Damning McCain's health with faint praise

The AP's Lauran Neergard and Liz Sidoti set the early tone: "Three-time melanoma survivor John McCain appears cancer-free, has a strong heart and is in otherwise general good health, according to eight years of medical records reviewed by The Associated Press."

"The actuarial tables say if you make to 71 in overall good health your life expectancy is about 16 years," said ABC News Medical Editor Dr. Tim Johnson, on "World News" Thursday. "That would be to about to age 87. . . . Much more difficult to predict," he added, is "any change in mental acuity."

Don't think any amount of records could quiet all the questions: "The records are unlikely to speak directly to the effects of his years as a prisoner of war," The Washington Post's David Brown reports. "McCain's years as a POW -- he was released in early 1973 -- constitute a distinctly unusual health variable among presidential aspirants."