Brain Injury and McCain

I read a very interesting comment on a blog just now, in which the writer warned of the psychological effects of repetitive concussions (head injuries) on John McCain. Here is the comment in full:

ann wilson (Oregon Thinking Woman ) wrote:

This is just another clear example of the "erratic" and dishonest McCain we keep hearing about--the one that pulled Sarah Palin out of a rabbit's hat and thinks that she is his ticket to 1600 Pennsyvania Avenue. One minute he is attacking Barack Obama or having Palin use words like "terrorist" and the next minute--when he gets word that people are frightening about how he and Palin are inciting angry mobs at his rallies--he backs off and says Obama is a family man and he isn't an ARAB, God forbid! Geez. So a thinking person might ask: Why is it that McCain has EARNED this reputation for being an erratic hot head or for making campaign decisions that are more like crap shoots--his favorite form of gambling? Look no further than his personal history of repetitive concussions--in other works, repetivive traumatic brain injuries. His history of being abnormally and inappropriately angry and having to repeatedly apologize for pounding his finger into the chests of those who don't agree with him preceeds him. That doesn't come out of nowhere. The medical literature will tell you that an individual who has sustained multiple traumatic brain injuries IS more emotionally unstable, IS more erratic and IS unable to function rationally and calmly in times of extreme stress. McCain has crashed jets and could not have come through that without a serious head injury or two. Then there is the brutal torture he was subjected to in Vietnam. Hard to imagine that his head was "off limits" to his torturers. So when considering McCain's history, this is much more troubling to me than his age of 72 and being a survivor of multiple bouts of cancer and chemotherapy. If you don't think this is a real concern, do your own google search about the behavioral and emotional affects of repetivive and severe brain trauma. Or if you don't want to go to that trouble, just look at old professional boxers. Not exactly Presidential material, no matter how you cut it.

Monday, October 13, 2008 4:29:31 PM