In a Spirit of Bipartisanship DU Attacks Fellow Dems to Distract from John McCain's Health Issues

McCamy Taylor

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Mon May-26-08 12:55 AM
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In a Spirit of Bipartisanship DU Attacks Fellow Dems to Distract from John McCain's Health Issues

Wow! Are we a compassionate party or what? Never let it be said that we kick an old and medically unfit opposition candidate when he is down. On Friday, Sen. John McCain dumped over 1000 pages of medical records on the press. News organizations have been busy combing through them for tidbits about the presumptive Republican nominee's health (or lack thereof). But have the fine folks at Democratic Underground focused their attention on the many medical problems which make him the last person we want to have at the switchboard when the 3am call comes in?

Hell no! In a spirit of bipartisan fairness that should qualify us for a Nobel Peace Prize, we have spent the weekend sliming, mauling, name calling, shredding and cannibalizing our own two candidates, all so that we would not have to talk about

1. the fact that McCain had an invasive melanoma removed from his temple in 2000, even though back then we were told it was noninvasive. And according the New York Times there were actually two melanomas on his temple, raising the specter that one was a metastasis via lymphatic spread from the first. If you add in the fact that melanoma on the face and scalp already has a worse prognosis this increased the chance of a recurrence for the Senator when the disease was diagnosed in 2000 and would have possibly prompted doctors to suggest treatment for stage III disease which would include chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

In the years since 2000, doctors had already guessed that McCain's temple melanoma was more invasive than he let on at the time, due to the type of surgical procedure he had. You would not ordinarily biopsy all those lymph nodes for a very shallow tumor. So, having it confirmed to be an invasive melanoma is no real surprise. The presence of two tumors is surprising. And knowing that an effort was made to confound the public makes you wonder, what else did the Senator fail to mention in 2000? At that time he denied getting any chemotherapy or radiation therapy. And there were not supposed to have been any complications from the surgery. However, anyone can see he has had memory and speech problems since then. An intraoperative left side stroke could have caused his present neurological symptoms as could radiation therapy to the left side of the head. Just speculating, but you have to speculate when you know that the story you heard the first time was not the whole story. There is still at least a 10% chance of a (fatal) recurrence of the 2000 melanoma even if the public now has all the facts.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Politics/Story?id=4922123&page=2

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/us/politics/24mccain.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&oref=slogin

2. the fact that McCain takes Ambien to sleep. You know those 3 am ads? How can a president be there at 3 am for a national emergency if he is knocked out from a sleeping pill? Who is going to take his calls if he is too wired to sleep at night without sleep aids? His vice president? That makes his VP choice very important. And what if he is one of those people who is able to act like they are awake on Ambien when they are really asleep? Do we want our president saying "Yes" to the question "Should we launch the missiles?" when he thinks that you just asked "Do you want some warm milk?"
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Politics/story?id=4919842&page=1

3. the fact that his cholesterol has been 226, LDL 139 HDL 35, his father died of a stroke at 70, his systolic blood pressure was elevated and he is a former smoker. Here is a list of stroke risk factors. His age is also a risk factor for stroke. As mentioned above, if he has not had left head radiation therapy, then his speech and memory difficulties are suggestive of a left brain ischemic injury or a previous stroke. Multiple small infarcts of the brain is a leading cause of dementia. Do we want another second term Reagan presidency?
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4716
http://www.stroke.org/site/DocServer/scorecardQ.pdf?docID=601

All of this means that John McCain might become impaired while still commander in chief since brain metastases from melanoma and micro-strokes could interfere with his mental function before they became apparent to his physicians. This makes his much touted "experience" immaterial. There is a reason that pilots must pass strict flight physicals before they fly. Every decision they make in the air is of the utmost importance for their own sake and for the safety of those who depend upon them. John McCain may have been a hero as a young man, but he is far from being that same young man.

So, I have to hand it to Democratic Underground and the liberal bloggosphere for ignoring the issue which neither of the Democratic candidates can afford to be the first to broach. Maybe if we all keep attacking each other and tearing up the Democratic Party from within, the McCain friendly press will declare him healthier than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton put together, and the American public will end up believing it.