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I think it is rich that John McCain, who once told union workers that they would be too lazy to pick lettuce for $50/hour, is now calling Barack Obama an elitist.

We know who the real elitist is, Old Man.

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Today marks 142 days until John McCain turns 72 years old.

As he himself says, he is "older than dirt".

Uh-Oh: McCain's Doctors Are Idiots

To date, Old Man McCain has not released his medical records. His campaign has recently bowed to pressure and will allow some interviews with his doctors. Sounds like Kabuki Theatre to me.  What are they gonna do, tell the world that their boss is falling apart?

A Washington Post-ABC News poll last month found that 27% of likely voters said McCain's age makes them "less enthusiastic" about his candidacy.

Aides and doctors for McCain - who often boasts he hiked the Grand Canyon "rim to rim" last year during a three-day trek with his son - insist he is remarkably healthy.
"It only takes one day on the road with John McCain to know that what doctors say about his health is absolutely true," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. "He's in excellent shape."

"Rim to rim" of the Grand Canyon sounds like a lot, but averages about 10 miles. Walking three miles a day for a whopping three days in a row doesn't sound like much to me, but maybe it's a freakin' Iron Man marathon if you are as old as John McCain.

The article doesn't actually quote any of McCain's doctors, but we know what they'll say. "Strong as an ox, ready to rumble, all systems go."

Of course, not all systems are go:

He cannot raise either arm over his head, and like many his age, he suffers bouts of arthritis.

More recently, McCain has battled melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. The scar on his left cheek is a reminder of the dime-sized melanoma that doctors removed in 2000.

But what should really concerns us is that McCain's doctors don't know what the fuck they are doing. Look at this:

Aides told The News that, like many men his age, his medicines are limited to baby aspirin (to prevent heart attacks), Vytorin for cholesterol (now pegged at a respectable 155) and the occasional Claritin for allergies.

Apparently his doctors don't read newspapers or medical journals. Vytorin doesn't work.

Leading doctors urged a return to older, tried-and-true treatments for high cholesterol after hearing full results Sunday of a failed trial of Vytorin.
Millions of Americans already take the drug or one of its components, Zetia. But doctors were stunned to learn that Vytorin failed to improve heart disease even though it worked as intended to reduce three key risk factors.

....

The results show the drug had "no result -- zilch. In no subgroup, in no segment, was there any added benefit" for reducing plaque, said Dr. John Kastelein, the Dutch scientist who led the study.

But, but -- how could a Congressman like McCain be expected to know about this? Surely nobody in Washington has time to worry about drug studies!

Wrong.

Two Congressional panels launched probes into why it took drugmakers nearly two years after the study's completion to release results....

In addition to the two Congressional committee probes, New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo subpoenaed the companies in a similar probe in January.

"While these corporations profited, Americans were left in the dark," Cuomo said in a written statement Sunday.

I guess McCain and his doctors are "in the dark" as well. Considering how old and frail McCain is, I think it is very worrisome that his doctors are out of the loop regarding what drugs work and which ones are useless.

It's their job to keep this old coot alive, remember.

(Photo by Eric Draper/AP)

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Today marks 143 days until Old Man McCain turns 72 years old.

He is just 19 years younger than JFK would be, if he were still alive. By way of comparison, Barack Obama is 24 years younger than McCain and 43 years younger than JFK.

Time Is Not On McCain's Side

Science is telling us something that we already know. Old folks, whom we love, just aren't as fit as the years pass by. And that includes Old Man McCain, who is running to the best the oldest man ever elected President.

As people reach their 70s, the decline becomes quite precipitous.

The longitudinal declines per decade in women and in men aged 70 years are substantially greater than those predicted by cross-sectional analyses. For example, in 40-year-old men, baseline peak O2 averaged 3114 mL/min and decreased by 260 mL/min (8.3%) over 10 years.

In contrast, the 70-year-old men started with a peak O2 of 2244 mL/min but lost 521 mL/min (23.2%) over 10 years.

The accelerated loss of aerobic capacity with advancing age has important clinical ramifications. The ability of older persons to function independently in the community depends largely on maintenance of sufficient aerobic capacity and muscle strength to perform daily activities. The perceived degree of effort and breathlessness of a given activity is determined by its oxygen cost relative to a person’s peak O2.

Tasks perceived as requiring substantial effort in deconditioned individuals tend to be avoided, setting off a vicious cycle of further reduction in aerobic capacity, causing further avoidance of physical activity and further loss of muscle mass and strength. Thus, accelerated loss of aerobic capacity translates into low levels of physical activity, slow walking speeds, and early exhaustion—3 of the 5 criteria now used to define frailty.

(Click on image to see larger version)

Conclusions— The longitudinal rate of decline in peak O2 in healthy adults is not constant across the age span in healthy persons, as assumed by cross-sectional studies, but accelerates markedly with each successive age decade, especially in men, regardless of physical activity habits. The accelerated rate of decline of peak aerobic capacity has substantial implications with regard to functional independence and quality of life, not only in healthy older persons, but particularly when disease-related deficits are superimposed.

McCain has had cancer for over fifteen years. As we've said many times, he should be out on the links in Phoenix, enjoying his retirement right now. Telling old war stories. Putting back a few cold ones. Maybe playing card tricks with his grandkids.

He shouldn't be running for the most grueling job on Earth.

Oops

Because, you know, "John" is such a hard name to spell:


But what's even funnier is the ad itself. If McCain wants to run content-free commercials like this, that's fine with me. But after putting on my Right-Wing Decoder Ring, let me break the news that this is just part of McCain's attempt to put himself "above the fray" before his RNC attack dogs go all mad dog on Obama.

It's gonna be a vicious autumn.

This Is What They Are Afraid Of

Old Man McCain loves having us stay in Iraq. But he also wants you to think that we are always six months away from a solution.

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Today marks 144 days until that old geezer McCain turns 72 years old.

He is already older than 93% of the country. He is also older than his own father was when he died.

Sorry Folks, McCain Really Does Want Us In Iraq For 100 Years

In the past few weeks, John McCain and his Republican sycophants have been trying to push his "100 years" comment into the memory hole. They know this is a devastating attack, that Americans don't want to stay in Iraq forever, and the Republicans are pissed that Barack Obama hits McCain over the head with this every time he makes a speech.

This video by Josh Marshall pretty sums it up:



The national press, which has been in the tank for McCain since 1991 or so, have done their best to play along. They imply that John McCain didn't really mean 100 years, or that he only meant 100 years of playing patty-cake, or some other such nonsense. Even Frank Rich, who should know better, has fallen for the Republican spin:

Really, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton should be ashamed of themselves for libeling John McCain. As a growing chorus reiterates, their refrains that Mr. McCain is “willing to send our troops into another 100 years of war in Iraq” (as Mr. Obama said) or “willing to keep this war going for 100 years” (per Mrs. Clinton) are flat-out wrong.

What Mr. McCain actually said in a New Hampshire town-hall meeting was that he could imagine a 100-year-long American role in Iraq like our long-term presence in South Korea and Japan, where “Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed.”

Sorry Frank, you are making a distinction without a difference. Point number one, John McCain did say that he is "fine" with American troops being in Iraq for 100 years. There is absolutely nothing libelous about hitting him over the head with this: he spoke the words, he supported the idea. McCain's defense is that he said the troops would be there for some sort of bloodless, non-conflict situation ala Germany or Japan -- not war.

But this is a ridiculous defense on many counts. One, we aren't really fighting a "war" there as it is -- this is technically an occupation. We are battling insurgents and local militias, not a foreign army. According to McCain's definition, he is just fine with an occupation that goes for 100 years. But if we are calling the current occupation a "war", why not call McCain's occupation a "war"? It's the status quo, isn't it?

"No no," McCain would say, "it wouldn't be a war because nobody would be dying." But this is a ludicrous argument. First, how can he predict that nobody would be dying? Would the Sunnis and Shiites suddenly abandon their 1000 years of sectarian hatred? Would the Iraqis suddenly come to love us, throw down their weapons, and turn into the Germans or the Japanese? Only somebody with zero knowledge of history or foreign policy would equate Iraq with post-war Japan, Germany or South Korea, which were homogenous well-educated societies without recent histories of civil war.

Anyone who says we could occupy Iraq for 100 years without anyone dying is totally ignorant of Middle East history, Iraq's history, and the most recent history of this Iraq war. But it's no surprise coming from Old Man McCain, who said we would be greeted as "liberators" and that this war would be short and "fairly easy".

Ultimately, Obama and Clinton are the realists here. They are the truth-tellers. Because there is no such things as a 100-year occupation of Iraq that is not "war" in the sense that we are using it today. Either the Iraqis will continue to fight each other, they will continue to fight us, or they will mix it up with one of their neighbors in the region. I mean, if Iraq was completely peaceful, why would we need any troops in Iraq at all?

Which brings up the final point: if McCain thinks that withdrawal from the current conflict is surrender, but that we shouldn't withdraw even if nobody is dying or being wounded, what are the conditions under which he sees us pulling out? For the life of me I can't think of any scenario where he sees troops leaving Iraq. It is either too dangerous to leave, or so peaceful that we're happy to stay.

Ultimately, the press needs to ask McCain some hard questions about his stance. He puts up smoke and mirrors, he lies, he obfuscates, and too often he gets away with it. Bottom line is that he wants us in Iraq forever, and no amount of spin can erase that.

McCain to Petraeus: "I Got Your Back"

Today Gen. Petraeus, whose name makes him sound like a character from Troy or 300, testified that we aren't really winning in Iraq but it would be super-duper-terrible if we left.

Geezer McCain, who of course is attached at the hip to the failed Bush policy, basically said "Right on!"

Watch it if you can stomach it. I didn't bother, we all know where Mr. 100 Years in Iraq stands.

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And each day is taking its toll on this guy. He should be retired already.

Old Man McCain Has Trouble Raising Money

The McCain campaign has just reported that it raised $15 million in the month of March.

This is a really pathetic number. Let's look at what each remaining candidate has raised so far in 2008:

Barack Obama:  $130 million
Hillary Clinton: $70 million
John McCain:     $39 million

The numbers aren't even close. The Democrats together have raised $200 million, five times more than Republican nominee John McCain.

Obama raised more in March than McCain has raised all year. And Obama has raised more in the past two months than McCain has raised in the past two years.

Looks like there isn't a whole lot of grassroots support for the 71-year-old warmonger who wants to keep us in Iraq forever. Surprise, surprise.

Bowling Skills

Okay, this is off-topic, but pretty hilarious.

Ever since Obama played a pretty bad game of bowling a few weeks ago in PA, Hillary has challenged him to a bowl-off for the Presidency. Silly right? Considering Obama hasn't bowled since he was a teenager, while Hillary had access to the White House bowling alley for eight years, she would probably win.

Or at least, so you'd think:



Ouch! I don't think we'll hear Hillary trash-talking about her bowling skills after this.

Ed Schultz Is Right

Liberal talk show host Ed Schultz labeled John McCain a "warmonger" during an Obama fundraiser last Friday. Although the Obama camp has slightly distanced themselves from the remark, we here at the Old Man McCain blog feel no such obligation.

John McCain is a warmonger. Period. You think a peacenik would win the Republican nomination for President, in this day and age? McCain should be proud of the description!

From the Oxford English Dictionary:

war·mon·ger / ˈwôrˌmənggər; -ˌmäng-/
• n. a sovereign or political leader or activist who encourages or advocates aggression or warfare toward other nations or groups.

There is no doubt that this definition applies to McCain. He advocates 100 years of war in Iraq, the bombing of Iran, and military aggression against any country that gets on his bad side. On CNN today, Schultz rightly refuses to back down:

But this morning, Schultz showed he's not going to apologize or tone down his words.

"Labeling a candidate is not being disrespectful," Schultz told CNN host John Roberts. McCain's policies, Schultz said, "fit the description, there's no question about that. ... John McCain has no end game in Iraq. ... (He) is saber rattling with Iran. ... The man is a warmonger."

Of course, McCain has cried in protest. McCain is supposedly so tough, yet words like this hurt his feelings. He's now trying to clarify his position while tossing out ridiculous attacks against his Democratic opponents:

I do not want to keep our troops in Iraq a minute longer than necessary to secure our interests there. Our goal is an Iraq that can stand on its own as a democratic ally and a responsible force for peace in its neighborhood. Our goal is an Iraq that no longer needs American troops. And I believe we can achieve that goal, perhaps sooner than many imagine. But I do not believe that anyone should make promises as a candidate for president that they cannot keep if elected. To promise a withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, regardless of the calamitous consequences to the Iraqi people, our most vital interests, and the future of the Middle East, is the height of irresponsibility. It is a failure of leadership.

John McCain is all over the place, trying to appeal to everyone and everything. One day he says he supports 100 years of occupation in Iraq, as long as nobody is dying. But then he says that if nobody is dying, he wants us out as soon as possible. He also says that if Americans are dying, it would be surrender for us to leave. WTF? Break it all down, toss out his nonsense statements about wanting to leave, and what you are left with is indefinite occuption. Basically the old coot's saying we have to stay in Iraq for another 100 years - whether we are dying or not! Either Iraq is a permanent occupation like Germany, or a permanent war like, I don't know, Algeria on steroids. Either way, the U.S. troops will not come home under a McCain administration. Heads he wins, tails you lose.

The guy is so old and possibly senile that he probably doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Remember, this is the guy who doesn't know the difference between Sunnis and Shiites five years after the war started!

What an idiot.

McCain Called His Own Wife a "C**t"

In high school, John McCain was nicknamed "McNasty" because of his foul mouth and horrible temper. While most people mature in their later years, McCain has not. We've already documented some of his lowest moments.

Just in time for the upcoming election, author Cliff Schecter is releasing a new book about the man, titled The Real McCain.


The book contains a fascinating little tidbit, courtesy of RawStory. Apparently back in 1992 McCain called his wife a "trollop" and a "cunt":

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

I'm sure every woman in America will be heartened by this anecdote.

McCain Thinks American Workers Are Lazy

Today Atrios has reminded me of an incident that I meant to blog at some point.

Two years ago, when he was just beginning his run for the presidency, John McCain spoke to a group of AFL-CIO leaders in Washington D.C. At the time McCain was pushing his guest worker bill, and to advance his arguments he basically stated that American workers are just too lazy to do the hard work that immigrants do.

Here is the report from MSNBC:

But he took more questions, including a pointed one on his immigration plan.

McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.

Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain’s job offer.

“I’ll take it!” one man shouted.

McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete season. “You can’t do it, my friends.”

Some in the crowd said they didn’t appreciate McCain questioning their work ethic.

"You can't do it"???

This is just insulting and infuriating. No matter what you position is on immigration reform, it is inconceivable to think that Americans who take much worse jobs for much less pay would turn down $50/hour to pick lettuce.

Although audio of this encounter exists, I'm not sure if there is any video. I hope so, because it will make a devastating ad come the fall campaign. Can you imagine if Barack Obama or any Democrat told a group of Americans that they were too lazy to take a $50/hour job? That's $2000 per week, over $100,000 per year! Is McCain really so out of touch, or is his opinion of the American work ethic so low?

Just one more reason not to vote for this mean old geezer.

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And older and older he gets....