Challenger Says John McCain Is Likely to Die in Office

In a morbid and unusually direct line of attack, John McCain's Republican primary opponent in Arizona says the senator probably won't live to see the end of his six-year term if reelected. “I’m a doctor. The life expectancy of the American male is not 86. It’s less,” Kelli Ward tells Politico. McCain will turn 80 on Monday. The 47-year-old Ward also calls McCain "weak," "old," and a "dinosaur." "He's become...a pretty sour old guy," she tells Politico. McCain is only the eighth oldest current US senator, notes CNN. But Ward says she wants to give him the "gift of retirement." She probably won't have the chance: Polls show her massively far behind McCain, who calls Ward's attack on his age a "dive to the bottom." (More John McCain stories.)