McCain To Release His Medical Records On Friday

Senator John McCain is set to release 400 pages of medical records, including documents related to his melanoma surgery in August 2000, to a tightly controlled group of reporters on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend.

Mr. McCain said late last week that he had nothing to hide. Campaign officials have nonetheless said that even if nothing in the records suggests a problem with his health, a rush of news media reports focusing on the cancer surgery was not politically helpful and that they wanted to play down the information as much as possible -- something that the timing of the release would seem to accomplish.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[qdog112]

"set to release 400 pages of medical records"

Doesn't that mean hard copies? Won't they have time to check them out thoroughly?

Understanding the military Veteran Administration disability rating system, I want to know if McCain was rated, at what % and for what disabilities.

This will be very telling. Clearly he has physical issues, each of which carries its own rating.

Any mental issues should also be rated. These are all active duty and "service connected", but post duty ratings will also be revealing.

[MsLiz]

I hope reporters with experience in medical reporting are there. Let's hope the reporters organize, split the records up, and use voice recorders to make notes. Still, none of them will be fully prepared for the conference call with the doctors.

After it is over and reporters start telling us what is in the records, McCain will deny it, but not release the documents.

Could they have made this look more suspicious?

[zizyphus]

If someone is receiving a disability pension, shouldn't that be changed if they are capable of full-time employment, as McBomb claims to be?

Anyway-why should a man married to a millionairess be collecting that pension from the Navy? How greedy is that?

[JudgeCrater]

Hopefully one of those reporters has a bionic eyeball w/a camera in it.

[Pema]

I want his mental records, they are part of his medical history. what drugs is this man on? and why?
i hear that Generals are afraid he'll be too unstable, heck even Bush said he was "too emotional" I want to know more. We deserve to know.

[KBAR]

If you had know FDR's medical history, would you have voted for him? Did your grandparents "deserve to know" before they voted for him?

[MsLiz]

In 1932, FDR was fifty years old. He suffered from what was probably Guillain-Barré syndrome, not polio, as believed at the time. The prejudice against disabled people probably would have kept him from being elected. I am glad that no one knew his true condition. He lived another fifteen years and made the USA and the world a much better place.

1944 was another matter, as he was a chain smoker with heart disease and hypertension. In fact, his VP was replaced on the ticket because of concerns about his health. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt#Fourth_term_and_death.2C_1945

or if that doesn't work: http://snipurl.com/2a3xv [en_wikipedia_org]

I can't really argue with the notion that we should know if we are voting for a terminally ill man.

[Grunty1]

"On Friday, the campaign will allow a small pool of reporters access to the records from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Pacific time in a conference room at the Copper Wind Resort in Phoenix, near the Mayo Clinic Scottsdale. The reporters will be allowed to take notes but not remove or photocopy the records"

Obviously hiding the fact that his cancer is reemerging. A small pool of reports, Friday before a 3 day weekend, 300 Pages of documents in THREE HOURS?? Unless one of those pages literally has a picture of a red flag on it, his reason for hiding his records (and yes, he is STILL hiding his records) will obviously be missed.

The denials of the trolls like Rolling and KBAR hurt McCain's case as well.

[KBAR]

At 11 a.m. Pacific time, the campaign said, Mr. McCain"s doctors will be available to all reporters in a 90-minute conference call.

Got any question? Get in line and ASK!!!

[Muzikal203]

So he's gonna do a dump, on a Friday afternoon, before Memorial Day, but he has nothing to hide?

[queotic]

"The reporters will be allowed to take notes but not remove or photocopy the records."

Yeah, because it's so easy to take notes on 300 pages in 3 hours. I personally don't care about his medical record, but it's obvious he's trying to hide something.

[trollsbwild]

The old release the bad news on the Memorial Day Weekend trick. Any bets there is at least one serious health issue on the report?
No matter. Let's not worry about it. As a matter of fact, if MyCane dies before the GE, let's prop up his corpse and put it out on the campaign trail for the Grand Old Party. At least he wouldn't make any more foot in mouth comments.

[relikx]

This would definitely make it easier for the RNC to pull the strings easier a la Weekend at Bernie's.

[MikePS65]

I think seeing McCain's health records is absolutely relevant. If you opened them up and saw that he is in the midst of a health battle that he's not likely to win, it would at the very least impact the importance of his VP choice.

But this method of releasing them raises more questions than it's likely to answer, as far as I'm concerned. It's like he's saying:

"Okay, I'm going to hold up my medical records for 30 seconds and from 25 feet away. If you can't spot anything in that time that looks bad, you can report that I'm fit as a fiddle."

This isn't full and honest disclosure - this is what's known as "bullshit," and reminds me of his wife's attitude about her tax returns.

If you don't have anything to hide, folks, why are you so busy hiding things?

[Muzikal203]

"Okay, I'm going to hold up my medical records for 30 seconds and from 25 feet away. If you can't spot anything in that time that looks bad, you can report that I'm fit as a fiddle."

LOL!!

Exactly, if you have nothing to hide, then why all the restrictions?

[Toohey]

The recent news regarding Ted Kennedy is tragic. But it does draw attention to health issues and his age. People will certainly - consciously or sub-consciously - think twice about McCain's age as a probem that outweighs experience. This in turn puts extreme pressure on McCain's VP choice. Not only will McCain have to choose a VP who offsets his own political weaknesses and brings a broader/different coalition of voters (e.g. true Conservaties?) BUT his VP nominee will be more critically viewed as a future Presidential stand-in if McCain were to die or have to resign due to health reasons while in office.

[notthistime]

Why is this relevant? I am a democrat and an Obama supporter. But I don't feel it is right to vote based on age nor do we need to see his health record on his melanoma surgery. Does Obama have to show his health record? Someone asked which healthy person has 400 page health record. I would say at least 25% of Americans with three in my household alone, and that is an estimate based on folks that regularly visit their doctor. A bulk of folks don't have insurance or simply refuse to go for check-ups so we don't know what issues exist. Anyway, a perfectly healthy person with no pre-existing issues can drop dead any day. That said, I do think an evaluation on his mental state is a relevant issue.

[relikx]

Melanoma has a habit of recurring, and if so it would potentially be worse than the last time.

Seeing as how he had lymph nodes remove in his fairly extensive procedure I think it's this reason alone, apart from the mental aspect, that most concerns people.

[VOTER]

Duh! Huh?

SHOULDN'T WE KNOW IF MCCAIN WOULD HEAR THE RED PHONE RINGING AT

3 AM AND HOW LONG IT WOULD TAKE HIM TO PICK IT UP?

At the minimum his "grapefruit" sized cheek is cause for concern.

His age is relevant. He is more ready for the Old Soldier's Home than the White House.

His mental evaluation has already been done during his public appearances and speeches.

HE FAILED!

[Marrigan]

Bill Clinton never released HIS medical records. What was he hiding?

[americanwomaninpa]

John Kennedy never released his either. He had many health problems.

[queotic]

Bill Clinton and JFK were two of the youngest presidents. McCain, if elected, would be one of the oldest, so you can't compare it.

With that said - I don't really care about his medical record because regardless of his health, he is completely wrong for this country. He wants to continue the war in Iraq, he wants to bomb Iran (even sang a little song about it), he wants to continue the failed Bush economic policy of giving tax cuts to the rich and wants to appoint MORE conservative judges to the Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn Roe v Wade. Oh yeah - and his pastor thinks Hitler was heavensent to drive the Jews into Israel.

[trollsbwild]

What is this? Dualing troglodytes?

[robynuva]

400 pages in 3 hours? Will there be a recent MRI? That is the real issue. It seems to me he has the symptoms of having had a stroke. I am curious if these records will only include info on his cancer. His latest phsicals would be more telling, I think.

[wayoutleft]

they're nervous because very few today have seen records on parchement scrolls before.

[VOTER]

What "healthy" person has 400 pages in a medical report?

What "healthy" person needs security in releasing their heath report?

What is McCain afraid of?

Another Doctor's opinion?

This Friday clandestine revealing is not going to go well for the Old Man.

[LazarusLong]

400 pages in 3 hours.

I wonder if security will force the reporters to hand over their cell phones - or will any reporter be sneaky enough to get a few pictures....

[live]

this has been mentioned further cown the page but thought it needed a bump up.

How can he be fit to be pres but so unfit to work as to get full veterans disability.
I hear that 100% disability is very hard to get. Mccain has so much money and veterans with major health issues are left to rot with so little

Hardly the stuff of a hero

[BEHM777]

Please excuse my cynicism, but I bet those documents will be a redacted pile of poop, scrubbed beyond ALL recognition as to what the truth is.

[e2008usa]

IT WOULD BE more comfortable in making a judgment if we saw a full pathology report of McCain melanoma surgery and recent diagnose.

Mr. McCain has had four melanomas. The most dangerous melanoma was in 2000 surgery, But this kind of surgery is not 100 percent reliable for melanoma, partly because the chemical stains that help pathologists identify breast and other cancers in frozen sections do not work as well on melanomas.

Also, the cancer could have spread to a nonsentinel node. In short, survival for melanomas are often measured in 10-year periods rather than the 5-year periods for many other cancers. Then The chances of long-term survival diminish. It means that until 2010 we cannot be sure if McCain health is out of danger. With melanoma, a patient is never completely clear.

In my opinion he should not be disqualified because of that but because of the ability to make decision if he should lead the country to war or deficit. The question is if this is the price the Nation have to pay back to his Vietnam hero during 25 years of deficit from the day MacCain should be the US president?

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

NOTE:

Politicians (McCain) and the White House, when they can control timing, always release ungood news the Friday before a holiday weekend, on the premise it will get less attention.

Fact, not theory.

[ProgressiveBum]

This senile loser must never go anywhere near the White House! Thanks for the links in previous posts.

[lungfish]

Wonder if there is a psych evaluation in there somewhere.....

[CocteausTwin]

Do doctored records count for medical records?

[PrdAmerican]

The geriatric patient releases his records....oh this will not be pretty.