McCain's Medical Records Document Dump

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 8:27 AM on May 23, 2008.

After months of delays, a handful of carefully-selected reporters will have access this morning to 400 pages of John McCain’s medical records. By all appearances, the McCain campaign is rather panicky about what journalists might find, and have gone to almost comical lengths to make this process as ridiculous as humanly possible.


At the outset, let’s not brush too quickly past the series of delays. A year ago, reporters began asking for access to the records. At the time, the campaign said the release of the materials would come in a matter of weeks. It didn’t. Then, McCain 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. (I wasn’t inclined to be suspicious about this until McCain started acting suspiciously.)



Finally, the McCain campaign picked this morning — the Friday before Memorial Day weekend — to “show” the materials to a select few, none of whom will be able to even make a photocopy of a single page.

As Americans kick off Memorial Day weekend, Sen. John McCain today will release 400 pages of his medical records to a handpicked group of reporters who can neither walk out with the documents nor photocopy them, illustrating the campaign’s sensitivity about the 71-year-old candidate’s age and health.


The health of the presumed Republican presidential nominee, who bears large scars on his face and neck from surgery in 2000 to remove an invasive form of skin cancer, has been a question throughout the early part of the campaign.


For more than a year, the four-term senator has repeatedly promised to release his recent medical records but has not done so.

In 1999, during McCain’s first presidential campaign, the senator, then 63, was quite forthcoming when it came to his medical history. Months before a single vote was cast, McCain made available 1,500 pages of medical and psychiatric records.


This morning, in contrast, McCain will make 400 pages available for three hours to hand-picked reporters who won’t even be allowed to make photocopies. What’s more, McCain’s psychiatric records will be off-limits. (The medical records released today will only cover the years 2000 to 2008.)


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.


I’m not a medical reporter, but it seems obvious to me that a journalist would want — indeed, need — to get a copy of the materials and then show them to medical professionals for an independent evaluation. Reporters aren’t experts on medicine. A brief look at records they can’t take with them is, by design, intended to conceal. Doing all of this the Friday before Memorial Day weekend just drives the point home.



I should clarify that most reporters aren’t experts on medicine. The New York Times’ Lawrence Altman not only covers medicine for the paper of record, but is also a trained physician. In the world of medical reporters, Altman is arguably the nation’s most respected, and he covered McCain’s health during the 2000 campaign.


It’s interesting, then, that the McCain campaign decided not to invite the New York Times to this morning’s gathering at all.

The last time McCain released his medical records, one of the reporters who viewed them was the Times’ Lawrence Altman. Not only is Altman the dean of science reporters, but he’s also an M.D. — i.e., somebody who, even in the short span of three hours, would be able to assess the significance and full meaning of the records. And in an article earlier this year, Altman started raising questions about McCain’s present health — and his campaign’s curious delay in making the records public.


It sounds like the Times isn’t in the pool this time around, which means no Altman.

Tagged as: health, mccain, document dump