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WASHINGTON -
As he exited the stairs of his "Straight Talk Express" campaign bus on a chilly March day in Iowa, Sen. John McCain carefully took one step at a time, his left hand gripping a rail and his right knee looking stiff.
A bum knee isn't surprising in a 70-year-old man -- particularly one whose right leg was shattered about four decades ago when his jet fighter was shot down over North Vietnam.
But his wooden movements, along with his age and appearance, are creating an impression about McCain's health that could be a liability for the Arizona Republican as he tries to persuade Americans to elect him president.
McCain brings to the campaign a body and mind with some heavy wear and tear, including a couple of bouts of cancer and the effects of years of torture. If elected, he would be the oldest person in history to enter the White House, and if he served two terms he would leave office an octogenarian.
Other presidential contenders have health issues, including Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s two brain aneurysms in 1988, Rudolph W. Giuliani's prostate cancer in 2000 and former Sen. Fred Thompson's lymphoma. But they are all younger and haven't experienced McCain's physical and mental agonies.
Voters should not worry, the senator's staff says. He passed a recent health exam with flying colors, they say, the results of which will be publicly released in coming weeks.
"We all have trouble keeping up with him," said Eileen McMenamin, communications director in McCain's Senate office.
Indeed, when life spans are lengthening and people in their 80s are running companies and marathons, McCain's age in itself shouldn't be an issue, some experts say.
"Don't give me that age business," said Dr. James E. Birren, a prolific medical author known as the father of gerontology, who still lectures at USC at age 89. "If the task requires speed, then you want the younger person. But if it requires wisdom, you want somebody old."
But McCain's health, much like his politics, is a complex matter.
McCain has twice developed melanoma, a potentially deadly form of skin cancer. He had four surgeries between 1993 and 2002: two to remove melanomas, one to remove skin lesions and one to treat an enlarged prostate.
When doctors removed a melanoma from his left temple in 2000, they did exploratory surgery to look for cancer in his lymph nodes, leaving a buildup of scar tissue -- a big lump -- on his left jaw. So far, McCain has rejected his staff's suggestions to have it removed by cosmetic surgery. To prevent a recurrence of the melanoma, McCain slathers himself with sunscreen whenever he ventures out.
"John looks pale, but he has to stay out of the sun," said James McGovern, a longtime friend and a campaign fundraiser, who asserts McCain has more than enough stamina to be president.
McCain, whose staff did not make him available to be interviewed for this article, described his health as excellent Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
'Looks count'
Critics have a tougher assessment of how the public perceives him.
"What does in McCain is the fact that he looks old," said Loren Thompson, an expert on military affairs at the Lexington Institute, a public policy think tank in Arlington, Va. "Looks count, and McCain looks terrible."
A recent Roper poll found that 30% of registered voters had "some reservations" or were "very uncomfortable" about the fact that McCain would be the oldest president elected to a first term.
McCain does not regularly run, lift weights or go to a gym, and he smoked cigarettes until age 45, his staff said. But he is not a couch potato. McCain, who regularly hikes near his home in northern Arizona, marched across the Grand Canyon last year from rim to rim, a task equal to climbing and descending the Empire State Building more than three times in just a few days.
"He jokes that it almost killed him," spokesman Tucker Bounds said.
A bum knee isn't surprising in a 70-year-old man -- particularly one whose right leg was shattered about four decades ago when his jet fighter was shot down over North Vietnam.
But his wooden movements, along with his age and appearance, are creating an impression about McCain's health that could be a liability for the Arizona Republican as he tries to persuade Americans to elect him president.
McCain brings to the campaign a body and mind with some heavy wear and tear, including a couple of bouts of cancer and the effects of years of torture. If elected, he would be the oldest person in history to enter the White House, and if he served two terms he would leave office an octogenarian.
Other presidential contenders have health issues, including Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s two brain aneurysms in 1988, Rudolph W. Giuliani's prostate cancer in 2000 and former Sen. Fred Thompson's lymphoma. But they are all younger and haven't experienced McCain's physical and mental agonies.
Voters should not worry, the senator's staff says. He passed a recent health exam with flying colors, they say, the results of which will be publicly released in coming weeks.
"We all have trouble keeping up with him," said Eileen McMenamin, communications director in McCain's Senate office.
Indeed, when life spans are lengthening and people in their 80s are running companies and marathons, McCain's age in itself shouldn't be an issue, some experts say.
"Don't give me that age business," said Dr. James E. Birren, a prolific medical author known as the father of gerontology, who still lectures at USC at age 89. "If the task requires speed, then you want the younger person. But if it requires wisdom, you want somebody old."
But McCain's health, much like his politics, is a complex matter.
McCain has twice developed melanoma, a potentially deadly form of skin cancer. He had four surgeries between 1993 and 2002: two to remove melanomas, one to remove skin lesions and one to treat an enlarged prostate.
When doctors removed a melanoma from his left temple in 2000, they did exploratory surgery to look for cancer in his lymph nodes, leaving a buildup of scar tissue -- a big lump -- on his left jaw. So far, McCain has rejected his staff's suggestions to have it removed by cosmetic surgery. To prevent a recurrence of the melanoma, McCain slathers himself with sunscreen whenever he ventures out.
"John looks pale, but he has to stay out of the sun," said James McGovern, a longtime friend and a campaign fundraiser, who asserts McCain has more than enough stamina to be president.
McCain, whose staff did not make him available to be interviewed for this article, described his health as excellent Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
'Looks count'
Critics have a tougher assessment of how the public perceives him.
"What does in McCain is the fact that he looks old," said Loren Thompson, an expert on military affairs at the Lexington Institute, a public policy think tank in Arlington, Va. "Looks count, and McCain looks terrible."
A recent Roper poll found that 30% of registered voters had "some reservations" or were "very uncomfortable" about the fact that McCain would be the oldest president elected to a first term.
McCain does not regularly run, lift weights or go to a gym, and he smoked cigarettes until age 45, his staff said. But he is not a couch potato. McCain, who regularly hikes near his home in northern Arizona, marched across the Grand Canyon last year from rim to rim, a task equal to climbing and descending the Empire State Building more than three times in just a few days.
"He jokes that it almost killed him," spokesman Tucker Bounds said.
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