MCCAIN FORCED TO ADDRESS HIS AGE AND HEALTH

"THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS" HAS EXPRESSED CONCERN REGARDING MCCAIN'S AGE, AND THE FACT THAT HE HAS HAD RECURRENT CANCER.

NOW THIS - FROM THE NYTIMES/AP:

John McCain, 70 and scarred, cannot deny his age. So he jokes about it. ''I'm older than dirt, more scars than Frankenstein, but I learned a few things along the way,'' quips the Republican presidential candidate, who tries to play down the ravages of time for the wisdom acquired over seven decades.

His body is battered from torture in Vietnam. The scar along his left cheek is a reminder of a different battle, with skin cancer. Yet, McCain packs his work days so tight that aides grouse. And the man who could be the oldest first-term president hiked the Grand Canyon from ''rim to rim'' last summer.

Despite McCain's high-energy lifestyle, getting older begets questions about health. The four-term Arizona senator no doubt will have to prove to voters that he is physically and mentally up to the demanding job of president. For now, the issues are only background murmurs in the 2008 race for the GOP nomination. Neither Rudy Giuliani, the 62-year-old former New York City mayor who also is a cancer survivor, nor former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a diet-and-exercise fanatic who just turned 60, has mentioned them publicly. Still, an aging candidate troubles some voters.

VOTERS LIKE ME. LOOK AT THE TWO PHOTOS ABOVE: THE ONE ON THE LEFT SHOWS MCCAIN BEFORE HIS LATEST SURGERY. THE ONE ON THE RIGHT IS RECENT: HE LOOKS VERY OLD, AND THE SCARS FROM HIS SURGERIES ARE QUITE LARGE. DID THEY GET ALL THE CANCER? WILL IT RECUR?

IF ELECTED HE WOULD BECOME THE OLDEST PRESIDENT EVER - OLDER THAN REAGAN. RTWT.