John McCain has a history of melanoma (skin cancer):

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• 7/28/08 removal of a growth from his upper right cheek: "The biopsy that was performed did not show any evidence of skin cancer. No further treatment is necessary."

Those who know John McCain best know he is short-tempered and flies into fits of rage. Is that the person we want to have his finger on the nuclear button? 

To Cindy McCain, in front of a group of Arizona reporters,

• "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c*nt."

Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH)

• "His temper would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind, it should disqualify him."

Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS)

• "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine."

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)

I have to wonder about the mental state of John McCain having been a POW.  We all know he has a bad temper.  Wouldn't you think he has a lot of "issues" that could affect his judgement about war?  Does anyone know anything about PTSS (post traumatic stress syndrome)?  I for one would LOVE to see a commercial that brings that possibility into question.

Our petition to the media urging McCain to get an Alzheimer's test received more email than usual, so let me address some of the issues raised with as much sensitivity as possible. 

Like most Americans, I've lost close relatives and friends to Alzheimer's. The very last thing I want to do is make that already-painful disease the slightest bit more painful for its victims, both direct and indirect. 

Here's the issue in a nutshell: obviously we can't choose whether or not to get Alzheimer's. But we can choose whether or not to put a man with decent odds of getting it into the most powerful job in the world, which includes second-by-second control over 10,000 nuclear weapons.

The effects of aging on John McCain's brain may be the least of his mental problems. In a interview even Time calls "prickly," there is evidence that much of his personality and memory have simply disappeared overnight. Kevin Drum thinks McCain is the Manchurian Candidate. Or was McCain lobotomized like the tragically feisty Frances Farmer?

In her new memoir A Swim-On Part In The Goldfish Bowl: A Memoir, Carol Thatcher revealed her mother Margaret Thatcher started showing signs of dementia in 2000, at the age of 75.

"I almost fell off my chair," wrote Thatcher, a journalist and television personality. "Watching her struggle with her words and her memory, I couldn't believe it. She was in her 75th year but I had always thought of her as ageless, timeless and 100 per cent cast-iron damage-proof. From the fateful day of our lunch, tell-tale signs that something wasn't quite right began to emerge."

John McCain turns 72 on Friday. Like Thatcher, he wants us to think of him as "ageless, timeless and 100 per cent cast-iron damage-proof." Sadly, no one is - not Thatcher, not Reagan, and not John McCain.

This weekend, John McCain played the "father-in-law card" (video):

I am grateful for the fact that I have a wonderful life. I spent some years without a kitchen table, without a chair, and I know what it's like to be blessed by the opportunities of this great nation. Cindy's father, who barely finished high school, went off and distinguished himself in World War II in a B-17 and came back with practically nothing and realized the American dream, and I am proud and grateful for that, and I think he is a role model to many young Americans who serve in the military and come back and succeed.

At last! Obama is attacking McCain for his reckless warmongering:

In an apparent effort to regain the offensive, the Obama campaign launched a broad attack on McCain today, portraying him as reckless on foreign policy, a hot-head who's too willing to use force and not willing enough to apprise himself of facts on the ground before urging military action.

At a town hall today, a veteran told McCain:

If we don’t reenact the draft I don’t think we will have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell.

MCCAIN: Ma’am let me say that I don’t disagree with anything you said and thank you and I am grateful for your support of all of our veterans.

McCain's position on the draft seems to be "evolving": 

In June, McCain said it would take an “all-out World War III” to make the draft necessary — which seems to mean he’d consider it. In July 2006, when asked to react to Newt Gingrich’s claim that “You’d have to say to yourself this is in fact World War III,” McCain said, “I do [agree] to some extent.”