Renewing the 'presidential temperament' question
By Steve Benen Sunday Mar 30, 2008 6:44pmA couple of months ago, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, one of John McCain’s conservative Republican colleagues and a man who’s worked with McCain for years, raised serious doubts about McCain’s temperament. “The thought of him being president sends a cold chill down my spine,” Cochran said. “He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”
The number of examples to bolster these concerns keeps going up.
Not surprisingly, after the speech last week at the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, McCain’s campaign could not talk enough about international cooperation—what McCain had called a “new compact.” “He has such a deep relationship with so many Europeans and those in other regions, including Asia and the Middle East,” said one adviser, Rich Williamson, who added that McCain has kept up his global profile by “going each year to the Munich Security Conference.”
It was all very reassuring. There’s just one problem: John McCain doesn’t always behave according to his own statesmanlike script. In fact, while attending that same Munich conference in 2006, the Arizona senator had another one of what have come to be known as McCain Moments. In a small meeting at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof, McCain was conferring with Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the foreign minister of Germany — one of America’s most important allies — when the others heard McCain erupt. He thought the German was being insufficiently tough on the brutal regime in Belarus. Raising his voice at Steinmeier — who’s known for speaking in unclear diplomatese — McCain “started shaking and rising out of his chair,” said one participant, a former senior diplomatic official who related the anecdote on condition of anonymity. “He said something like: ‘I haven’t come to Munich to hear this kind of crap’.”
McCain’s old pal Joe Lieberman jumped in. “Lieberman, who reads him very well, put his hand on McCain’s arm and said gently, ‘John, I think there’s been a problem in the translation.’ Of course Lieberman doesn’t speak German and there hadn’t been any problem in the translation … It was just John’s explosive temper.”
As Newsweek noted, this didn’t amount to an international incident, and “the Germans later said all was forgiven.” It was, however, just McCain being McCain. He’s an equal-opportunity hothead, berating Republicans, Democrats, the powerful, the powerless, and anyone who annoys him in this country or any other.
Just the kind of guy we want leading the most powerful military on the planet during a time of war, right?
Login or Register to post comments.
McFrist.
McInsane is the real deal. The Dems need to quit pickin' on each other and untie against this guy and the Republican party.
(That AFL-CIO link on the real McCain has some good info assembled quite handsomely, I might add.)
Senile old fart. Just what this country needs after having cheney's hand up the monkey's ass for the last eight years.
We are #1....how sad!
Can you imagine an Obama-McCain debate? It would be over in the first round, unless the rules expressly state that Joe Lieberman gets to share the podium with McCain and help him out when he gets lost. No matter which Democratic candidate faces McCain, he gotta be careful. Elder-abuse is a crime in this country.
McCain's mistake-filled record, questionable judgment, calamitous misreading of history, nonchalance about American casualties and notorious short fuse all combine to make him a dangerous choice to lead an America at war. Simply put, John McCain is unfit for command.
For the details, see:
"John McCain: Unfit for Command."
Since McShrub's temper is a well known factor, let's hope the Democrats take full advantage of it. If the press insists (as Howard Fineman did on "Hardball" today) that Chelsea Clinton answer questions about her father's infidelity, isn't it fair game to insist McShrub answer a few Manchurian candidate questions of quiz him about the aircraft he destroyed due to in competence?
Let's hope Obama's strategists pick up on the temper theme and use it during the debates. It would take only one explosion during the televised debates to clinch this election for the Democrats.
well said woodguy!!!
the viet cong knew how to deal with the rude mannered oaf.
God Damn the corporate Asses-O-Media who ignored this !
"they" ensure America's demise , , ,
woodguy @ 5:
Funny how Howard has never insisted McShithead not 'have to' answer questions still lingering on his relationship with Vicki Iseman ...........
McSenile need not 'explode' , BTW ; a simple pregnant pause when he's quizzed on the economy will more than suffice.
That wrinkled old dipshit knows as much about our economy as Chimpy does about literary devices ..............
conrad @ 6:
Thank you kindly. Typos remain, but it's the thought that matters.
In my opinion, McCain is emotionally unstable.
Also in my opinion, anyone who wants to sit in the oval office should be subjected to a battery of psychological tests before they can be deemed eligible.
Let's hope that he has a few McCain moments during the campaign.
MCMetal @ 9:
Any sightings of Vicki lately? I don't expect any queries from the press, but seems like she just dropped out of sight. Maybe Joe Scarborough knows!
The Cochran quote should run in every swing state for the next 5 months. He is Reagan with rabies. The sooner the country knows the better. I do not want to have to win this thing, I want them to lose it.
woodguy @ 13:
Joe Stupidborough doesn't know shit ...........He's another horseshit GOP stooge with a smarmy look and arrogance written all over his stupid , pudgy face.
Russians, Saudis Expect U.S. Attack On Iran
L.A. Confidential @ 16:
Iranian who brokered Iraqi peace is on U.S. terrorist watch list
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/32141.html
Isn't that a kick in the teeth. The only peace that seems to come in IraqNam, isn't even done by the US. How nice.
I like the Lieberman deal. If only he could get McSame to sit on his knee while Holy Joe answers without moving his lips. Nothing like a little vaudeville routine to remind us of how old St. John is.
Heya LA, check this one out! Big brother is watching you!
CIA enlists Google's help for spy work
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3652494...
I keep hearing that about McCain and it is worrisome. Former Republican Governor, Linwood Holten, a long time friend of McCain's said he's too unstable to be president, and he's supporting Obama. This side of McCain needs to be brought to the public's attention.
McHotcakes
Two sentences that make McGrampy cranky:
"And now for jumping jacks; I want see those arms nice and high!"
"Hey, buddy, does Tyrannosaurus Rex know that you stole his gimmick?"
I know, I know:
Mc-adhominem attacks. But I gots no sympathy or kindness for neocons.
;)
After he's made President, just keep him away from the nuke button, OK?
ConcernedCanuck @ 23:
"Hey, you kids! Git off mah lawn and gimme back my nuke button! No account, hippie, slacker, commie, so-and-so mcgrumblemuttercrank....."
MCMetal @ 15:
That was a snarky reference to Lori Klausutis(sp?). I read somewhere someone calling him "pigeyes" and have e-mailed MSNBC numerous times about his constantly interrupting everyone all the time. Your analysis is right on.
Ms. Vicki seems to be the only pretty blonde girl on the planet that is off limits to the media.
Bluesage @ 26:
LOLz
Bluesage @ 26:
Yeah. Seems like Greta VanSusteren should be all over this.
i hope some Mccain outburst gets caught on tape in this campaign and makes the media take notice of his psychological problems with anger
ok...
McCain is out there running already?... let the remaining Democratic contenders woo supporters by showing how well they hit a moving target...
make it a contest: which camp can make McCain spin in a tight circle sputtering and spitting... which camp can cause his face to turn puce... which camp can occasion McCain to crap his pants on live tv... extra points given for particularly pyrotechnic displays...
and let the superdelegates offer up scoring... you know... 5.8 - 5.7 - 6.0 (from an Arizona SD)... you get the drift...
dhkeen @ 30:
Good idea. The McLympics!
I would like to have someone in the debate ask him to explain the ( joke ?) about Chelsea. I think that tells a lot about about his humanity.
I'm surprised Thad "Earmark" Cochran wandered that far off the reservation.
Ken @ 32:
Poor Chelsea has enough problems trying to explain to Hillary supporters AGAIN that anything her father did in the WhiteHouse is none of anyone's business. Or something to that effect.
What the hell is "NewsMax" ad doing on the front page?
Just keep building the file on McCain. Temper tantrums, mortgage crises, economics, Temper tantrums, health care, temper tantrums, religious right endorsements, and don't forget his temper tantrums. Lieberman is not always going to be around to bail him out.
Oh, come on now! You show me one U.S. Presidential nominee who DOESN'T go a little bat shit crazy every once in awhile and need to be gang-tackled and sedated.
Just one.
Why, it's practically encouraged.
Sheesh!
LOL! Really? Seems a bunch of camel jockey terrists is kind of making this powerful military look foolish. Oh and what war? War on Americans? War on poor? I think he's more than qualified to take on Bushie's plans in that sense.
Hotheaded. Emotional.
So they're accusing him of being la girlie-man?
Hmm.
I think what with the vile Chelsea joke and his failure to smack down the "how do you beat the bitch" remark, one must really accuse him of being a dickhead.
Or perhaps both.
Speaking of Presidential temperment, has anybody seen this?:
http://tinyurl.com/2jabe7
Hillary is accusing Obama's campaign of deliberately stopping people from voting. Is this batshit crazy or what???
ConcernedCanuck @ 34:
Yes, You right about that. Chelsea doesn't need to be put thru that again but Mccain and low lifes like druggie limbough who make remarks about peoples looks should have to answer. Especially when they do it for political purposes.
Ken @ 41:
Well, they are all public officials in one capacity or another, so you are going to get all kinds of this stuff.
P.K. McBurroughs @ 37:
Jimmy Carter.
And I thought that the Clintons were the only ones using the "kitchen sink" strategy. This is so unproductive that someone should just question another person's patriotism and get it over with.
With all of the legitimate inadequacies that McCain shows us, this is the best that you people can do? He is too grouchy? He hurts peoples' feelings?! What is wrong with all of you? The idea that Republicans are the ones who bring all of this irrelevant banter into the race is really just a myth, after all.
If nothing else, George Bush has paved the way for a bold new style of American president, one who can confidently stand behind that podium and stammer in a wild-eyed, incomprehensible rage.
I don't think the media will touch the 'chills down my spine' quote with a ten foot pole. The mythical 'liberal media' is too infatuated with the idea of another rethuglican president to go near it.
woodguy @ 43:
Jimmy Carter, sir, is NOT a Presidential nominee.
Anybody who actually wants this job has an ego the size of Jupiter and is absolutely batsh*t crazy. I think I'll go back to playing canasta. It's better for the blood pressure. Tell me how it all ends.
X @ 44:
Grouchy? I believe the word that Conservative Republican Sen. Thad Cochran used was "erratic."
P.K. McBurroughs @ 49:
Goodness me, he was criticized by an individual that shares his party affiliation - that must mean that either (a) The Republican machine has turned against him or (b) people's thoughts are not dictated by ideology.
Is this really the best you can do? If so, you're looking at another four years of the last 8...
P.K. McBurroughs @ 47:
woodguy @ 51:
I meant from a historical perspective, as I thought you did. My apologies, sir, for that and the double post.
ConcernedCanuck @ 23:
Wonderful...we're going to have to hide the (nuclear trigger suitcase) football from him, in case Putin' lackey makes fun of McNuke from the Kremlin. Knowing McDemented, he might actually just pop it open and start mashing buttons like a 3 year old on a keyboard.
If he's president, the Secret Service are going to have to spend a lot of time and effort protecting foreign diplomats from him, not the other way around.
On that note, it is perfectly ok for a presidential candidate to be 'angry' and 'passionate'. But there's a limit, and he's long since crossed the line. When the pressure's on, the real programming of an individual surface and you get to see how they really function.
If this is the "real McCain" then the world is toast. Republicans should try and think about that.
Rico @ 3:
McCain will just have a personal in-ear monitor like Bush had, with Lieberman whispering sweet nothings in his ear via radio.
AgentX @ 53:
Angry and passionate--OK. Irrational and uninformed--not so much.
Ken @ 41:
If they are going to put Chelsea out on the stumping block to campaign for her mother she has to be ready for any uncomfortable question. All she needs to do is have a comeback ready because for sure somebody will ask the idiotic question. How about a comeback like this; “You have been sitting (standing) there waiting to ask me a question about this campaign and that is the only thing you can come up with? Are you retarded or something? With the way this election is going surely there must be a better more pertinent question than that! Next.”
You may call them "McCain Moments," but I look at the bigger picture of his symptoms and call them "Alzheimer's Moments."
1) repeated public confusion
2) frequently memory lapses
3) rapid, unpredictable mood swings
4) poor impulse control
X @ 50:
X @ 50:
I screwed up that previous post so yoiu have to sit through the correction.
McCain does not have clue to the shit that is going to be thrown back at him from all his flip flopping, his anger management problems, his lack of knowledge about the economy (which is especially troubling at this time), his stance on the no end in sight war and his inability to know who is fighting who and his absolutely idiotic health care stand. These are just the tip of the iceberg. No Señor X, don’t you worry your little head about topics that will bring McCain to his knees.
There.
My friends, this man is dangerous. Can anyone seriously picture him answering the phone at 3am? As for those debates, either Hillary or Obama can wipe the floor with him. Won't take much because he has already shown he is unable to get into the weeds on many issues.
bshock @ 57:
EXACTLY my thoughts.
How funny it is, "Senor" Kangaroo, that you mention nothing of his voting record aside, of course, from the elephant-in-the-room War vote. Aside from the Patriot Act, I'll bet you can't name five separate bills (or even amendments for a bill) that he casted a vote for - and which you disagreed with... If I am right, all of your failures will be my great loss. And yours, too.
[Deleted. Thread spam-Sitemonitor]
McCain's temper and reliance on joe lieberman to bail him out whenever he "misspeaks" (throws a temper tantrum) is the reason that the Democrats need to push for as many televised debates as possible.
One televised outburst followed by a calm rebuttal about the need for diplomacy by the Democratic candidate should be enough to sink McCain's candidacy.
X @ 63:
torture
SCHIP
Rape and torture act aka Military Commissions Act
Voted against giving the troops more rest between deploymentss
Habeas Corpus
Do you need more?
Janet Hussein @ 66:
I was not aware that he voted in the affirmative for the 2006 Fondness for Sexual Assault Act - it could be because there was no such act...
Yes, I do need more. Much more than Wolf Blitzer or Brit Hume could provide me with. Seriously. The Rape and Torture Act? You sound about as intelligent as Republican politicians that refer to the Estate Tax as the "Death Tax".
The trigger for his temper tantrums always seems to be related to a central cause and is one of the signs of psychopathy: frustration of his construct and belief in the supremacy of his own reality, will and desires above all others. It isn't just anger, it's rage. That he blows up at anybody who succeeds in frustrating his self-image, and does so with a venom that is out of all proportion to the imagined slight, also peripherally demonstrates that he doesn't really acknowledge that other human beings possess any objective reality in their own right - they (we) are all just extensions of his own being. There is nothing he is not capable of doing when indulging his sense of offeneded self-righteousness.
He's every bit the sick puppy as George Bush or Dick cheney.
X @ 44:
This just shows that McFuckhead is a bully, just like the bullies that control the White House now, no different than the bullies on the street or in your high school or at your job, or in your family, they're all the same. Small Man, Big Mouth. Bullies Are Cowards.
stevie @ 69:
Losing strategy, but by all means I hope the Dean-Dems run with it. One of the biggest beefs most conservatives and moderates have about Bush is that he's too late and too meek in getting out and explaining his postitions. They may not be all that thrilled with McCain as the nominee, but a temper? C'mon, a Patton or a McCarthur type Commander-In-Chief- they'd say 'about f'ing time we get someone in like that'.
So please keep pounding the table on the temper thing. Especially contrasted with someone who wants to make nice with our enemies.
dennis @ 70:
Yeah! Too bad you guys settled on a tired old hack like McCain instead.
Rusty America Shackleford @ 71:
Probably will be, Russ. Tired old hack would be a lot more damaging than saying he's got a temper.
I voted for Obama but not sure about the guy now. But, hey, that's the second day in a row you've addressed me as 'you guys'. I thought you guys didn't like those sorts of associative phrases. What gives?
dennis @ 72:
I don't know what you're talking about. "Associative phrases"? What does that have to do with McCain's anger problem?
How 'bout we just make him out to be Bob Dole? An angry, tired old hack holding his pencil and yellin' 'Get offa my lawn!'.
stevie @ 74:
The problem there is that Bob Dole had some integrity, so the comparison wouldn't be entirely accurate.
“He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”........
Can you say 'Let the bodies hit the floor, then let God sort it em' out'??
Remind you of anyone?
I hate John McCain as much as I do GW "boy George" Bush.
Because of McCains temper, think he's a wife beater? I think he is.
77. That's silly.
And all this detracts from the point. McCain has shown definite signs of emotional instability and that makes him dangerous to our national security. I wouldn't vote for him because he's promised to use the same bully tactics and diplomacy the Cheney cabal has used to drive our country down and destabilize the Middle East. I believe him.Not to mention he'll continue the same Bush policies of making the rich richer at the expense of the poor and middle class.
Just a note: When the article said "Just the kind of guy we want leading the most powerful military on the planet during a time of war, right?" I have to say I agree with the negative sentiment about McCain's abilities to lead, but not the statement itself. I just got back from China. Trust me, we are not the most powerful military in the world. Nor are we the most powerful nation, or the most powerful economy. We are an insulated, isolated jumped up bunch of Johnny Come Lately's who like to stand around and thump our chests and wave our flags while being passed by by other far more ambitious nations.
Login or Register to post comments.