Is John McCain Suffering from Alzheimer's?

That seems to be the only logical explanation.

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McCain- Alzheimer's? Morally or just mentally?

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Either that, or he has been slamming them down with the Liar-in-Chief.

I doubt that McCain would ever be stupid enough to be seen drinking with Clinton. People say he's a Democrat enough as it is.

Huh? What was freudian about that?

rox

I gotta tell ya...I don't like this sort of suggestion or thread at all. It's deeply unfair and constitutes an unconscionable smear. I don't know how many times per day I mis-speak, but it's a few. To suggest a diagnosis of Alzheimers from these two instances (or three or four or eight) is morally and intellectually ugly. You didn't write it, I know. But you ought not to have posted it.

McCain it too old, plus he has a history of cancer. His VP pick will be one of the most important in history. Somebody should have talked him out of this foolishness three years ago.

rox

I gotta tell ya...I don't like this sort of suggestion or thread at all. It's deeply unfair and constitutes an unconscionable smear. I don't know how many times per day I mis-speak, but it's a few. To suggest a diagnosis of Alzheimers from these two instances (or three or four or eight) is morally and intellectually ugly. You didn't write it, I know. But you ought not to have posted it.

blatham wrote:

rox

I gotta tell ya...I don't like this sort of suggestion or thread at all. It's deeply unfair and constitutes an unconscionable smear. I don't know how many times per day I mis-speak, but it's a few. To suggest a diagnosis of Alzheimers from these two instances (or three or four or eight) is morally and intellectually ugly. You didn't write it, I know. But you ought not to have posted it.

Good for you Bernie. She had a right to post it, but no right to expect that reasonable people would accept it without comment. Moreover the double standard here is itself laughably offensive.

rox

I gotta tell ya...I don't like this sort of suggestion or thread at all. It's deeply unfair and constitutes an unconscionable smear. I don't know how many times per day I mis-speak, but it's a few. To suggest a diagnosis of Alzheimers from these two instances (or three or four or eight) is morally and intellectually ugly. You didn't write it, I know. But you ought not to have posted it.

John McCain was born on 8/29/36. If elected, he will be 72 when he is sworn in in 2009 - the oldest start of any Presidency. He would be 76 at the end of his first term, and if re-elected in 2012, would be president until age 80.

Ronald Reagan turned 70 two weeks after his inauguration in 1981 and many questioned whether he was too old. He was formally diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1994 at age 83, but early symptoms were apparent during his re-election campaign in 1984, which he dismissed with a famous prepared joke: "I'm not going to hold my opponent's youth and inexperience against him."

McCain's health history:

* He competed as a lightweight boxer for three years and lacked skills but was fearless and "didn't have a reverse gear," as he later put it. No one knows how many blows he took to his head, but repeated head injuries in boxing (especially in non-proficient boxers) predispose these boxers to brain disease later in life.
* As a young man and officer, his reputation for hard partying and hard living was prodgious: "being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck." Binge drinking and chronic heavy alcohol use also decrease brain function in later life.
* From 1967 to 1973, McCain was a Vietnamese prisoner of war and was tortured. McCain has constant functional limitations from the torture (he cannot lift his arms above his head). According to his publicly released medical records, McCain also has chronic pain resulting from numerous fractures; his captors when he was a POW did not provide adequate care, and the fractures did not heal properly. Torture can produce psychiatric disease (especially PTSD), cognitive impairments, or both. The experience of being a POW has - in WWII POW's - also been shown to be associated with neuropsychiatric impairment.
* In 1993, McCain was diagnosed with melanoma (skin cancer). After treatment for the intial diagnosis, the melanoma returned two more times (2000 and 2002). Both chemo and radiation used to treat cancer may also lead to permanent cognitive impairment.

Does McCain have PTSD and its consequential psychiatric problems?

* According to the records, McCain has said that immediately after his release from military prison in Hanoi there were "times when very realistic or frightening memories" came back to him. But McCain "can successfully put these memories out of his mind," the medical records said.

According to Dr. Kirk James Murphy, a V.A. physician who has long experience treating veterans with PTSD:

Sen McCain's life history indicates that his brain is at greater than average risk of dysfunction and impairment in the following areas:

- capacity to learn, recall, and reason with complex new information

- judgement and impulse control

- capacity to devote sustained attention.

Sen McCain - like all victims of trauma and torture - is entitled to absolute privacy regardiing his personal medical history. We as American citizens, however, are entitled to all possible information about the men and women who choose to ask act us to select them as president.

At the very least, Sen McCain's history raises many questions about the presence of objectively determinable disruption in neuropsychiatric function. He and his camapign have been forthcoming with his medical records in the past; his brain history strongly suggests that obtaining and releasing the results of current neuropsychiatric testing, imaging studies (perhaps including functional MRI and or auditory evoked potential findings) and other relevant assessments would be required in order to conclude that Sen McCain would bring to the Oval Office a brain functioning sufficiently well to serve as the second President of the 21st Century.

blatham wrote:

rox

I gotta tell ya...I don't like this sort of suggestion or thread at all. It's deeply unfair and constitutes an unconscionable smear. I don't know how many times per day I mis-speak, but it's a few. To suggest a diagnosis of Alzheimers from these two instances (or three or four or eight) is morally and intellectually ugly. You didn't write it, I know. But you ought not to have posted it.

LOL It's not as bad as him fathering a black baby, now is it?


Has MCain released his medical records?

Roxxxanne wrote:

blatham wrote:

rox

I gotta tell ya...I don't like this sort of suggestion or thread at all. It's deeply unfair and constitutes an unconscionable smear. I don't know how many times per day I mis-speak, but it's a few. To suggest a diagnosis of Alzheimers from these two instances (or three or four or eight) is morally and intellectually ugly. You didn't write it, I know. But you ought not to have posted it.

LOL It's not as bad as him fathering a black baby, now is it?


Has MCain released his medical records?

No, but it doesn't have to match the magnitude of that smear to still be unconscionable.

georgeob1 wrote:

blatham wrote:

rox

I gotta tell ya...I don't like this sort of suggestion or thread at all. It's deeply unfair and constitutes an unconscionable smear. I don't know how many times per day I mis-speak, but it's a few. To suggest a diagnosis of Alzheimers from these two instances (or three or four or eight) is morally and intellectually ugly. You didn't write it, I know. But you ought not to have posted it.

Good for you Bernie. She had a right to post it, but no right to expect that reasonable people would accept it without comment. Moreover the double standard here is itself laughably offensive.

Reasonable people without a sense of humor.