John McCain was born on 8/29/36. If elected, he will be 72 when he is sworn in in 2009 - the oldest start of any Presidency. He would be 76 at the end of his first term, and if re-elected in 2012, would be president until age 80.

McCain's age is already an issue, due to his many jokes and "senior moments."

• In July, McCain referred repeatedly to Czechoslovakia as though it still existed and to Vladimir Putin as though he were still president of Russia. More significantly, he has claimed that Iraq borders Pakistan, that the Anbar Awakening occurred after the surge, that the Iraq war was America’s first major armed conflict since 9/11, and that, unlike Obama, he would prefer to speak outside the country only after being elected president.
• In May, McCain incorrectly said the U.S. had drawn down its forces in Iraq to pre-surge levels. In March, he wrongly claimed that Iran was training Al Qaeda operatives. Last April, he mistakenly said General David Petraeus regularly drove around Baghdad in an unarmored Humvee. In each of these “McCain moments,” political life would have been easier for the candidate if his statements were true. But none were.
• On 5/5/08, McCain said the "League of Nations" needs to deal with Iran. The League of Nations was disbanded in 1946 when John McCain was 10.
• On 10/21/07, McCain advocated a missile defense system for "Czechoslovakia." Nearly 14 years earlier (1/1/93), when McCain was 57, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
• In his autobiography, McCain declared himself a man of the 20th Century, which is natural because he lived his best 64 years in it.
• In 2000, he told Jim Lehrer, "in 2004, I expect to be campaigning for the reelection of President George W. Bush, and by 2008, I think I might be ready to go down to the old soldiers home and await the cavalry charge there."

McCain is a cancer survivor

• McCain has had skin cancer (melanoma) four times
• In 2000, the melanoma was classified as Stage IIa (out of IV) with a 65% survival rate after 10 years

McCain's family history is risky

• McCain is two years older than his father was when he died suddenly of a heart attack at 70.
• McCain is 11 years older than his grandfather was when he died suddenly of a heart attack at age 61.  

Is McCain's mind failing?

McCain's many "senior moments" are listed here. Does he have a medical problem?

Gerontologists and retirement planners have learned that aging brains compensate for cognitive decline by relying on templates of familiar knowledge more than problem solving. That’s usually a good thing, but neuroscientists have also found that memory loss can lead people to substitute incorrect information. This phenomenon, called confabulation, rather than being random, often takes the form of untrue “facts” that make them feel better — giving them what scientists have called “the pleasantness of false beliefs.” So are McCain’s stumbles simply misstatements, or evidence of a mind filling in blanks with wish fulfillment? Well, we really have no idea. But neither does McCain: His aides told reporters in May that he has had no mental evaluations in the past eight years. 

During his first presidential run, eight years ago, McCain disclosed hundreds of pages of records to reporters as he sought then to counter what aides called a "whisper campaign" questioning his mental fitness. In those records, medical personnel concluded that his years in prison, including solitary confinement, left him with no psychological wounds. Aides said McCain has had no mental evaluations in the past eight years and none was included in the documents.

McCain's memory could also be affected by prescription drugs:

• The arthritis drug Simvastatin, whose side effects include memory loss.  
• McCain also takes Ambien to sleep, which can cause amnesia and "fugue states" like the one that caused Rep. Patrick Kennedy's late-night car crash. 

Could McCain's mind get worse?

13% of Americans over 65 have Alzheimers. 22% of Americans over 70 are affected by mild cognitive impairment, a decline in brain function that causes memory loss and can lead to dementia. (Each year, 3.5% of healthy 70-79 year olds develop mild cognitive impairment, with men twice as likely as women to get it.) Further, 35-40% of older adults have neural deficits that lead to poor decision making. 

Ronald Reagan turned 70 two weeks after his inauguration in 1981 and many questioned whether he was too old. He was formally diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1994 at age 83, but early symptoms were apparent during his re-election campaign in 1984, which he dismissed with a famous prepared joke: "I'm not going to hold my opponent's youth and inexperience against him."

McCain's brain has endursed physical, chemical, and physiological abuse:

• He competed as a lightweight boxer for three years and lacked skills but was fearless and "didn't have a reverse gear," as he later put it. No one knows how many blows he took to his head, but repeated head injuries in boxing (especially in non-proficient boxers) predispose these boxers to brain disease later in life.
• As a young man and officer, his reputation for hard partying and hard living was prodgious: "being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck." Binge drinking and chronic heavy alcohol use also decrease brain function in later life.
• From 1967 to 1973, McCain was a Vietnamese prisoner of war and was tortured. McCain has constant functional limitations from the torture (he cannot lift his arms above his head). According to his publicly released medical records, McCain also has chronic pain resulting from numerous fractures; his captors when he was a POW did not provide adequate care, and the fractures did not heal properly. Torture can produce psychiatric disease (especially PTSD), cognitive impairments, or both. The experience of being a POW has - in WWII POW's - also been shown to be associated with neuropsychiatric impairment.
• In 1993, McCain was diagnosed with melanoma (skin cancer). After treatment for the intial diagnosis, the melanoma returned two more times (2000 and 2002). Both chemo and radiation used to treat cancer may also lead to permanent cognitive impairment.

Does McCain have PTSD and its consequential psychiatric problems?

• According to the records, McCain has said that immediately after his release from military prison in Hanoi there were "times when very realistic or frightening memories" came back to him. But McCain "can successfully put these memories out of his mind," the medical records said.

According to Dr. Kirk James Murphy, a V.A. physician who has long experience treating veterans with PTSD:

Sen McCain's life history indicates that his brain is at greater than average risk of dysfunction and impairment in the following areas:

• capacity to learn, recall, and reason with complex new information
• judgement and impulse control
• capacity to devote sustained attention.

Sen McCain - like all victims of trauma and torture - is entitled to absolute privacy regardiing his personal medical history. We as American citizens, however, are entitled to all possible information about the men and women who choose to ask act us to select them as president.

At the very least, Sen McCain's history raises many questions about the presence of objectively determinable disruption in neuropsychiatric function. He and his camapign have been forthcoming with his medical records in the past; his brain history strongly suggests that obtaining and releasing the results of current neuropsychiatric testing, imaging studies (perhaps including functional MRI and or auditory evoked potential findings) and other relevant assessments would be required in order to conclude that Sen McCain would bring to the Oval Office a brain functioning sufficiently well to serve as the second President of the 21st Century.

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