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    August 07, 2008

    McCain's neuron's (Update)

    Posted by: Andoni

    NeuronsLast month I noted that witnessing the large number of gaffes Senator John McCain is making, it is time to consider the possibility that age may be taking its toll on his brain.

    Today Andrew Sullivan raises the same question and cites a March, 2008 Annals of Internal Medicine article saying that 22% of people over the age of 71 have cognitive impairment, without dementia. The fact that these people don't have dementia makes it much more difficult for others to see the problem. We don't immediately realize that these people are impaired, that is not until they make that one big mistake that gets them into serious trouble. When they make that big mistake because of their impaired judgment and memory, people notice. But then it's usually too late.

    Furthermore, as Andrew says, this cognitive impairment can also "affect decison-making in highly complex areas where answers require strong mental skills and swift assimilation of new facts."

    Andrew believes McCain's age and the high probability of cognitive impairment makes it a legitimate issue to raise in this campaign, so long as it is not done rudely.

    McCain keeps raising the question about Senator Obama, "Is he ready to lead?"

    I think it is reasonable for us to ask of McCain, "Is his brain functioning properly?"

    For Obama, it is nearly impossible for him to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he is ready to lead. He can't definitively do that until he gets into office, when we will learn the answer. For McCain, to prove that his brain is ready, he can subject himself to a battery of psychological tests conducted by an independent medical department and release the results to the public.

    I challenge Senator McCain to undergo these tests to prove that he is not one of the large percentage of people in his age group who has cognitive impairment. What's he got to lose? If he passes the test, he is in a much stronger position as a candidate. If he fails the test, I'm sure he wouldn't want to endanger the country by becoming president and subjecting it to the possible errors he is likely to make because of his mental impairment.

    Oh wait, now I remember my Uncle Jim who even after testing proved he was impaired, still refused to stop driving. He insisted he was OK to drive, thought it was his birthright to drive.

    That is the problem with brain impairments, the person himself cannot make the proper decision that it is time to hang it up. The judgment is too far gone. It is up to others to decide, and that's why it's important for McCain to get tested and give us the results......so we can decide if he is up to being president. Think of McCain as our uncle and we need data to help make a decision.

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    Comments

    1. Hawyer on Aug 7, 2008 11:43:18 AM:

      Well you know I was an adult in 1972 when George McGovern picked Missouri Sen. Tom Eagleton for his running mate. When it was disclosed that Eagleton had once undergone electroshock therapy - the press went apoplectic. All politically-correct compunction was abandoned, and he was universally deemed a wild-eyed lunatic. McGovern finally thew him overboard, but it was too late. The damage was done and McGovern went down in flames in the worst defeat in Presidential history, winning only one state (Massachusetts) - for which the astute voters of the USA were served up one Richard Nixon - so in effect Tom Egaleton had the last laugh.

      All that to wonder exactly what it would take for the corporate media to actually broach the subject of McCain's mental acuity. As Geo. W. Bush Sr would say: "Not gonna happen; wouldn't be prudent."

    1. dawn Keeler on Aug 8, 2008 8:25:56 AM:

      Any news on Chris it has been awhile since we have heard from him. thanks

    1. snark on Aug 8, 2008 8:37:24 AM:

      While I'm intelligent enough to understand the points you, Andrew Sullivan and others are making with your posts, pointing to studies on the aging brain, there is something very creepy and disheartening about it as well. If people were asking if Obama was too black, if his African genes were helpful had he wanted to be an athlete but not so much for a world leader . . . study here, study there, showing what everyone denies: that racial differences really do matter . . . would you not be appalled? Your diagram today implies it's time to start saying McCain’s old brain cells are failing. The whole thing should be out of bounds. Of course our brains change as we age (if we're lucky enough to live that long), but there is no age restriction for running for president. If there should be, then let's pass legislation. Until then, McCain is free to run and we are free not to vote for him, but all the posting on his age on your blog and others is not, I think, much different from someone posting about Obama's African ancestry and how he's likely better wired to play the bass than lead the armed forces.

    1. Kary on Aug 8, 2008 10:53:30 AM:

      Brain-impaired? He's a Republican. Read Paul Krugman in the NY Times today.

      Snark...you must be a Republican...you argument makes no sens.

      PS. Apparently Russia just invaded Georgia. Let's hope while they're at it, they take Alabama and Mississippi too.

    1. JC Allen on Aug 8, 2008 10:58:00 AM:

      Thais would mean that Her Highness Pelosi would have to quit her job in 3 years, Harry Reid in 2. Jack Murtha and Ted Kennedy are already 76, so they should already be given their pink slips...What a great way to clean out the bloodsuckers in DC. Great piece Adoni. )~

    1. Hawyer on Aug 8, 2008 12:12:48 PM:

      TO: snark on Aug 8, 2008 8:37:24 AM:

      Come on. McCain is running for president of the fucking United States and among his gaffes: that Iraq has an Afgan border; that Czechoslovakia is still a country; that Sh'ite Iran is training Sunni Al Quida (until Joe Lieberman whispered in his hear that was wrong); that Sudan is Somalia --- on and on --- ALL serious and dangerous ideation on his part - given the office he wants to hold.

      Now (God forbid that if he gets elected) one hopes he would have lieutenants who could continue to whisper in his ear like Lieberman - but you know we endured Ronald Reagan's 2nd term when he had clinical signs of Alzheimers and were served up the Iran-Contra debacle - among other things where he had "no recollection" And I'll not even get into George W. Bush's symptoms of encephalopathy.

      This ain't about age-ism, or racism, or anything of the like and you know it. It's about competency to hold the most dangerous office in the world. And frankly McCain worries the shit out of many of us in that regard. If you're that blindered - you're part of the problem.


    1. Dmitri on Aug 8, 2008 1:19:47 PM:

      I felt you're a little on Obama's side...
      Not very informed about american politic but I think McCain's memory is ok, despite is age.His curriculum proves more than how old and conservative he is.

    1. snark on Aug 8, 2008 3:53:49 PM:

      I'm not blinded by anything, and if my analogy doesn't make sense, well, I'm fifty this year, I must have creeping dementia. If age is a problem for McCain then it is a problem for anyone running for office (and no, I'm not a Republican, and please check for typos before you submit). The response is to pass legislation or a constitutional amendment with an age cut-off for the office, not to start taking down a candidate because he's too old. Given the absence of an age restriction for the presidency, it is not a valid complaint. I detect partisanship at play as much as any honest appraisal of the effects of age.

    1. Andoni on Aug 8, 2008 4:45:39 PM:

      Look snark, this is about whether a person can do the job, not a particular characteristic such as a person's age or what comes with black genes. It's interesting that all that is required by the Constitution to run for president is that you be 35 years old and be a natural born citizen. There are stricter official guidelines for a drivers license than to run for president.

      I am trying to gauge if a person is competent to be President of the United States. There are lots of ways to prove competence. Certainly experience is a part of the mix. For a drivers license they like to know that you have the knowledge, that your eyes work properly, that you can handle the vehicle, and that you can size up a situation that comes up in traffic and react properly.

      Similarly for being president, I think it is important that one be able to incorporate a lot of new information coming at you from lots of sources, incorporate it with the old information you have in your head, keep the facts straight in your mind, analyze it, and make a reasoned, good and sometimes speedy decision. In order to do this, your neurons have to be operating at a decent level.

      There are all kinds of tests that can gauge if a person's brain is performing adequately. I think McCain has made enough mental goofs, that is it reasonable to ask if his brain is operating well enough to handle the job.

      All I'm saying in the two posts is that as a physician who has observed a lot of over 65 people (I practiced in FL for 5 years) and have cared for parents and grandparents, to me McCain exhibits some of the early signs that his mental abilities are slipping.

      Only a battery of sophisticated tests can tell us whether my observations are really indicative of an inner problem.

      As I said in the post, McCain only win if does the testing. If he is OK, he will get more votes. If the tests bear out my hypothesis, then he shouldn't run for president because he isn't qualified to do the job at the level that the public should expect. If he takes the tests and my hypothesis is born out but he insists on still running, well then he's not really that patriot he keeps telling us he is ... putting his country above everything else.

    1. Kris Jones on Aug 8, 2008 5:47:30 PM:

      I would rather have Sen. McCain as president on life support limited to blowing through a tube for yes or no, than have that inexperienced Socialist Obama as President.

    1. snark on Aug 8, 2008 7:34:47 PM:

      Thanks Andoni. But I think then that any candidate over the age of 65 should be tested. My father is 85 and in early-mid Alzheimer's so I understand and agree with you on the cognitive risks. But there are others in the blogiverse who are using his age as a negative in a more thoughtless way. Ultimately we should have an age restriction, since we live much longer than we did a hundred years ago (the age for collecting social security was determined by the fact that most people died by the time they were 62). I digress. Without a restriction, I think people will have to decide that if McCain is too old they can't vote for him. Most McCain supporters will vote for him and hope he has some good lucid people around him.

    1. oakley frogskins on Jul 16, 2011 8:07:01 AM:

      John McCain couldn't even vote for the GI Bill that provideds benefits to the troops he wants to use to occupy Iraq for the next hundred years.

    1. Floyd on Dec 26, 2011 10:46:21 AM:

      The damage was done and McGovern went down in flames in the worst defeat in Presidential history, winning only one state (Massachusetts) - for which the astute voters of the USA were served up one Richard Nixon - so in effect Tom Egaleton had the last laugh. buy clenbuterol

    1. Shaun on Dec 26, 2011 10:47:48 AM:

      The response is to pass legislation or a constitutional amendment with an age cut-off for the office, not to start taking down a candidate because he's too old. Given the absence of an age restriction for the presidency, it is not a valid complaint. I detect partisanship at play as much as any honest appraisal of the effects of age. legal steroids

    1. Ben on Dec 26, 2011 10:49:36 AM:

      I am trying to gauge if a person is competent to be President of the United States. There are lots of ways to prove competence. Certainly experience is a part of the mix. For a drivers license they like to know that you have the knowledge, that your eyes work properly, that you can handle the vehicle, and that you can size up a situation that comes up in traffic and react properly. buy steroids

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