JustOneMinute: Times Editors - Kidding, Or Is It Early Alzheimers?

Times Editors - Kidding, Or Is It Early Alzheimers?

The Times editors deliver yet another headscratcher in their call for John McCain's medical records:

Senator John McCain is 71 years old, a survivor of an aggressive form of skin cancer. If elected, he would be the oldest man to become president.

These factors are not disqualifying, but they impose on Mr. McCain a larger duty than usual to provide detailed, timely disclosure about his health. So far, he has failed to meet this obligation to voters, even though he is now the presumed Republican nominee.

...

No presidential candidate should get to the point that he has locked up his party’s nomination without public vetting of his health.

Hello? John Kerry, who was treated for prostate cancer in early 2003, only sat down with the Times and let them leaf through his medical records in October 2004, a month before the election.

Not that he needed to wait - the Times went totally into the tank, and Kerry's medical records were not released to the general public.

As one example of the Times non-reporting, Kerry was promising to make available to the general public the same health care plan that covered him as a US Senator. Yet Kerry's tax return showed $9,000 in unreimbursed medical expenses; that's a lot of money to a lot of people. So what explained that gap in Kerry's coverage? Are you kidding? It was the Times asking the questions, so we'll never know.

To be fair, I do recall a perfunctory Times plea for Kerry's medical records earlier in the campaign, but the topic just drifted until the fall. Oh, well - maybe McCain can sit down with the good people at Fox News and address their questions, Times/Kerry style.

Posted by Tom Maguire on May 04, 2008 | Permalink