Quick answer: Who are you and what is this place?

In three months Lieberman will be helping him with his shoelaces.

I think the idea that his recent performances have shown serious lapes of memory and odd shifts of policy - which may be more related to his pandering, but could also be based on his failing grasp on reality, are all good themes for our campaign against him, and quite possibly legitimate, because senile or otherwise mentally impaired leaders with access to nuclear weapons are really a big no-no.

Speaking from experience, I can tell you that "senior moments" are real and they are not a flaw we can afford to have in our president. I am convinced this is what is affecting McCain.

Using dementia/senior moments against him is not fair IMO, but I believe people will draw the same conclusion I have if his slipups are brought to the fore.

Raider, I am totally certain that McCain is mentally incompetent and I am astounded that ANYONE takes him seriously.

No joke.

I believe one of the first signs of dementia and early warnings of Altzhiemers (sp.?) is the inability to smell lemon. Perhaps someone could take a fresh cut lemon to one of his 'gatherings' and give him the sniff test. (Need video with sound for documentation.) I'll be glad to provide the lemon.
Seriously, just today he confused Bill with Beer. Everyday he's got at least one gaffe. Shouldn't there be some type of IQ or mental test given to Presidential candidates? This would be a good thing on so many levels. Of course, the primary candidate field may be a bit sparse.

Don't forget his college nickname "McNasty" and his known tendency for hotheadism. He's gonna explode on camera before long, and who knows what'll come out.

And McCaveman is making bloopers with no heat on him!!!! Can you imagine what happens when Obama starts bearing down on him in a crackling debate?

McCaveman will cave in.

The debates -- where Obama won't be constrained like he was previously with fellow "democrat" Hillary -- will be where Obama wraps up this whole election.

McCaveman is zesty in calling for them now. But soon he will dread that decision.

I don't necessarily think he's demented. There are an awful lot of people, some quite young, smart and educated, who get their words and facts mixed-up occasionally. They can lead rich and fulfilling lives, but they probably cannot successfully pursue certain careers that require the ability to think on ones feet and express oneself clearly at all times - e.g. newscaster, stand-up comedian, politician.

Character is the issue here. Focus on character. (if there is any dementia, it takes you off the track of a good argument. dementia can affect personality, but this man has a long history of temper tantrums and I'd recommend we focus on that)

Character. That, to me, is the huge difference between Obama and McShame.

Any memory problems come out in terms of bad policy statements. Focus on the policy nuttiness. He's giving us plenty of that!

It is important if there is a concern regarding his mental capibilities that there be a recording of those utterances that substaniate that claim.

It can be difficult but the things said can be catagorized as follows:

1 Mis-speaking, such as the "beer" as opposed to "bill" mistake in the last couple of days.

2 Pandering, changing positions or not highlighting positions held to gain votes. Seeking Hillary voters without letting them know he is "anti-choice" for women. Or seeking Evangelical endorsements he never sought during his first presidential run.

3 Flip-flopping, changing positions to curry favor with the Neo-Cons who are bankrolling his campaign. Against tax cuts before he was for them.

4 Ignorance, such as his lack of understanding between Sunni and Shia.

5 Denials of saying something he said. He has repeatedly denied saying things where there is actual proof he said them. His denials have have been explained on MSNBC as his inability to understand how the new "internet" age has affected campaigns, where in the past a candidate could say anything to a group to address their concerns then go down the road and say something completely different and not have it come back to haunt them because there was no record of the change in positions.

6 Diminished mental capabilities. Hard to prove which of his mis-speakings can be attributed to this catagory. But I have no doubt some of them could be. Seventy-two years old is not a factor. My grandmother was sharp as a tack at 92 years old. My aunt and uncle in their 80s are also very sharp and show no evidence of diminished mental abilities. However, the pressure placed on the President of the United States ages a person considerably. These pressures combined with age make the questions very relevant and keenly important.

Each of the above demonstrates someone who is getting very tangled up in his words and whose real positions are unknown outside of his Iraq/Iran positions.

Someone with more savvy than I needs to document and catagorize each of this man's "gaffes" to show how completely incompetent, ignorant, and dishonest he is along with questions regarding his current and future mental capabilities.

This record needs to be easily accessable to all on an ongoing basis and updated as he continues to add to his demonstrations that he is in fact not fit to be the President of the United States.

Maybe someone needs to set up a web site to document all of these with youtube links. Then have the site linked at the major blogs such as TPM.

In addition to age-related changes in reasoning abilities and memory that happen to most of us, some are additionally impaired by changes in the brain due to increased permeability of the blood-brain barrier, either hereditary or related to medications.

(I'm not a doctor and didn't even stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I would welcome a real medical opinion on this)
Remember that McCain's medical records were scheduled to be released a month or so earlier than they were. I think the delay may have been related to the fact that his doctors switched his cholesterol med around that time from one with at least anecdotal links to mental confusion to one with fewer mental-related problems. His good cholesterol (HDL), necessary for long neuronal connections that are essential to complex thought, was low initially and decreased further under his medical regimen.

It could well be that his handlers wanted a little time to pass after discontinuing the cholesterol-lowering drug that was getting so much attention at the time and instead release his medical records without prior notice later and when a lot else was going on so they didn't get the kind of coverage they would have gotten had they been released when originally scheduled. I saw no coverage of the cholesterol-confusion issue at the time, though I didn't have time to follow it closely. There's a lot at stake for pharmaceutical companies, which have redirected their efforts from less profitable drugs like antibiotics that are used infrequently to drugs like cholesterol-lowering meds that are taken daily by millions of people. Media attention to McCain's situation could cause lots of people to reconsider the trade-offs of drugs they take.

Blood-brain barrier permeability works both ways: good things can move out of the brain, while toxins can move in, obstructing normal functioning of synapses. I think McCain could well be experiencing the effects of both processes, to a degree that it would impair Presidential decision-making. I agree with other TPM posters who have predicted that this impairment will be acknowledged before November and McCain will be replaced with another Republican candidate, with much less time for vetting.

So yes, I think his impairment is serious, and especially so when combined with his course reversals on most issues (made for political reasons) - it really seems that he can't keep his new positions straight.

McCain's mental fitness is not an issue as long as his wife has a good astrologer to help her run the country. This technique has already produced the poster administration for conservative Republicanism.