John McCain Watch: Age and Health Questions Plague McCain

Senator John McCain campaigning in New Hampshire yesterday.

Age and Health Questions Hound McCain

John McCain, 70 and scarred, cannot deny his age. So he jokes about it. “I’m older than dirt, more scars than Frankenstein, but I learned a few things along the way,” quips the Republican presidential candidate, who tries to play down the ravages of time for the wisdom acquired over seven decades.

His body is battered from torture in Vietnam. The scar along his left cheek is a reminder of a different battle, with skin cancer. Yet, McCain packs his work days so tight that aides grouse. And the man who could be the oldest first-term president hiked the Grand Canyon from “rim to rim” last summer.

Despite McCain’s high-energy lifestyle, getting older begets questions about health. The four-term Arizona senator no doubt will have to prove to voters that he is physically and mentally up to the demanding job of president.

Flap knows that Senator McCain is too OLD to be President. The job is too demanding and stressful for a 70 year old man – irrespective of McCain’s past medical history.

Flap expects his President to be vigorous and alert to make the RIGHT decision.

McCain doesn’t make it.

And the American people feel the same way:

Still, an aging candidate troubles some voters.

Two recent surveys found that people are less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who is older than 72 than they would a candidate who has been divorced twice and a candidate who is Mormon. Giuliani is on his third marriage; Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In Michigan, Jerry Roe, a Republican who is a former state GOP executive director, backed McCain in 2000 but supports Romney this time. “McCain’s too old,” Roe said recently.

“He looks tired. He looks like he’s dragging,” added Chip Felkel, a GOP strategist in South Carolina who says he is not aligned with a candidate.

McCain is attempting to counter health and age skeptics.

But, Flap asks the reader: Look at the video above.

After two days of campigning does McCain look vigorous?

Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., listens to questions during a town hall meeting campaign stop in Milford, N.H., Saturday, March 17, 2007.

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