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Pressure is mounting anew for full disclosure of John McCain's medical records, including psychiatric records, as a matter of the public's right to know. A 72-year-old presidential candidate with a history of malignant melanoma, an infamously unstable temper, and a murky psychiatric history which may include Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder owing to his war experiences, McCain has designated Sarah Palin, an inexperienced dilettante with zero background in national or international affairs, to be his backup in case of incapacity or death. If elected, McCain would be the oldest and perhaps unhealthiest incoming president in American history, backed up by our least experienced vice-president ever. Thus far, however, the media and the public have been granted only severely limited access to McCain's medical and psychiatric records. Renewed efforts are underway, however, to press McCain for the full disclosure Americans deserve.
The Real McCain and Brave New Films have launched a new campaign to press for full disclosure of McCain's medical records, circulating a video and petition which at time of this writing has been signed by more than 48,000 people including 2300 medical doctors. Meanwhile, top Democrats including senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Harry Reid of Nevada, and Charles Schumer of New York have recently repeated calls for McCain to fully disclose his medical records (see Huffington Post, ABC News, Columbia Journalism Review, Open Left). These efforts deserve our full support, and Democratic leaders such McCaskill, Reid, and Schumer who courageously defy the unspoken "hands off" policy on McCain's age and health deserve congratulations.
While McCain's age and physical health are legitimate long-term concerns particularly given Sarah Palin's unreadiness to take over as president, his mental health is a matter of immediate and ongoing concern. Of particular concern is the matter of McCain's infamous anger-management problem, such as when he reacted to disagreement on immigration reform from fellow Republican senator John Cornyn of Texas by screaming, "F*ck you!"; when he called fellow Republican senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico an "a**hole"; and when he called fellow Republican senator Charles Grassley of Iowa a "f*cking jerk." Once in a 1987 meeting at the height of Central American tensions, according to fellow Republican senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, McCain reached across the table and physically assaulted a Nicaraguan representative, seizing him by his shirt collar. "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine...," Cochran later said when endorsing Mitt Romney for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, "...He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."
McCain has also been sharply criticized for his wrathful treatment of POW/MIA family members pressing for information on loved ones who diappeared in Vietnam. At a Senate hearing in 1992, McCain verbally assaulted Dolores Alfond, chairwoman of the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America's Missing Servicemen and Women, leaving her in tears. Ms. Alfond - whose brother disappeared over North Vietnam in 1967 - is visibly upset in video of the event while McCain sits glowering and ready to explode: hardly the way a public servant ought to behave toward a member of the public he is sworn to serve. Four years later during a Washington conference of Alfond's group, about 25 members went to a Senate office building hoping to meet with McCain. As McCain and an aide walked by, McCain raised his hand to wave away Jeannette Jenkins, whose cousin was last seen in South Vietnam in 1970, backhanding her and pushing her against a wall. As McCain continued walking, Jane Duke Gaylor, the wheelchair-bound mother of another missing serviceman, approached the senator. As Gaylor reached out toward McCain, according to Dolores Alfond's sister Eleanor Apodaca, "McCain stopped, glared at her, raised his left arm ready to strike her, composed himself and pushed the wheelchair away from him" (see McClatchy, Huffington Post, The Nation). Ms. Apodaca recently explained in writing and video why she is "appalled at the possibility that John McCain could become the next President of the United States."
Readers are encouraged to sign the petition for full disclosure of McCain's medical records, to press Democratic leaders including their own senators and representatives to raise the issue on the campaign trail, and even to press McCain himself by e-mail (john_mccain@mccain.senate.gov, info@johnmccain.com).
Voters have the right to know if their presidential candidates are fit to serve.
Mark C. Eades
http://www.mceades.com
