The democrats are graciously saying that John McCain's age is not an exploitable target for them. Unfortunately, I think the Senator's age is pretty relevent.
So does Thomas Sowell.
So does America.
At 69, Ronald Reagan was the oldest president ever.
John McCain will be the new oldest president ever, if elected.
In August he will turn 72.
Reagan promised that he would undergo regular physical screening for "senility", and step down if it was detected.
McCain has promised he will not seek a second term.
authors note:
i admit that the title is sensationalist, and i cannot diagnose Alzheimers from a single incidence of shortterm memory loss.
i want to start a grass roots movement to discuss mccain's age.
i think it is a fair topic, an not subject to cries of "Unfair!" or "that's slimy-or-underhanded".
An early warning symptom of Alzheimer's is short term memory loss.
I am particularily curious about McCain's repeat failures to separate the Sunni from the Shi'ia.
In a trip to the Middle East last month, Mr. McCain made an embarrassing mistake when he said several times that he was concerned that Iran was training Al Qaeda in Iraq. (The United States believes that Iran, a Shiite country, has been training Shiite extremists in Iraq, but not Al Qaeda, a Sunni insurgent group.) He repeated the mistake on Tuesday at hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
It is curious that McCain would make the same mistake in the Petreaus interview. Surely after previous gaffes he would have been overcoached if anything. Surely McCain knew it was important to not repeat the Sunni/Shi'ia confusion that had tripped him up before.
McCain: There are numerous threats to security in Iraq and the future of Iraq. Do you still view Al Qaeda in Iraq as a major threat?
Petraeus: It is still a major threat, though it is certainly not as major a threat as it was say 15 months ago.
McCain: Certainly not..... an obscure sect of the Shiites...all...overall?
Petraeus: No, no sir.
McCain: Or Sunnis or anybody else then? Al Qaeda continues to try to assert themselves in Mosul, is that correct?
If McCain was consistantly making the same mistake, there are only three possible explanations.
- The information was not important enough to him to remember.
- He was incapable of learning the information.
- He was incapable of remembering the information.
I expect McCain has had pretty intensive tutoring on the Sunni/Shi'ia divide, after his previous gaffes. And since Iraq is the lichpin of his run on the presidency, it should be important. And McCain is surely a smart man, and capable of learning.
So....I suspect the third.
I think McCain tried his best to get it right this time.
And failed because he couldn't remember.
He couldn't remember from the point of time where he was rebriefed to the point of time of asking his allocated question of Gen. Petraeus.
Is that a trait we can tolerate in a CinC?
I wonder if there are other incidents of short term memory loss, and if Team McCain would tell us if there were.
And I wonder what is holding up the release of McCain's medical records.
Reagan died of Alzheimers. He probably had symptoms of it before he was offiically diagnosed in 1994. Reagan's mother had it, and there is a body of work on genetic linkage.
Is it time to start asking presidential candidates for genetic screening as well as physicals?
Praps every presidential candidate over the age of 70 should be screened for the Alzheimer's gene.
i am quoting Thomas Sowell from NRO here:
Have we reached the point where we have so many politically correct taboos that we can’t even talk sense?
yes, if we can't even mention age-related infirmity as a consideration in electing a president.
Does a man in his seventies have less energy for either physical or mental tasks than someone younger?
I think the answer here is yes also.
more Sowell.
When we are talking about a president of the United States, we are not talking about the fate of one individual, but the fate of a nation and of generations yet unborn.
This is no time to get squeamish or politically correct, when talking about whoever is to carry the load of the free world on his shoulders in the White House.