After a long delay, John McCain finally allowed a hand-picked group of journalists very limited access to a small portion of his medical records. The campaign is spinning the event as a release, but it's no such thing. McCain hosting a game of telephone and congratulating himself for transparency.
The LA Times got the real story behind the so-called release: all the strings attached. Campaign staffers told the paper that the chosen reporters would be given only three hours to view about 400 pages of documents from 2000 to 2008. They wouldn't even allowed to make photocopies for their own reference, or to show to experts.
Curiously, this year's crop of journalists were not given access to the records that McCain released to an equally select group during his last presidential bid. The last batch of records covered McCain's lifetime medical history through 1999.
The favored news outlets are the Washington Post, the Arizona Republic, Bloomberg, Reuters, and the Associated Press. All other media will have to make due with a pool report generated by the elect, a 90-minute conference call with McCain's doctors and campaign-produced summaries to be posted online.
McCain let a group of hand picked lay-people view an incomplete set of medical records for a ridiculously short period of time. Their access was so limited as to render their opinions worthless.
This so-called release was a clever bit of media manipulation. The campaign made its hand-picked journos complicit in the records charade. Friendly media got a scoop. With that scoop came a vested interest in downplaying the ridiculous restrictions placed on them. If the public understood the conditions under which their were reporting, their coverage wouldn't seem impressive at all.
Does he have Alzheimer's? He's getting kinda confused. Did the few reporters get to that page? Did they call any recognizable disease by another more obscure name so they can say they told us? How will we know? Just how many cancers have they found in him? Can we ever actually know?
This is stupid. Why on earth would anyone vote for someone who clearly has something to hide? Or, maybe, McCain can let the reporters actually do their job and assure the American people that McCain is really and truly healthy rather than just guessing.
5 comments:
From what I read, the records focused on the fact that he is cancer free, but looking at his recent string of gaffes and errors in judgement, his mental capacity has to be questioned. But there seems to be no reference to that. I'm sure it's being concealed from the press.
... or concealed BY the press?
I have to wonder if someone's agenda... neocons', or evangelicals', take your choice... includes ultimately seeing McCain's veep become president. I'm sure that's not why McCain is running, but it may be why he's getting support from some quarters. Any bets on whether he will choose a veep candidate more extreme even than himself?
Morse, Steve and I have several times discussed the early stages of Alzheimer's. Steve experienced it up close and personal with his mom, so he sees familiar telltale signs in McCain's senior moments.
Since Reagan was out to lunch so much of his reign, maybe the inner sanctum of the Republican party thinks it would be nice to repeat it?
Nah...
But pay really really close attention to who McCain's VP will be. We don't need Huckabee leaping out of closets late at night in the Oval Office and yelling surprise...
I believe one of the "reporters" allowed in to see the records was Sanjay Gupta, who seems to be working for both CNN and CBS these days, and who is a medical doctor.
Of course he's also a bit of an idiot when he puts on the reporter hat for which he has no training and little experience, but at least he would (should) have been able to spot any attempt at subterfuge by way of med-speak. If he had had time to look through it all, which is of course the relevant point as you note.
And isn't the term "cancer-free," for one who has had the affliction even once, supposed to refer to one who has gone through a period of time, usually 5 years, without a recurrence? I believe McCain had yet another spot of basal cell skin cancer removed just in February. This type is so common it may not fall under the same rules, but it would be nice to hear some mention of the subject.
Good points, xan, thanks. I had not heard that Gupta was involved. Not that that makes it any better.
And saying cancer-free reminds me of the Python sketch of the Middle Age plague... 'I'm not dead yet!'
Post a Comment