John McCain gave press access to his medical records, to prove he is healthy enough to be president. There were some worrisome things, but his dermatologist, Dr. Suzanne Connolly said, "We don't have a crystal ball, but we have no way to say anything at the present time would preclude him from running for office." (AP). "At the present time." Parsing that, not at this minute, but get back to me in five minutes and we'll have something.There's some things in the article about his chances of cancer recurring. And also he's had earwax removed. I want to highlight this interesting sentence: "Though he's known as temperamental, the doctors made a point of repeatedly writing in the documents that McCain was 'pleasant.'" That sounds suspicious. Why would his doctors "[make] a point of repeatedly writing" that their patient was "pleasant"? Does my doctor do that? Or is that a service only for those who are "known as temperamental" and who also have political aspirations? It reminds me of Elaine Benes being "difficult." We'll put that note in your records...repeatedly.
And just one other interesting nugget: "He has occasional momentary episodes of dizziness, when he gets up suddenly. McCain first told a doctor about them in 2000—a visit that also uncovered the melanoma—and intense testing concluded they were harmless vertigo. He didn't report any episodes at his most recent exam." Harmless vertigo. That's a cool phrase. I think of vertigo, and either James Stewart or Mel Brooks spinning around in a swirling vortex thing, like going down the old drain. It's not a reassuring image. Because what if McCain takes us down the vortex drain with him?
It raises the question, How much vertigo should presidents be allowed? He's sitting in the White House with his finger playfully brushing the nuclear button, then a dizzy spell, wham, and the next thing we know we have a mushroom cloud the size of Texas over one of our cities. Condi Rice, for some reason -- nostalgia, perhaps -- comes on TV and says, "No one could have ever imagined this happening." Then President McCain snaps out of it and wonders what did happen. His aides move the button from his desk to its own protective bunker, and we all hold our breath till we're able to declare him incapacitated and swear in his vice president, Joe Lieberman.
So, you tell me, have we really got to the point where the best this country can put forward to be president is an old ailing codger? You're seriously telling me this is all the "greatest country on earth" is capable of? A total moron for eight years, and a dizzy vertigo sufferer for the next four?
