As the Cookie Crumbles...

Financial news of Wall Street meltdowns, Fed takeovers of big insurers and mortgage giants, and some serious death and destruction on the Texas coast from Hurricane Ike (which we're finding out about piecemeal after 6 days of "Heckuva Job, Skeletor"), it has become more and more obvious that the country is in such terrible trouble that this will be one of the most important Presidential elections of our lifetimes.

So perhaps it's not so surprising that both friends and enemies of Republican candidate John McCain are beginning to become alarmed at what appears to be some sort of serious mental decline that has taken hold and accelerating rapidly. What's going on?

Since McCain - a 72-year old man who has survived four bouts with malignant melanoma - has refused to release the results of his most recent medical check-ups and testing, we aren't likely to find out what's actually wrong during this election cycle unless (God forbid) he suddenly becomes gravely ill. In which case it'll still be All About Palin, since the ballots are already printed. John Ashcroft, it must be remembered, lost an election to a man who died during the campaign. So yes, that CAN happen in this country, on this level of politics.

Now, I don't want to have to live through either a McCain or a Palin presidency. I think they're both more dangerous than Junior Moron, and Palin's definitely in line as heir to the Cheney "Imperial Vice-Presidency." But I also don't relish the thought of anything awful happening to any of the candidates, or having to watch as McCain painfully slides into some kind of overt dementia. This is a guy who really has had a long and storied career of public service, and who really has had a strong grasp of various foreign policy issues on a much higher level than merely being able to see Russia from the kitchen window. He's looking sick, exhausted and is scarily losing his mental acumen - why have his handlers not checked him in for a few days of serious rest and medical attention?

It's more than just not remembering how many houses and condos he and his heiress wife own. That can be understandable if you're that rich and she's got her own games going. It's more than stupidly echoing failed Republican economic pablum on a day when the whole world suffered massive economic meltdown. Now McCain has lost touch so seriously he can't remember who is running Spain - a NATO member and strong ally of the US - and even confuses things so badly that he thinks Spain is a South American dictatorship!

That's just not right. And it's not John McCain, who (in his younger days and in his right mind) knows all about Spain as a European country and NATO ally.

If it's just jet lag and the stresses of hard campaigning, then he needs a few day's R&R and nobody in his corner needs to apologize for it. If it's more than that, they're risking his very life forcing him to keep going in his obvious state of ill health and mental confusion.

Somebody please do the right thing. Help this man - whatever he loses by being out of the loop for a few days isn't something that wouldn't have been lost anyway if he keeps on demonstrating that he's too old, sick and mentally unfit to be President. He deserves more just for having served so long. From his wife, his erstwhile "soul mate" in the Veep slot, his campaign lobbyists and his party.

Give him a rest. He obviously needs it.