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Political journalist Alexander Cockburn (pronounced CO-burn) began his career at the University of Oxford, working as a reporter and commentator in...
Read more about Alexander Cockburn.
Political journalist Alexander Cockburn (pronounced CO-burn) began his career at the University of Oxford, working as a reporter and commentator in...
Read more about Alexander Cockburn.
Suspicions Dog McCain (and Even Biden): If Elected, How Long Would They Live?
Alexander Cockburn
Among the many travails of John McCain's faltering bid for the
presidency is the semi-stifled suspicion that his chances of lasting
through a four-year term are not rosy. Officially, the Obama campaign
has distanced itself from allegations that McCain might be a lot
sicker than he lets on. Supporters have been less restrained in
suggesting that The Reaper is but a step behind the 72-year-old
senator from Arizona.
In the past 15 years, John McCain has had four melanomas removed. The most dangerous was the one taken from his temple in 2000, classified by his doctors as an invasive melanoma, Stage IIA, on a standard scale that makes Stage IV the most serious. The 2000 surgery left McCain not only with a puffy jaw but also with a scar down his neck. Back in May, the McCain campaign sought to dispel concerns about McCain's health by permitting severely limited inspection of his medical records, plus a carefully controlled press conference with his doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. "Many questions," declared Dr. John Eckstein, "have been asked about the removal of the invasive melanoma from Sen. McCain's left lower temple in August 2000. To summarize, no evidence of metastasis or recurrence of the invasive melanoma as we approach the eighth anniversary of that operation." The press conference received relatively upbeat treatment. For Stage IIA melanoma, the survival rate 10 years after diagnosis is about 65 percent. But the outlook is much better, as McCain's doctors noted, for patients who have already survived more than seven years.
Reporters did note that two pathologists at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology who examined the melanoma specimen from McCain's left temple in 2000 suggested there were two melanomas on his temple, not one, as his doctors had said publicly at the time. The two said it was unclear whether the melanoma on McCain's temple had metastasized from another or whether there was one new primary melanoma. For stage IIA melanoma, the survival rate 10 years after diagnosis is about 65 percent. But metastasis would mean a Stage III reclassification, which would nearly halve McCain's statistical odds for survival at 10 years.
"What people don't seem to get about this cancer," Lori Klaidman, a medical researcher into melanoma, tells me, "is that ... his chances of surviving to 10 years at Stage IIA were 64 percent. But nearly 10 years have past since the year 2000, since that diagnosis. It is much lower now. It might it be more like 50 percent survival to the end of his first potential term. Further, the minute those melanoma cells migrate to a lymph node, his chances for survival are anywhere from 15 to 63 percent." There have been an unconfirmed allegations of just such a metastasis, claiming that in a recent cancer checkup, which allegedly took place at John Wayne Cancer Institute in California, McCain was diagnosed with a melanoma recurrence, with a metastasis to the lymph node. An East Coast oncologist says of John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, Calif., "That would be the place he'd go because the world's expert surgeon for melanoma, Donald Morton, is there." Morton, while he was head of surgical oncology at UCLA, developed a technique that minimizes the number of lymph nodes that must be removed during biopsies.
A Los Angeles radiologist put the question of McCain being treated directly to two colleagues at John Wayne. "They said no, but I had the strong impression they weren't being forthright. I've known these guys 30 years, and I sensed from their tone that they weren't leveling with me."
In his last debate McCain did not look good. Commended last May by Eckstein for his "extraordinary energy," McCain has mostly limited himself in recent weeks to one event a day.
So, in the increasingly unlikely event of a McCain-Palin victory, the inexperienced governor of Alaska could face a 50-50 chance of succeeding McCain within four years. This prospect may be playing a role in some voters' decisions.
Though she has declined to release her health records, Gov. Sarah Palin appears to be in exuberant health. In May, Barack Obama released a one-page, undated statement by his doctor that he's in "excellent" health. On the Democratic ticket, it's the 65-year-old vice presidential candidate, Sen. Joseph Biden, whose health may be precarious.
Twenty years ago, Biden collapsed in a hotel room. He was rushed to a hospital, and a priest gave the last rites to the Roman Catholic senator. He had emergency surgery for an aneurysm in an artery that was leaking blood into his brain. A day later, he had elective surgery for a second aneurism. It's not known whether Biden has had any neuroscans in recent years.
The actual health of a presidential candidate, let alone a sitting president, usually remains secluded from journalistic inquiry. Often, the press is complicit in such cover-ups.
Examples in American history include President Woodrow Wilson's secret status as a stricken stroke victim, with his wife dispensing his supposed orders; the rapid decline of FDR in his final months; and Jack Kennedy's severely compromised physical condition, held secret till after his death.
In July 1985, President Ronald Reagan underwent an operation to remove a cancerous tissue from his colon. The existence of this condition was known but concealed during the 1984 election. We know now that Ronald Reagan was well into the foothills of senile dementia in his second term and his aides were secretly debating whether to activate the stipulations of the 25th Amendment and lead him away. At the time, members of the White House press corps were coy about alerting the public to the fact that the commander in chief was not firing evenly on all cylinders. To be fair, Reagan evinced confusion for many years, so it may have been hard to judge when he had conclusively retreated from the real world.
Copyright 2008 Creators Syndicate Inc.
This news arrived on: 10/24/2008
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Posted Comments:
11-05-2008 16:02
JCE wrote:
If the American people were all ignorant racists, then McCain would have won but they aren't. This is a democracy, and considering that the states that voted for McCain were mostly the old slave owning states, it is obvious that the republicans just didn't pay any attention to the fact that this is no longer a white anglo saxon protestant country. They were only representing those people. McCain ran a text book case of how not to do a campaign, and people don't want that in the white house. Obama ran a campaign that if he does the same in the white house, we can prosper again as a nation. The republicans helped the rich destroy the middle class and the values of the country. The people have had enough. Stop crying and support your country. Or leave, altho the world is tired of the rich and republican nonsense to and they might not want you. The republicans lost because their democracy is for them and the rich only. Obama won because he believes democracy is for all of us. And all real Americans will support and respect our democracy, our country, and our new president.
10-28-2008 01:01
Sunshine49 wrote:
To schiptrue1
You call it malicious rumor by unknown sources when everything I have written is documented facts by known sources.
The $33 million in campaign contributions from Hamas is documented by the government's oversight committee. They have also reported any of McCain's contributions that are not considered legitimate.
The Black Liberation Theology church that he belonged to for 20 years can be checked out by anyone who wants to look up what their doctrines are. It is a fact that the doctrines they hold are almost exactly the same as Farrakhan's.
Not one of the things I have said came from anything I have heard from the McCain campaign. In fact, it has upset me that McCain has been so nice when the Obama people lie and lie.
Now, Sweetie, you can believe what you want but I feel sorry for the country when people like you, who bury their head in the sand and refuse to see the TRUTH, will end up MAYBE electing a man of questionable character and little experience to be our next president.
All you have is a lot of PROMISES and NO PROOF that he will actually do anything for the people "if" he is elected. ONE thing you CAN be sure of is that he will raise taxes which will throw this country into another Depression.
Now, aren't you proud of yourself???
The $33 million in campaign contributions from Hamas is documented by the government's oversight committee. They have also reported any of McCain's contributions that are not considered legitimate.
The Black Liberation Theology church that he belonged to for 20 years can be checked out by anyone who wants to look up what their doctrines are. It is a fact that the doctrines they hold are almost exactly the same as Farrakhan's.
Not one of the things I have said came from anything I have heard from the McCain campaign. In fact, it has upset me that McCain has been so nice when the Obama people lie and lie.
Now, Sweetie, you can believe what you want but I feel sorry for the country when people like you, who bury their head in the sand and refuse to see the TRUTH, will end up MAYBE electing a man of questionable character and little experience to be our next president.
All you have is a lot of PROMISES and NO PROOF that he will actually do anything for the people "if" he is elected. ONE thing you CAN be sure of is that he will raise taxes which will throw this country into another Depression.
Now, aren't you proud of yourself???
10-27-2008 19:52
schiptrue1 wrote:
post by sunshine 49 on column by Alexander Cockburn
Sunshine49, honey, you should not repeat anonomously spread calumnies that are easily proven false; and have been so proven repeatedly. You are certainly entitled to your own opinion of Obama's politics, but that does not entitle you to repeat malicious untruths about his personal life. What is coming out of the McCain campaign is the vile desperation of a group of people who do not one have one conscience to share among them. Unfortunately McCain is leading the charge down into the sewer.
10-27-2008 19:12
Sunshine49 wrote:
To Goldenwren
You wrote: he made what were very important gaffes--not remembering very important foreign information. His policies fluctuate and flip flop, sometimes within hours of each other.
Are you sure you aren't describing Obama? How about when he said we had 57 states or when he said he belonged to the Muslim religion? Or, how about his Communist doctrine of "spreading the wealth around"?
He's NEVER belonged to a Christian faith. He only belonged (for 20 years) to a perverted Black Liberation Theology, which is more like Farrakhan's black Muslim religion in it's doctrines.
To top this all off -- his campaign has yet to produce a "valid" birth certificate. All they have produced is a certificate of live birth, which doesn't even have the usual information that is found on that type of document. So he has a black Muslim father from Kenya and a white, atheist, Marxist mother from America. Then he was adopted by an Indonesian radical Muslim as his second father. Then after his mother divorced this man she dumped him off on the grandparents to be raised. During those younger years with no father figure, he had a mentor who was a known Communist. Right now, over half his campaign money has come from overseas. $33 million of that is known to come from Hamas. WHY? The list of questions about this man go on and on. I'm voting against this man -- not FOR McCain.
Are you sure you aren't describing Obama? How about when he said we had 57 states or when he said he belonged to the Muslim religion? Or, how about his Communist doctrine of "spreading the wealth around"?
He's NEVER belonged to a Christian faith. He only belonged (for 20 years) to a perverted Black Liberation Theology, which is more like Farrakhan's black Muslim religion in it's doctrines.
To top this all off -- his campaign has yet to produce a "valid" birth certificate. All they have produced is a certificate of live birth, which doesn't even have the usual information that is found on that type of document. So he has a black Muslim father from Kenya and a white, atheist, Marxist mother from America. Then he was adopted by an Indonesian radical Muslim as his second father. Then after his mother divorced this man she dumped him off on the grandparents to be raised. During those younger years with no father figure, he had a mentor who was a known Communist. Right now, over half his campaign money has come from overseas. $33 million of that is known to come from Hamas. WHY? The list of questions about this man go on and on. I'm voting against this man -- not FOR McCain.
10-27-2008 17:31
dlcamp wrote:
?Executive Experience?
When one talks about executive experience, I must remind one that prior to becoming President, George Bush was for six years the Governor of Texas. (higher population/larger state than Alaska) So much for executive experience and the first President that holds an MBA. Look what eight years of his executive experience has gotten the country and its citizens.
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