McCain Disclosure Petition

We the people respectfully request that you please release your full medical records so that you can provide full disclosure to the American people before the November election.

Find the online the petition here.

6 comments:

Julie said...

I don't count myself among this "we."

JP Burke said...

I don't imagine that anything in his medical records is going to make me change my mind and support him.

Bull said...

I already know what they're going to tell us...

...he's old and has medical issues.

Next distractor, please...

Julie said...

Me neither - and I apologize for being so abrupt.

I feel that it's a good idea to assume that anyone - young or old, with or without preexisting health problems - has a much greater risk of dropping dead while President, due not only to age-related illness, but also to non-age-related illness, aggressive political opponents, crazy people, accidents, and a host of other things that a president encounters much more often than other people. They travel more frequently, are exposed to a greater volume of germs and people, and get a lot more attention than the rest of us.

Having access to better doctors and better security gives them more advantages, but the risks aren't negligible. And they're subject to the same crappy dumb luck that we are, too.

So it's not a bad idea to assume that your candidate is going to drop dead, or get caught with a prostitute or something, and then we're stuck with the Vice President.

I'll also point out that blacks are, statistically speaking, at greater risk of heart disease than white men; is anyone clamoring for Obama's health records? I'm not, so I'm not going to ask for McCain's either.

I might feel differently if the petition was to demand that all three of them disclose their medical records... but I doubt it.

But perhaps people are more concerned about McCain's mental health. If that's the case, perhaps they should say so explicitly. I think that's just another type of smear, and if I don't like it when Clinton does it, I'm not going to like it when someone else does it either.

JP Burke said...

I'd argue, but I largely agree with the comments here. I know I posted the link, but I really don't think McCain's health is the biggest concern.

However, I might change my mind after I see his VP choice!

No, but seriously, I think I signed this one too soon, and now I regret it. Not for the reasons cited in comments here, but for what it does to the idea medical confidentiality.

But McCain released his medical records in 2000, so really I don't expect he will do differently this year.

http://findarticles.decenturl.com/presidential-medical-records

We know he's had a serious form of skin cancer (diagnosed after his run in 2000, so after the medical records release) but, again, that's not why I'm not voting for him.

Julie said...

I figured the confidentiality thing was a given, but I do understand why health is a concern. I just feel it's safer not to assume that your president is going to make the full term at all. And you don't need a psychiatric diagnosis to evaluate someone's judgment if they have lots of "experience"!