McCain's Age and Past Health Problems Could Be An Issue in the Presidential Race

By Liz Halloran
U.S. News & WR

Just days before his expected nomination at the Republican National Convention, John McCain will celebrate his birthday. But don't bet on seeing a prime-time bash during the GOP's September get-together in Minneapolis: a presidential nominee blowing out 72 candles is not an image party bosses want to see on YouTube going into the fall battle.

Especially when that nominee visibly wears the toll of a long and, at times, extraordinarily difficult life. One that has included surviving a bone-crushing ejection from his Navy jet, torture during 5½ years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, major surgery to remove a dangerous skin cancer from his face, and the stiff and sometimes pained bearing shared by many of his contemporaries. If elected, McCain would steal Ronald Reagan's record as the oldest first-term president in the nation's history.

While questions of age and health have shadowed McCain, they have largely remained under the radar. His staffers respond to queries about his condition by pointing to the demanding campaign schedule he has maintained for many months. But with his doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., poised to release his current medical records before Memorial Day, and polls showing that a significant number of voters (32 percent in one survey) say that McCain is too old to be president, those back-burner issues are about to move front and center.

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