Another Thing to Worry About When Considering a Palin Vice Presidency

John McCain hasn't released his medical records. Did you know that? And based on what we know about the melanoma he's already been treated for and what we can reasonably infer from it, we're not left with a reassuring picture of his longer term prospects:

Last week, when I got the letter from Robert Greenwald talking about John McCain's refusal to release his medical records to fair scrutiny, the fact that there are 1,000 pages of them (I create medical records for a living, 1,000 pages is EXTREME), and the news that he has had malignant melanoma, deep primaries with removal of lymph nodes, my immediate thought was "Then he's dying." If he were to be elected, he'd have an almost 2 out of 3 chance of having a recurrence if he doesn't have one already. This is not the kind of cancer you count on escaping from. This is not Stage II, as it has been reported: Stage II by definition does not have lymph node involvement. By definition, it must be either Stage III or Stage IV.

I don't want to speculate more darkly on McCain's motivations here, but this is extremely worrisome. Actuarially speaking, he's already got a one and four chance of dying in his first term based solely on his age. Even assuming he were in perfect health, the transparently political way he chose such an ill-prepared successor as Palin gives us a good look at his though process and priorities. To say the least, it doesn't reflect well on him.

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