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August 29, 2008

McCain, Palin and age-related cognitive impairment

As McCain, who turns 72 years old today and already at increased risk of Alzheimer's, edges inexorably closer to the really high-risk Alzheimer's age, he just made a truly bizzare Veep choice by going with Alaska's ethically challenged Governor Sarah Palin. Palin is in the middle of an investigation as I type these words!

Fourteen days ago Anchorage Alaska's KTVA said Governor and staff's latest explanations leave more questions than answers.

Having steadfastly denied that her administration had pressured former Department of Public Safety Director Walt Monegan to fire Gov. Palin's former Brother-in-law Trooper Michael Wooten, a cop with a clean record. And then, when Monegan apparently declined to fire a good cop just to satisfy Ms. Palin's vengeful spite over what was reportedly a messy divorce between Wooten and Palin's sister, Monegan lost his job. Now Governor Sarah Palin has been forced to backtrack by newly released phone calls showing that at least one member of her administration certainly appears to have been trying to get Wooten fired. As well, recent denigrations of Monegan made by Gov. Palin herself seem to directly contradict fairly recent glowing statements she'd made... about Monegan!

(Update: Josh Marshall covers Palin Trooper Gate far more comprehensively than my lame attempt here.)

What does any of that have to do with McCain? New York Magazine's Daily Intel explains,

But when it comes to mental performance, McCain’s age carries risks. Twenty-two percent of Americans 71 and older are affected by mild cognitive impairment, a decline in brain function that causes memory loss and can lead to dementia. Further, 35 to 40 percent of older adults have neural deficits that lead to poor decision making.

Okay, so there's a higher risk of cognitive impairment at McCain's age (72!!). But that doesn't mean that he is suffering from it. Or does it?

In just the past six weeks, McCain has referred repeatedly to Czechoslovakia as though it still existed and to Vladimir Putin as though he were still president of Russia. More significantly, he has claimed that Iraq borders Pakistan, that the Anbar Awakening occurred after the surge, that the Iraq war was America’s first major armed conflict since 9/11, and that, unlike Obama, he would prefer to speak outside the country only after being elected president.

In May, McCain incorrectly said the U.S. had drawn down its forces in Iraq to pre-surge levels. In March, he wrongly claimed that Iran was training Al Qaeda operatives. Last April, he mistakenly said General David Petraeus regularly drove around Baghdad in an unarmored Humvee. In each of these “McCain moments,” political life would have been easier for the candidate if his statements were true. But none were.

Ask yourself this: Why would the presumptive nominee of a political party that has been embroiled in an ethical quagmire for the last several years (Rep. DeLay, Karl Rove, AG Gonzalez, Monical Goodman, etc., etc., etc.) choose a political novice who is in the midst of what looks to be a still developing ethical quagmire of her own to be his Veep?

Can American afford to gamble with handing the access codes to our nuclear arsenal to a man who is exhibiting such incredibly poor judgement?

Posted by Kevin at August 29, 2008 01:09 PM