GREENDALE, Wis. — Is he sick, or not?

Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign caused a bit of a buzz when it abruptly sent out an e-mail to reporters Thursday saying his public events the following day—a town hall and news conference–in Pennsylvania were being canceled.

Several political bloggers reported he had a cold and was feeling under the weather, citing unnamed campaign aides. An aide also confirmed to The Times that Mr. McCain has a cold. But Brooke Buchanan, Mr. McCain’s traveling press secretary, hurried over to reporters before a town hall meeting here and told them the senator was not sick at all.

Ms. Buchanan said she was mystified at where the illness rumors were coming from. After all, she said, he was plunging ahead with his town hall meeting at a high school here and a fund-raiser this evening.

“He’s not sick,” she said. “Otherwise, we would have canceled this.



“It really is a scheduling issue,” she added but did not elaborate.

Indeed, Mr. McCain did not seem at all under the weather during his hour-long town hall meeting here, which aides said drew over a thousand people.

He continued with gusto the running count he began Wednesday of how many days it has been since Senator Barack Obama, Mr. McCain’s likely Democratic opponent, has been to Iraq; he listened patiently but responded forcefully as a woman pressed him about whether the war in Iraq was hurting the economy; and he argued vigorously that he had a “record” of working in a bipartisan fashion, as opposed to mere “rhetoric.”

The possibility that Mr. McCain might be feeling a bit rundown from campaigning is, of course, a bit more of sensitive topic than it might be for the typical candidate.

Mr. McCain’s age, 71, continues to be a source of concern for at least some voters. Last week, reporters pored over hundreds of pages of medical records his campaign released.

As part of an effort to deflect concerns about his age and vitality, Mr. McCain has kept up a vigorous campaign schedule, which often kept him going from early in the morning to late at night–although it has become much more focused on fund-raising event over the past few months.

Instead of flying to Pennsylvania Friday, Mr. McCain will hold a news conference in Milwaukee at 1 p.m. and then fly on to Long Island for a fund-raiser, before returning to Washington late that evening.

Still a long day.