This has really been bothering me for a while. I've confirmed with many people who are as crazed as I am about politics that the media does absolutely favor McCain's right side in pictures, going out of the way to not show his disfigured left side. Also very recently, there has been some sort of shadow on his left side, as seen in this video.
Along with his signature bright white hair, the most striking aspects of Senator John McCain's physical appearance are his puffy left cheek and the scar that runs down the back of his neck.
(snip)
The operation was performed mainly to determine whether the melanoma, a potentially fatal form of skin cancer, had spread from his left temple to a key lymph node in his neck; a preliminary pathology test at the time showed that it had not.
But because such a test cannot be definitive, the surgeons, with Mr. McCain's advance permission, removed the surrounding lymph nodes and part of the parotid gland, which produces saliva, in the same operation, which lasted five and a half hours.
(snip)
In 1999, during Mr. McCain's first race for president, he gave the public an extraordinary look at his medical history - 1,500 pages of medical and psychiatric records that were amassed as part of a United States Navy project to gauge the health of former prisoners of war. This reporter, who is a physician, interviewed the senator's doctors in 1999 with his permission.
But this time around, Mr. McCain has yet to make his full medical records or his physicians available to reporters. At least three times since March 2007, campaign officials have told The New York Times that they would provide the detailed information about his current state of health, but they have not done so. The campaign now says it expects to release the information in April.
I guess I missed the shadow on his face the first time around, and assumed his concaved torso near his right shoulder was to what Paddy referred. My apologies for the mistake. However, I think that this illustrates how lightly everyone needs to tread on issues of his health. They are completely intertwined with the defining moment of his life . . . whether they are directly linked to those years or not.