cigarette smoke on Obama. Frankly, he reeked of cigarettes.

Obama ran off before I could ask him if he'd just snuck a smoke, so I called his campaign.

They denied it. He'd quit months before, in February, they insisted. He chewed nicorette.

But I knew what I'd smelled and I asked his campaign to double-check and to ask him if he'd had a cigarette.

They reported back that he had told them he hadn't had a cigarette since he quit.

And maybe that was true. Maybe I imagined the cigarette smoke. My olfactory nerve somehow misfired.

Except….last night on MSNBC's Hardball, Obama admitted that his attempt to wean himself from the vile tobacco weed had not been entirely successful.

“I fell off the wagon a couple times during the course of it, and then was able to get back on," he said. "But it is a struggle like everything else.”

Now I wonder about last August.

It's not a big deal in the scheme of things -- the war on Iraq, a major economic crisis -- indeed, it's miniscule. Hardly worth mentioning.

Except that I don't like feeling that I wasn't being dealt with honestly. And as much as citizens who are suspect of the media might scoff at such a notion, many of us consider ourselves to be your representatives to help make sure our leaders are telling us the truth, and leading the country down a path we as a nation are confident is the right one. (Corny, I know.)

This isn't the only time I've felt that way about the Obama campaign, of course -- its response to the Austan Goolsbee controversy was a profile in dissembling. (Not that Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain or their campaigns are entirely innocent in this area either. Or even that Obama is necessarily the worst offender.)

Still.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/20...-is-smokin.html

I could care less if he smokes or not. This was just to correct ObamaBoy.

[RunInRed 16,438]

I did not realize he was still smoking. Interesting. Best of luck to him on his journey to quit.