[Photo essay] Does McCain have a growing problem?

There's a lot of speculation (with no supporting evidence) that Clinton's fall-back strategy is to savage Obama so badly that McCain wins.  The justifying assumption being McCain will likely be a one-term president -- because of his age.  I think he's got a bigger problem.  Remember, how he needed a special life insurance policy to get the campaign loan because the lenders were concerned he might not survive the campaign?  

We all know that folks talking politics occasionally let their emotions get the better of their judgment, but bankers talking about lines of credit have no use for emotions.  They are only interested in actuarial tables and risk assessments.   Looking at recent photos, I think they were less worried about his age than his cancer.  Recent stories seek to downplay this possibility.  However, I came across this interesting comment about his medical records...

In 1999, during Mr. McCain’s first race for president, he gave the public an extraordinary look at his medical history — 1,500 pages of medical and psychiatric records that were amassed as part of a United States Navy project to gauge the health of former prisoners of war. This reporter, who is a physician, interviewed the senator’s doctors in 1999 with his permission.

But this time around, Mr. McCain has yet to make his full medical records or his physicians available to reporters. At least three times since March 2007, campaign officials have told The New York Times that they would provide the detailed information about his current state of health, but they have not done so.  The campaign now says it expects to release the information in April.

That sets off alarm bells for me.  Let's review easily available information so we don't have to wander into the wooly thinking of conspiracies, speculation and sensationalism.  After all, this is a serious question about a man applying for a serious job at a particularly serious time in our history.  It's important to get this right.

McCain had surgery in 2000 for malignant melanoma.  At the time, it was reported:

McCain's temple melanoma would be classified as type 2 for which textbooks cite 10-year survival figures of about 60 percent to 70 percent.

 First off, you stage cancers, so no textbook would classify severity by type.  That may seem like semantic quibbling, but when you are covering technical material details matter.  However, the recent NY Times article did note that in light of the extensive nature of his surgery, he may have had a stage III melanoma... that carries a bleaker prognosis.

We are now entering the eighth year.  If he did win the election, it would be the ninth year.  After that, his odds start to decrease.  No one is promised tomorrow, but seriously, why would anyone make a longterm hire of a guy who walked in the door with a 40% chance of dying on the job?  That might sound like an unfair question... until you start looking at the photos over time.  

Here's McCain after his surgery in 2000.  Note the small bump along the jaw line.

Here's McCain in late 2006, this is not notably different

Here's McCain early in 2007, this is agrguably the same.

Here's McCain later in 2007, this is clearly different.

Here's McCain in April 2008, the difference is now visible at a distance.

It is hard to find pictures of McCain shot from the left, but it certainly looks to me like something is growing on his face.  

We can talk about health care, financial markets, the war, civil rights, the Supreme Court, or anything else until the cows come home, but if he is suffering a relapse of malignant melanoma that is the only issue worth discussing.  At that point the only policy that matters is his life insurance policy.

If I was a Republican, I would certainly want that addressed to my satisfaction before the convention.  Forget about living or dying.  Imagine the disarray if McCain was suddenly sidelined for surgery during the general election.   Imagine the disarray if he refused surgery during the election, only to be elected with an inoperable recurrance.  I realize this is an uncomfortable subject for many people, but this is a serious question he needs to address.  The only way he can do that is to put out his medical records as promised.  If he doesn't do that promptly the only question worth asking is, "What is he hiding?"