McCain Loses His Temper

John McCain is notorious in the Senate for his prolific displays of anger. "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine," Mississippi Republican Senator Thad Cochran said in January. "He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

McCain has done his best, throughout the presidential campaign, to tamp that anger down. However, as he struggles in the polls, McCain is beginning to show some stress. First there was his combative and condescending debate performance against Obama, and now there's an interview from yesterday with the Des Moines Register editorial board where McCain is especially irritable and testy.

When asked about Sarah Palin's lack of experience, McCain goes on a memorable rant, comparing Palin's 20 month tenure as Governor of Alaska to Ronald Reagan (8 years as Governor of California) and Bill Clinton (10 years as Governor of Arkansas).

When asked about his campaign's increasingly dishonest tenor, McCain grew even testier.

Perhaps McCain was in a bad mood because polls in the Hawkeye state (which Bush narrowly won in 2004), show him losing to Barack Obama by double-digits. If he keeps up this kind of behavior, McCain may find himself losing by that much everywhere.

Comments (29)

1. Bon voyage, McNasty.

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:55pm

2. Now let's get focused on Barack "Goldman Sachs, Citadel, UBS etc.." Obama.

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:57pm

3. well, bcool

   at least the glass will be half full.

   and the world's gonna say "ahhhhh".

   but october is a veeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyy

   lllllllloooooooooooonnnnnnngggggggg

   mmmoooooooooonnnnnnnnthhhhhhhhhhh.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:59pm

4. The fantastic Glen Ford.

   excerpt:

   The Illinois senator and his pretend-opponents in the other business party just had their colluding asses kicked by the most motley, disorganized crew imaginable: the American public, who bombarded their legislators with threats of retaliation in November if they bowed to Wall Street's extortionist demands.

   Never has Republican-Democratic co-subservience to finance capital been on such naked display. But then, "We the People" have never before been witness to the terminal unraveling of late-stage global finance capital. When the New York Times features no less than three articles declaring the nation's investment bankers ready for burial, as did last Sunday's paper, it is time for the Democrats, especially, to find another paymaster.

   Read the rest at Counterpunch.org today.

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:59pm

5. "i've always had 100%, absolute truth."

   hmmm......

   Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 3:04pm

6. Speaking of a motley crew.

   My letter to the local fish wrap --finally published after a weeklong email fusilade:

   On a placid, beautiful evening this month I took a casual stroll in the downtown area.

   I ambled along steeply diving Lyon Street hill into the last embers of sunset, and was unexpectedly swallowed by a swarm of well-dressed folks just then pouring out of the Ford Fieldhouse.

   Their prefab signs featured, "McCain-Palin" and "Country First," as they wended their way downhill past a smaller, much more raucous band facing them from behind a sidewalk barrier.

   This was a motley crew, some baring prefab signs portraying John McCain in slumped embrace of George Bush. Many more with homemade signs exclaiming, "THINK outside the Bun," and a slew of anti-war slogans, as well as angry slogans related to an increasingly outsourced and brutal economy.

   My mind flashed to the brilliant new tour de force book I had just finished by conservative scholar and retired Army colonel, Andrew Bacevich. Entitled, "The Limits of Power," in one sense, it serves as a paean to a long vanished America possessed of a more rugged stock that typically viewed authority, and European fine feathery with contempt.

   In 180 sharply crackling pages, Bacevich proclaims that we have morphed into a comfortable, profligate society that contentedly allows 0.5 percent of us to bear the burden of military service, the core feature of which is to enable our prodigious appetites.

   In that twilight's last gleaming, I pondered which crowd more admirably animated the phrase, "the land of the free, and the home of the brave."

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 3:05pm

7. It can't just be Palin...

   he's GOT to have seen some GOP internal polling and realized he's likely looking at double-digit deficits in key states by Halloween.

   Posted by Maskdelta at 10/01/2008 @ 3:15pm

8. "In 180 sharply crackling pages, Bacevich proclaims that we have morphed into a comfortable, profligate society that contentedly allows 0.5 percent of us to bear the burden of military service, the core feature of which is to enable our prodigious appetites. "

   Thanks, BK, this is the heart of the matter, isn't it ...

   ... and now may the ghosts of over a hundred US sailors burnt to death on the Forrestal, solely thanks to McCain, get some solace in watching this hotheaded thug go down in flames, albeit figuratively.

   Adieu, McCain, fade away soon to your many luxury homes, whisked off in the 13 cars bought by your wife's inherited money, and never darken our doors again.

   Posted by sloper at 10/01/2008 @ 3:18pm

9. http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/09/tongue-jut.html

   I recommend that everyone reads this. This is based on a book written by an FBI interrogator about technics to detect lies. If you notice McCain often does a thing where he juts out his tongue when he is speaking. According to the FBI investigator that often means you think you are getting away with something deceitful. It's interesting to see someone running for President that has some a prominent tell for when he is lying.

   Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/01/2008 @ 3:31pm

10. I also recommend watching the videos after reading that article, because I noticed his tell multiple times in just the bottom video.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/01/2008 @ 3:31pm

11. Also. Why at the end of her pointing out his lying adds does he mention his military service? It just reminds me of the guy from The Big Lebowski. Constantly mentioning his service for no reason.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/01/2008 @ 3:34pm

12. a comfortable, profligate society that contentedly allows 0.5 percent of us to bear the burden of military service,

    this is not amerika's biggest problem. the fish stinks from the head.

    a criminal regime installed by the supremes is the source of our troubles.

    the burden of military service was not nearly so burdensome before Bush.

    Posted by emile duBois at 10/01/2008 @ 3:36pm

13. "this is not amerika's biggest problem. the fish stinks from the head."

    ~Emile

    I only suggest that you read the book, Emile --you won't regret the time spent.

    "Stinking from the head" is not an exclusive answer to the problem in any case.

    Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 3:46pm

14. congrats, bcool.

    hey, check out your burg on google earth.

    in the fog........

    Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 3:47pm

15. Oh and the other really creepy thing about this gesture is that it is the same subtle gesture that Heath Ledger took on when he played the Joker in The Dark Knight. That's just a little side fact.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/01/2008 @ 3:54pm

16. If Sen. McCain was trying to win friends through this interview, boy, did he screw the pooch.

    Someone, please take the 'military service' card out of this man's deck. Oh, and the 'you offend my honor' card, too?

    Posted by javaman222 at 10/01/2008 @ 4:01pm

17. Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/01/2008 @ 3:34pm

    Walter Sobchak: Those rich fucks! This whole fucking thing... I did not watch my buddies die face down in the muck so that this fucking strumpet...

    The Dude: I don't see any connection to Vietnam, Walter.

    Walter Sobchak: Well, there isn't a literal connection, Dude.

    The Dude: Walter, face it, there isn't any connection.

    Posted by Maskdelta at 10/01/2008 @ 4:10pm

18. mccain and palin think that they can continue to prance around the country and insert bald-faced lies into the political discourse without consequence?

    and then they get angry with the media for asking questions?

    it's truly amazing watching their campaign spiral out of control...

    Posted by darladoon at 10/01/2008 @ 4:13pm

19. Posted by Maskdelta at 10/01/2008 @ 4:10pm

    It's just too true.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/01/2008 @ 4:22pm

20. McCain should look at it this way. He was complaining because he felt he wasn't getting any attention from the media. Now he and Palin are getting all the attention he wanted.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/01/2008 @ 4:23pm

21. What the hell was McC doing in Iowa? Iowa is Obama's. Why wasn't he in a real battleground, blowing his top?

    McC & his advisors seem to have lost it.

    Up to Sarah now to project the cool dignified presidential gravitas.

    Posted by sloper at 10/01/2008 @ 4:29pm

22. Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/01/2008 @ 4:23pm

    That might be part of it too.

    His old buddies in the Media, started actually criticizing him when he lost their respect with all the lies and STUNTS like the "I'm suspending my campaign for nearly a day and a half".

    No longer idolized as "the Maverick"...he's getting pissy.

    Posted by Maskdelta at 10/01/2008 @ 4:29pm

23. At least this man has the conviction to stand by his lies even when he has admitted in the past that they were lies. Rememeber when that reporter cornered McCain as he was getting on his plane and asked him about the lipstick on a pig comment and McCain said that the assertion his campaign was making was not true. No more of that. No more of that "straight talk". We want the "straight talk" with a slight bend in it.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/01/2008 @ 4:35pm

24. No longer idolized as "the Maverick"...he's getting pissy. Posted by Maskdelta at 10/01/2008 @ 4:29pm

    I think crotchety is the term we us for old people.

    Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/01/2008 @ 4:36pm

25. Posted by Cccomfo1 at 10/01/2008 @ 4:36pm

    No....that's "pissy".

    heheh

    Posted by Maskdelta at 10/01/2008 @ 4:48pm

26. Mr McCain likes to assert that his opponents are "out of touch", and yet I can't imagine anyone more out of touch than he is. Especially when he goes on about "victory" (in Iraq), "honour" and "service to his country". It's as though he's speaking to us live from the WWI era.

    The difference between Mr McCain and Mr Obama is very clear: Mr Obama has a vision. Mr McCain has an ego.

    So here is the choice, America (from my perspective in central Europe): Either you step forward into the future, or you wallow in the past.

    Four years of Mr McCain would be very uncomfortable for the world. But they would be the nails in America's coffin.

    Posted by j0shua at 10/02/2008 @ 08:41am

27. Here's the funny thing about always having 100% absolute truth, McCain - what about the Keating Five? Would we be in this mess if weren't for his deregulatory votes on the market throughout the eighties and the nineties? Yet, he's been warning congress about being stricter on regulation - and that's on the record? I smell a big pile of BS trying to cover up his role in this whole wall street fiasco - no wonder he wanted to race back to Washington and suspend his campaign.

    Posted by prophet831 at 10/02/2008 @ 10:09am

28. Someone should ask Palin what she thinks of McCain calling his wife the c word in public when she teased him about his thinning hair. I wonder what he will call Palin under his breath when he loses the election because we can be sure he will blame her.

    Posted by Rick Taves at 10/02/2008 @ 11:41am

29. If Gov. Palin bombs tonight, she may be replaced. Candidates that come to mind: Romney (although unlikely), Huckabee, and Lieberman (also unlikely). Of course it would spell almost-doom for his campaign (unseen in history), but the McCain campaign sees the polls and they will launch another hail-mary pass if they feel they have to do something -- anything...

    The behavior you saw on monday from House Republicans is indicative of a party in a meltdown process. If there are no major upsets or October surprises, you will see the Republican party collapse on Nov. 4. And then the backfighting will begin... (You'll have to pay attention because a lot of the anger internal in the Republican party will be expressed away from the microphones.) Normal expectation would have it that it will take the Republican party 12-20 years to rebuild: weed out the entire old guard and replace them with new blood, of course based on a greatly changed government and life philosophy.

    It's Democracy in Action. Too bad the price to pay to bring all this insight to the babyboomers who have been running the country was so high...

    Posted by xlator at 10/02/2008 @ 2:30pm