Has anyone else noticed that in the last few weeks McCain seems to be getting older?

[Kablooie]

He seems to have aged.
His face is more off balance, the wrinkles more pronounced, the skin paler.

Also his attitude seems more confused.

Do you think it's just the stress of the campaign or is a real malady setting in?

[Historic NY]

1. There is only so much you can do with makeup when your decaying.

[BlooInBloo]

2. Probably he doesn't get the consistently good makeup jobs when he's on camera ALL the time...

Whereas before the campaign when he was only on once or twice a week for MTP or something, he could focus on hiding his age better.

[lapfog_1]

3. The campaign is taking a hard toll on him.

I suspect he had a large blood transfusion just before the debate. It's a very temporary "pick me up" that can't be repeated all that often. I also think that he is suffering from Bell's Palsy (droopy left eye) or possibly even had a small stroke.

[JeffR]

4. True, but on the other hand

I notice the same thing when I look in the mirror.
:scared:

[Betsy Ross]

5. I'm with you there.

Step away from the mirror.

[JeffR]

7. Sage advice, Betsy.

It's also effective if I just take my glasses off when brushing my teeth or combing my hair. I still suspect what I would see, but can't actually get visual confirmation.

[Greyskye]

6. Somebody ripped his painting.

The Palin patch isn't holding.

[doc03]

8. Imagine what he would look like after 4 years in the

Whitehouse, look at what it has done to Clinton and GWB.

[Hekate]

17. He would not last that long. Two years, tops. That's why it's so important for folks to see Sarah...

... as the potential president on an accelerated schedule. She's hugely ambitious, and McCain is a sick old man. Sarah Palin needs to be sent back to Alaska asap to face her own legal troubles without any credibility left in the Lower 48.

I have a friend who quoted an actuary she knows who said, "Well of course we can't look any any one individual and predict when they'll die, but given all these factors, he's not likely to make it past two years." The factors include his mother's age (still alive), his father's age at death, his years in prison camp, his own age now, and his 4 bouts with melanoma, an extremely deadly form of skin cancer.

That and what my hubby said to the TV shortly after Palin came on the scene: "John, you poor fool, you better get a food taster."

Hekate

[beac]

19. I'm sure she's already dosing his Metamucil with a blend of

ground glass and arsenic.

Sarah doesn't strike me as the type to wait around for her archnemesis 'Mother Nature' to take out the old coot.

[jberryhill]

9. Left side tumor size increasing...

It puffs out more day by day, and is pulling his left cheek down.

That's why his eyes don't line up anymore.

[TexasObserver]

10. He's degrading faster than the guy who opened the Ark of the Covenant in Indiana Jones

[BanzaiBonnie]

11. I think he looks exhausted

The campaign is taking a toll.

[emilyg]

12. Aren't we all getting older?

[opihimoimoi]

13. Normal peeps would be throwing in the towel by now to seek Peace

Since its not in McCraps Cards....he will get his ass kicked in....so stupid and avoidable...

[BadDog40]

14. I think he's a ticking time bomb

I keep thinking he's going to do something crazy

[No Elephants]

15. I did not know that cosmetic surgery wore off that fast.

[H2O Man]

16. Yes. Definitely.

He had a relatively easy primary contest. It was nothing compared to the democratic primary experience that Obama had. I think that many of us were sure that McCain would have trouble with the intense pace of the general election contest. Travel alone tires people out. Add to that his age, and it is a difficult contest, both physically and mentally, and John McCain is showing the effects of the campaign.

[saltpoint]

18. Don't know, but he's clearly under considerable strain with the

high-stakes national campaign.

He's used to coasting onto the set of one of the Sunday talk shows and being treated like an elder statesman. He's accustomed to members of the media fetching him donuts and praise.

None of that is happening now and even the media are picking up the scent of blood.

McCain and Palin are being slapped around by Letterman, by Stephanie Miller, by George Will, by David Brooks, by Barbara Walters, and so forth. From several angles. His campaign handlers look like confused locals. I doubt if they could run a bowling alley. If they did, I wouldn't go to that bowling alley.

McCain's sit-down with the Des Moines REGISTER was pretty close to a disaster. He was testy and mean-spirited and didn't make a whole lot of sense. Something about astronauts and Georgetown cocktail parties...?

He's been considered a "maverick" with extraordinary appeal and has been exposed as a self-important yahoo with ordinary abilities. That just isn't nearly enough for a national campaign.

And he's a lot older on the calendar than Obama, yet he chooses as his veep-and-possible U.S. president a woman with the brains of a cement block. McCain's ideas are old and his judgment is lousy.

[hlthe2b]

20. He'd been getting by with only one campaign event/day until

recently.... Now, I'm guessing he's missing his nappy times and probably not sleeping well anyway. They say he brings his bed with him wherever he goes... (must be nice--actually for many of us, it must be nice to have a bed at home that is so comfortable that we'd want to take it with us...)

[olegramps]

21. Fewer and fewer good makeup artists what to associate with him

That's just his natural look, rotting from the inside out, that lesser qualified people are unable to disguise.

[PA Democrat]

22. Yes, and I have been wondering how the presidency would age him.

If a couple of months on the campaign trail have taken this much of a toll, how would 4 years in office affect him? Bush has aged horribly and we all know that Cheney is the one who has been making many of the decisions. Would McCain rely on Palin?

[Norrin Radd]

23. He's running out of Gelfling essence:

[Lerkfish]

32. heh! one of my favorite movies.

[Graybeard]

24. A national campaign is a grueling ordeal.

Persons much younger than McLumpy have shown signs of the strain in the past. I really wonder if he can last another month of this.

[Arugula Latte]

25. I am 42, healthy, and in pretty good shape, but I would not last a week on the campaign trail.

I honestly don't know how they can keep going with the erratic schedule, the airplane flights, the non-stop pressure.

[bdamomma]

26. sicker too. something is definitely wrong with him.

[karynnj]

27. In an interview this year, commenting on this year's primaries,Kerry said

running for President was the physically hardest thing he had ever done - and he has been athletic and fit his entire life. In an interview after he decided not to run, Teresa spoke of the experience as "grueling". They were both younger and healthier than McCain. You can also look at photos of both Clintons in February through June - there were people, here on this board, worried about Bill Clinton's health based on how he looked. Yet he looked fine at the convention.

McCain has looked worse in the last two weeks - and, in addition to the financial crisis, he was facing the race turning against him - and for I think the first time in his life, a media that was no longer fawning. Add all that to the physical demands and it could be something other than grave medical conditions.

[DemReadingDU]

28. I saw a picture recently

and it didn't even look like McCain.
Something is wrong with him.

[saltpoint]

29. And he might age even faster after tonight's "town hall" event.

McCain's been around since cave people walked with the dinosaurs.

[Jennicut]

30. McCrap is not cut out for campaigning. His age and war injuries hurt him.

Sad to say but it is true. He reminds me of Bob Dole and age against Clinton's youth is really what eventually did him in (besides the economy doing well). I just remember all the jokes about him. He was 73 and McCain is 72.

[livedemocarticordie]

31. hideous

I have noticed that he looks like he has a grotesque lump in his back, a sort of Quasimodo type thing going on. He looks shorter everytime I see him and more hunched over. Actually he looks like a angry garden gnome.

[spinbaby]

33. I saw a clip of him from early in the campaign

Last night I caught a brief clip of him from early on in his campaign--maybe a year ago. It was startling how much better he looked then.