McCain’s elusive medical records

In 1999, during John McCain’s first presidential campaign, the senator, then 63, couldn’t have been any more forthcoming when it came to his medical history. Months before a single vote was cast, McCain instructed his campaign to release 1,500 pages of medical and psychiatric records. What’s more, journalists with additional questions were given direct access to McCain’s personal physician.

That was then; this is now. The NYT’s Lawrence Altman, a physician, reported a month ago:

[T]his time around, Mr. McCain has yet to make his full medical records or his physicians available to reporters. At least three times since March 2007, campaign officials have told The New York Times that they would provide the detailed information about his current state of health, but they have not done so. The campaign now says it expects to release the information in April.

That was the standard line in early March. McCain sat down for an interview with Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes,” and was asked about his health. McCain said it’s “excellent” (three times), and said his campaign would be “doing the medical records thing” soon. Pelley followed up, “There has been some criticism that you have not released your medical records. You’re saying in this interview that you’re about to do that.” McCain replied, “Oh, yeah, we’ll do it in the next month or so, yeah.”

With this in mind, it came as a bit of a surprise when CNN reported yesterday, “The McCain campaign said Wednesday the Arizona senator’s medical records will no longer be released by April 15. They now say the new timetable is ‘sometime in May.'”

My hunch is that there’s probably nothing to this. If McCain had a serious medical problem that would interfere with his campaign or his ability to serve, it’d be insane for him to try to conceal it now.

But why, then, play these games?



It was just March 10 — a few weeks ago — when McCain had what he said was a routine doctor’s visit in Phoenix. He told reporters afterwards, “Everything’s fine, everything’s fine,” adding that he’d make a full disclosure on April 15.

And now the date has been pushed back again. I wasn’t inclined to be suspicious about this issue until McCain started acting suspiciously.

Reporters started asking for medical records months ago. First, McCain’s aides said they’d release the information in March. Then, without explanation, they changed the date to April. Then, again without explanation, they changed the date to May.

For a candidate who has nothing to hide, he’s acting like he has something to hide. And given that McCain is running to be the oldest president ever elected, and he has a history of medical problems including melanoma, this is a little unsettling.

If McCain had a history of secrecy, it’d be easier to just chalk this up to a character flaw. But his previous disclosures actually make the problem worse. He was an open book during his first campaign, and now he can’t even explain the delays in releasing his records.

As I said, there’s probably nothing to this. But the campaign’s conduct on the issue raises questions, doesn’t it?