McCain's psychological issues must be addressed. We've been distracted by the dog and pony show over his physical health records to the point where nobody is looking at the man behind the curtain.
John McCain must release his psychological records now to resolve any questions concerning his mental stability. The neurological and psychological condition of a president, many would argue, is even more important than comparatively minor issues such as skin cancer that is caught early.
December 6, 1999:
In releasing 1,500 pages of medical and psychiatric records, Senator John McCain of Arizona has provided an unusually large amount of such material for a candidate for high office, including the broadest look ever given the public at the psychological profile of a presidential candidate.
Fifteen hundred pages is a lot of medical and psychological records to have to sort through. While much of it is explained away as being closely related to his time immediately after returning from Viet Nam, there is no indication as to how many of these pages are related to the most recent 10 years (from 1989 or so on), which would be far more insightful than looking back the full 40 years.
Furthermore, 1500 pages of medical and psychological records is a significant amount of paper for 40 years, but as much of this quantity is likely (but not certainly) related to his severe medical and psychological issues immediately after he returned from Viet Nam, there does not seem to be any reason to believe that more than a small portion of these 1500 pages were recent (at the time).
The doctors said ''he explained this partially by saying that he always heard the guards with his food, for example, but was often so much in his private world, that he strongly resented their coming around and bringing him back to reality by intruding. He was enjoying his fantasies so much. Apparently, however, there was never any serious problem returning to reality when required.''
So, McCain retreated into fantasy during his captivity. I don't believe anyone would begrudge him this. However, note that there was no serious problem returning to reality. Why did the doctors choose to use the word serious to modify his returning to reality? This would seem to indicate that at that time there were problems returning to reality.
May 22, 2008:
On Friday, after repeated pledges to do so going back more than a year, the McCain campaign is set to release new information about the Arizona Republican's health history. The release, according to the campaign, will cover the year 2000 forward, a period when McCain had three of his four skin cancers removed, as well as lymph nodes and part of a salivary gland. It will not, however, include McCain's psychiatric records, which McCain allowed a select group of reporters to examine in 1999 but have never been released to the public. The new information is unlikely to quash recurring questions about McCain's age, his bouts with cancer, or how his experience in Vietnam may have affected his mind.
Why the sudden decision to exclude psychological records from examination? Has something changed with his mental faculties since 1999? What is in his psychological records since 1999? While it is unlikely that there is something severe, the refusal to put this information out only raises questions.
There are behaviors associated with the candidate that would be consistent with a diagnosis of PTSD. Author Robert Timberg mentions McCain's intense explosions of anger --- a hallmark sign of lingering mental trauma from war -- in his book "John McCain: An American Odyssey." Timberg describes the episodes as "an eruption of temper out of all proportion to the provocation." Timberg, who McCain has said "knows more about me than I do," wrote that McCain's sudden fury is a result of Vietnam coming "back to haunt him." McCain has himself described having an adverse reaction to the sound of jangling keys, which reminds him of his Vietnam jailers. McCain also told doctors that during solitary confinement he had strayed pretty "far out" and had referred to himself as "mentally deteriorating."
McCain described himself as mentally deteriorating during his time as a POW. McCain's legendary temper is already documented on record. In addition to stating that he will always hate the gooks, he's screamed at fellow Republican John Cornyn "Fuck you!" just off the Senate floor. Other Republicans (such as Mississippi's Cochran) have gone so far as to go on record as fearing McCain's legendary outbursts.
Clearly, McCain's mental peculiarities warrant just as much scrutiny as does his physical health.
May 22, 2008 Continued:
The medical information is set to be rolled out near Phoenix, Ariz., in three phases on Friday morning beginning at 10:30 am ET:
- Physical inspection of 400 pages of medical records
- Written medical summary provided by campaign to all media
- Conference call with Mayo Clinic physicians
For those news organizations examining the records in person, the McCain campaign has established certain ground rules:
--Each news outlet will be allowed the same two people in the room for three hours.
--There will be no cell phone or internet use while reviewing the records.
--No cameras will be permitted into the room.
--No photocopying of the records.
--No document can be taken outside of the room.
1500 pages covering the time from his time as a young adult through his time immediately after returning as a POW, up to the year 1999. 1500 pages, including psychological records, covering 50+ years of his life becomes 400 pages covering the last 8 years. Anyone interested in math should immediately notice the ratio of time to pages has gone up noticeably... especially since his psychological records are not included in the latter. Since 2000, John McCain's physical health has warranted almost twice the amount of documentation and description than it did after his return from Viet Nam and throughout most of his adult life. Then they limit the time and number of people who are permitted to read his physical health record. It's almost as if this is a distraction from something else... perhaps his psychological record? Something's certainly fishy.
Also note that there is no indication made whatsoever of his brain functions (EEG, etc.). While this is not necessarily standard, if McCain seems to be having mental difficulties, one would think he would be receiving EEGs or similar monitoring of his brain.
"The actuarial tables say if you make to 71 in overall good health your life expectancy is about 16 years," said Johnson. "That would be to about to age 87. I think that's surprising to many people."
"Much more difficult to predict," he added, is "any change in mental acuity. At age 71 there's about a 30 percent chance of developing serious memory loss or even dementia.
So, the actuarial tables indicate that John's likely to survive eight years in the White House, but the odds look much less favorable for him retaining his memory and/or judgment. What a vote of confidence.
John McCain may very well have something wrong that is being covered up by lies of omission. While there has been much coverage of relatively minor problems that have been tackled (his skin cancer, cholesterol) and much has been made of his broken bones from the 1970's, there is very little current information out there regarding John McCain's neurological status.