In the past few days, with Hillary Clinton's coughing episode followed by her pneumonia and fainting episode, this has sparked (at least in the press), new questions about her health in being President of the United States. In addition, Donald Trump is rumored to reveal medical records on the Dr. Oz show later this week. What are we to make of this? Do people really care about their health history?
Flashback to 2008, when these same health questions were made to John McCain. At the time, we was 71 years old, and would have been the oldest President of the United States (note, both Trump and Clinton are 68).
The McCain camp took a step toward transparency, and made available over 1000 pages of medical records (1173 pieces of paper according to the Washington Post). These records were made this available to select press members, like the Associated Press (according to the New York Times). And, without cell phones and internet access, these press members were able to write summaries on their laptops. In addition, the McCain campaign posted summaries of the medical records on their website. And if that wasn't enough, the campaign made available three of McCain's doctors. (See CNN video below)
Did it ultimately work? Uh no. Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States. But, there is a lot to be learned from this McCain Move from 2008. I think that all of us can agree that more transparency in the political process is a good thing. Will we get this kind of access to the Trump or Clinton medical records? Probably not. But, if there is one thing that you can say about this campaign, is that it is unpredictable...