Oh please let him get so flustered during one of the debates that he lets loose with a little anger and loose talk.

I've determined that Sarah Palin is Viagra for McCain's campaign and his party.

I wonder if the lady in the clip is still alive and would be she be available for making an anti McCain statement or ad?

Sarah Palin fumbles on Fannie and Freddie but to the Media it's a Touchdown!

Speaking before voters in Colorado Springs, the Republican vice presidential nominee claimed that lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had "gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers." The companies, as McClatchy reported, "aren't taxpayer funded but operate as private companies. The takeover may result in a taxpayer bailout during reorganization."

It should be a pretty big deal that someone who might be president has no idea how the mortgage industry functions, despite being a "genuine American" who ostensibly has some instinctual feel of these kinds of things by virtue of her distance from the Northeastern Elite.

Not that this matters to our elite liberal media, who haven't given Palin's statement much attention. After all, why should a candidate have to know how much about the nature of little problems like the mortgage crisis when they're just so powerfully authentic?

What is this video supposed to be an example of?

The Republics like their politicians to have this take no prisoners, my way or the highway attitude.

It makes them look strong.

Pop, I'd rather see McCain lose bladder control during the debates.

Reagan let me down on that, but I have high hopes for McCain.

there is a nice quote at about the 4:10 mark where mccain comments on one of the generals doing the "best that he could at age 70". sounds a little agist to me. ;)

Someone help me out here:

I assume the Democrats know that people generally have notoriously short attention spans, so they're holding their fire for the last week or two before the election, where all the ammunition they have as well as everything they'd need to do to win (yes, negative attack advertisements except that their ones would be true - with plenty of video evidence to back it up).

Please tell me that's true.

Right?

i'll bet he has the t-shirt 'i'd rather fight than switch' from the seventies.....he's a gut guy not an intellect. remember
MCCAIN himself said there will be more wars my friends.
his father was an alcoholic read about the possible personality conflicts he has with himself. this maverick
brand is nonsense he became a 'maverick' late 90's this guy is dangerous so is palin

a repuglican will see this and be glad for McCain...

C'mon, forget the personal stuff and REMEMBER:

-the war
-and McCain's warmongering
-Keating 5
-Anti-choice
-tax-cuts

etc... there is so much that American disgree w/ McCain, let's bring all that back to the discourse...

----------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the reasons democrats keep losing is that they don't put themselves in the minds of middle "Average" America. That's why they chose Obama over Hillary. Hillary was plugged into the mind of the middle-American voter, and would have done well in the general.

This video is a perfect example. To the average American, this video does not show a mean-tempered hothead, it shows a STRONG, DECISIVE AMERICAN DEFENDING HONORABLE SERVICEMEN! Circulate this and it will HELP MCCAIN.

Democrats chirp confidently that any analysis of the policies shows Obama's are superior; except Americans don't analyze, they react emotionally. Democrats fool themselves that as bad as things are, they can't lose; except that scared people run to safety (grandfatherly war hero), not by taking risks (black guy with a muslim name). Democrats think that a short temper will show a lack of control or thoughtfulness; but in fact it comes accross as strong and decisive. Democrats think attacking is an intellectual cop-out that makes them look mean and desperate, when in fact it makes them look strong, rips down the opponent, and as history proves: WORKS

DEMOCRATS! YOU ARE ON THE VERGE OF REPEATING EXACTLY THE SAME MISTAKES AND LOSING AGAIN!

Yes, obviously, this guy McCain is flipped in the head. Too many years in that box. What's he doing in public office anyway? He should be at home telling HIMSELF off.

This right will see the "maverick" in this clip. Sorry, I'm not interested in reinforcing that lie.

The woman he's chastising is a civilian and she doesn't have to take his shit! All civilians need to see this video.

Wien @ 7:

What is this video supposed to be an example of?

Of what an asshole Grandpa can be.

Nothing like honking off some war widows, Johnny boy - and then running off in a snit. But then again, she's only a woman...

Do people really want this SOB dealing with the Russians and Iranians?!!!

Yep, this is video dynamite. Show that to the voters and they'll be bored for 8 minutes and then angry enough at whomever wasted their time showing it to them to toss a few chairs and rip up the carpet.

Unless there is current video of John McCain going berserk or past video of him losing his temper and committing felonious acts, this line of attack is going absolutely nowhere.

It's one thing to dislike the guy (I do; though hate would probably be a better word); it's quite another to be utterly irrational about what will or won't work in a political campaign.

I can't believe anyone actually thinks that this video would hurt McCain in any way.

SOME PEOPLE SAY THAT SENATOR MCCAIN MAY BE THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE!

Yes but I would tell John Cornyn to F&$# off as well. He is an asshole. Been carrying Bush's water for the past 8 years.

As far as the woman in the video I think you need to provide more info. Here is her website:
http://www.nationalalliance.org/home1.htm

Also some info on the committee:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_Select_Committee_on_POW/MIA_Affairs

More info is always better then your biased opinion.

If this video clip is the best we've got then we are screwed. I wish Democrats would show the same hard-headed resolve when arguing with Republican witnesses in congressional hearings. This makes McCain look good.

OMG! What a noisy bully! He flips out and beats up on this person (imagine having a sitting senator go this apeshit on you during what is supposed to be a civil discourse), then runs off before anyone can truly respond! Nice. Really dignified. Very mature and level-headed, McCain.

Ahhh, why am I acting surprised at all...

He said "f___ you" to John Cornyn, and this is supposed to be a negative?

McCain has temper control and anger management problems. Giving such an unstable man control of America's nuclear arsenal and nuclear launch codes is just too risky. Giving this kind of control to Palin is even riskier.

Too complicated. He does a good job of sounding affronted without seeming defensive. That's something the repugs have mastered. Starting fights, then playing victim without seeming weak, faking righteous anger. He doesn't show his scary face until 6 minutes or so into the video. Most ppl I know have tempers too, probably worse. So, how many ppl would be liable to not vote for McCain if they saw his temper, 20 or so years ago. He certainly seemed like a humble little old man at the convention this year.

Democrats have to learn righteous anger.

Anytime a republican lies it is always followed by I can't discuss it it's classified!

There was no outburst. He was angry but kept it under control and finally just walked away. I want Obama to get elected. Sending this as an email will win votes for McCain.

cg @ 41:

He said "f___ you" to John Cornyn, and this is supposed to be a negative?

I agree totally. John Cornyn is a fascist prick. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

This woman Alfond was part of the far right POW/MIA movement that perpetuated the claim of thousands of Americans being held as slave labor in Southeast Asia after the U.S. pulled out. Any half-intelligent person knows that the one thing that was NOT lacking in 1970s-1980s Southeast Asia was slave labor. Guess the Commies must of kept our boys captive out of sheer cussed EVILNESS.

Alfond and others exploited the families of deceased Americans to further the Conservative movement, pimp the flag and libelously smear their fellow Americans as unpatriotic. Fuck her as well.

Posting this is great if you're working for the McCain campaign: it does a fine job of promoting the old maverick McCain, who broke with his party and stood up to the bastards of the far right. Cut this crap and stay on message. The maverick is no more: what we have now is an egotistical old man, who'll say or do anything to be president. The man who once rightly slammed Falwell and Robertson now lets their heirs - Dobson and Perkins - select his V.P. Five and a half years under the North Vietnamese may not have broken the young John McCain, but seven and half years of George W. Bush, Karl Rove and the other Konservative Krazies sure seems to have done the job on the old John McCain. But then, those people have broken a lot of Americans.

I can see where he is a prick in this clip....but not so much "hot tempered".

chris @ 46:

Frankly, as others have noted here, his anger was fairly justified. If you've dealt with the MIA people, they are NUTS and have wasted a lot of our taxpayer money on fantasies -- that's what McCain was getting at.

I used to live in SE Asia and these kooks would be wandering around all the time offering money along the Mekong to farmers to find guys allegedly still held in bamboo cages twenty years after the Fall of Saigon. And sometimes they'd be dragging a congressman with them.

I'm sure if it were a family member of yours who was MIA you'd be just as "sympathic."
Let people hold on to hope. I'd rather my tax dollars went to something like this instead of lining the pockets of no-bid, politically connected contractors.

And while I agree this doesn't show McCain at his worst, it does show contempt for and indifference to the sorrow of MIA families.

Too bad it wasn't McCain on the MIA list.

It might be helpful if you explained that this video was McCain, vs families of missing POW's who believed they were still alive and in captivity.

The select senate committee was shutting down further investigation into the missing POW's and these families were claiming that they had evidence of living prisoners that was being covered up in the name of normalizing trade relations with Vietnam.

There are some really pissed off Veterans who still harbor resentment against McCain because of this incident.

this would NOT be an effective chain mail. (what chain mail is?)

people will not choose their vote over some swear words of an angry (one may say "passionate") senator.

Unfortunate that the audio is so crappy.

I agree with Paul @ 58:

I think this would make an even bigger, much bigger, impact as a viral email, It, too, is true:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFM1xqqTX_g

And add my two cents on his lack of credibility:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHgXD3Hw-js&feature=related

I used to be a fan of McCain back in 2000 but not now. I didn't see any smoking gun during this clip. I'm certainly not a big fan of giving McCain a pass on his Straight Talk Express but this clip did nothing for me. To me it seemed a no brainer to give him a pass on a veterans affairs, especially concerning vietnam. I'll say it again since it bears repeating, call him on his pandering, age, voting record, etc. but this most certainly deserves a pass in my book.

The sad part is that I agree that the average American will not see anything wrong with how McCain acted.

HOWEVER, and this is the part that makes me sad: that does not meant that McCain acted in a fashion that would acceptable any where else in a democracy.

McCain is a public servant, this is... he works FOR US, since we pay his sorry ass a very nice monthly salary. For that, next time he decides to intimidate and asking to "shut up" to a civilian, he should put his condescending opinion where the sun does not shine.

Also, Americans need to learn that respect is earned, not granted, no matter the office.

The true litmus test of a democracy is when the lady can stand up to McCain and tell him directly that he should STFU and stop intimidate her to his ugly cancer ridden face.

The government works for the citizens, not the other way around.

Plisko @ 57:

It might be helpful if you explained that this video was McCain, vs families of missing POW's who believed they were still alive and in captivity.

The select senate committee was shutting down further investigation into the missing POW's and these families were claiming that they had evidence of living prisoners that was being covered up in the name of normalizing trade relations with Vietnam.

There are some really pissed off Veterans who still harbor resentment against McCain because of this incident.

Exactly, that lady is representing the families of POW/MIAs and she should not have to be asked to "shut up" by a crook just because he wants to a) normalize trade relations with the enemy, and b) (at the time) maneuvering to seal his military record as to not be accessible by the public.

The context was not presented, so I don't think most people got the full magnitude of McCain's gall to basically tell the relative of an MIA to basically shut the fuck up and stop trying to expect her government to ensure the safety of her kin who fought for this country.

Shan @ 15:

Someone help me out here:

I assume the Democrats know that people generally have notoriously short attention spans, so they're holding their fire for the last week or two before the election, where all the ammunition they have as well as everything they'd need to do to win (yes, negative attack advertisements except that their ones would be true - with plenty of video evidence to back it up).

Please tell me that's true.
Sure, it's true, it's true, now don't you worry yourself. Of course the Dems know that, they've been saving their ammunition since 2000. Just waiting for the right opportunity to knock 'em dead. God help us.

Right?

Circulate this in an email? Are you kidding me? Who is going to watch a 9 minute long video just to see John McCain behave in a brusque manner. This won't work. We need a video of him calling his wife the c-word, or something like that... anything else won't have much effect.

some dude named steevo @ 71:

Circulate this in an email? Are you kidding me? Who is going to watch a 9 minute long video just to see John McCain behave in a brusque manner. This won't work. We need a video of him calling his wife the c-word, or something like that... anything else won't have much effect.

its not just "brusque"

his face and bald head (hes done a much better job recently with the comb over) turn bright red, and he has a visible grimace throughout the testimony

that is the behavior of a mad man

what happens when a world leader ticks him off?

someone needs to find it again because the video was pulled!

[I dropped an email to John-Sitemonitor]

Despite being totally an Obama supporter and thinking McSame/Phalin would be a disaster-- I've got to tell you-- McSame comes off RATHER WELL in the clip.

The context of the exchange is that JM had put major political capital and years of effort into the Vietnamese reconciliation that ultimately required acceptance of only modest progress on MIA status notwithstanding long and hard investigation and pressure. His reward was to have this prominent leader of the national POW/MIA constituency call him duplicitous (i.e. manipulatively dishonest and two-faced). It is within that context he was containing his intense emotion.

The key reasonable behavioral measure therefore should be whether, despite the intensity of his indignation and disappointment in the aspersions cast by this woman--McCain maintained his clarity of reason during the exchange—a measure best evidence by the continuity and content his verbal output.

Despite experiencing that intense indignation and disappointment, he never lost logical clarity as evidences by his maintenance of on-point uninterrupted articulateness. (the bit of redundancy being superfluous to that measure) That's the bottom line.

This from someone who thinks it's an American tragedy of profound dimensions that our political culture could have devolved to this point at which McSame/Phalin are actually polling as a viable ticket.

I see the previous mention of the unavailable video.

Ren as POTUS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT4YbO_1mvA

Find out what made him so pissed off here, and then do that, x100.

I agree with those who don't think this is the video to use. The POW-MIA issue is a tough one, but there is evidence that McCain was right about this person and her group. Certainly he was defending the official position of the US military from accusations of coverups and the like, and certainly there is evidence that the POW-MIA anxiety has been encouraged, against the evidence, by people with vested interests.

You couldn't last as a POW for an hour; [Deleted-Sitemonitor]

We can't have it both ways.

McCain's former "my way or no way" attitude has clearly given way to "whatever you say, Karl."

If he wins, it's debatable which McCain will rule. I think I prefer the former.

Tamerlane @ 84:

All right. Keep up the research. This video is NOT the smoking gun.

I agree with that. The issue of his nasty temper is all over the place, and the worst of it always comes second- or third-hand or from people who request anonymity, like in the case where he publicly, verbally abused and humiliated his wife.

Digby is my standard, she's the bar for me. I think this might be the first time I've disagreed: Watching this video through the eyes of my mother, say, who admires the hell out of any and all sonsofbitches, because they make her feel protected, and she, like most people, would rather be on the side of the bully (and thus, watching this video through the eyes of most people):

McCain comes of as righteous, kickass, uncompromising, and unwilling to suffer whiny two-faced fools -- regardless of the subject at hand or the background of this interaction. The tears he elicited would be met with contempt and derision. This video is too long and would need too much contextualizing for it to go viral for us (and, you know, if you have to explain the joke, it isn't funny...). It could easily go viral on the right, because they wouldn't have to explain it, except to say, "Here's McCain negotiating with terrorists and being mighty. Also, the left uses this as an example of how unfit he is. Snnnnnnk! Check out the Mavrick, morans!"

My father, who's a lawyer, can be a real hot-headed pottymouth. He uses his temper to his advantage. In one of his latest depositions, he told his client (who was evading the opposing lawyer's questions to the frustration of everyone involved), "If you don't start answering Mr. Hoodeedoo's questions, I am going to strangle you until you are dead." The court reporter looked up and said, "Should I record that?" Dad said, "Well, I fucking said it." So, it's a matter of public record. Why aren't McCain's outbursts a matter of public record?

I know that this was a calculated outburst on Pop's part. His client was truly an ass, and Dad's threat (only in Maine!) gave the impression (to the jury, who would ultimately read this) that, despite the fact that his client pissed him, and everyone else, off, he nonetheless believed in his case and would defend him no matter what he feels about the guy personally (We might all think this guy is an ass, but in this case, he happens to be correct, and it's not about personality, it's about truth). It's now a matter of public record: Eccentric, foulmouthed lawyer hates his client's guts but will see justice done, despite his (and everyone else's, including the jury's) personal desire to wring the peckerhead's neck.

This shit plays very well.

Similarly, I can see the rumors of McCain's temper being an asset to him, and the only examples of it that would have a negative impact on him would have to be of him getting ugly and then getting pwned by someone with bigger balls ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XqNm-FU8uU ). The examples we have are of him losing his shit, after which some emasculated stuffed shirt says, "Well, I never!", demands an apology -- and ultimately endorses him. It makes me cringe.

Is there no public record of these meetings in which he called his colleagues foul names? Anyone can go to the courthouse and find the record of my pop threatening his client. Is there no similar record that we can refer to, among this amazing amount of anecdotal evidence? And if there were public record, would it, as in this case, simply serve to make him more of a hero?

(Sorry, as much of a junkie as I am, I do not know how things work -- but it boggles my mind to think that public servants can meet, and there's no public record to refer to. All these meetings McCain ran roughshod over, and there's no stenographer or minutes taken, or... something?)

I think his rage is an enormous concern. I think the fact that he called his wife a trollop and a c*nt in public makes him utterly unfit. Calling people names during witnessed pissing-contests could be a strategy. But, whatever excuse he offers for what he did to his wife (stress, sleepiness, stupidity...), for degrading her, only highlights the plain fact that he has given himself permission to be cruel, to cross a line we don't cross, when he is stressed, sleepy, addled... If he is president, he will be stressed, etc., most of the time.

We cross only the lines that we've given ourselves permission to cross. He obviously has the permission, and he's never publicly denied himself that permission. In this case his public behavior is not as alarming to me as his private behavior.

Look, no matter how knee-walking drunk you get, you still would never kill someone, right? In your core, you do not have permission to do such a thing. So, you could be completely out of your gourd, and you'd still never cross that line. Now, if all it takes is a little needling to get McCain to completely crush his own wife in public, to undermine his own family, just 'cuz he's cranky (Queue: "The bitch knows how to push my buttons!"), then that line does not exist for him. His threshold for reckless and catastrophic behavior is far greater than mine.

And if he is going to have to suffer a lot more than some button-pushing as POTUS, then we seriously have to worry about giving him any buttons to push.

I'm as anti-McCain as the next person, but I don't think the video shows McCain having a tirade and being overly angry. He seems to be under control. What it does show is that he is defending individuals who he feels are being attacked as to whether they are patriotic or not. He is not doing that now when people attack Obama.

You wrote that McCain called Cornyn’s claim “chicken-s—,”

Ever think maybe Cornyn *was* being a jerk and needed to be dressed down? Maybe McCain was right to dress down a fellow republican - I think he was.

This comment from McCain is ok, not a problem for the maverick.

This is the dumb ass, hot headed, ego-bloated and ill-labeled pow the red neck right wingers want leading this country.

This is so sick. This prick has no more business running than country than he does directing a herd of sheep through the hills of Arizona.

If this old fart and his Alaskan-moose-stew mama happen to get the White House, by hook or crook...this country is finished.

miss_kitty @ 88:

sarah @ 87:

You couldn't last as a POW for an hour;

McCain couldn't either, from what his fellow POWs have to say about it, you koolaid guzzling moran.

Miss Kitty, thanks for saying this so nicely. I was ready to rip her face off, figuratively speaking.

TomInStl @ 4:

There are plenty fo examples to show his temper....I don't think this is aprticular strong to be used in emails. It seems he got mad and tried to stay polite and firm. Then he walked away. Not really a hot-head move.

I only read to this comment. I think it is true. This is a very lame example of any hotheadedness you might want to illustrate. Regardless of the truths of the issues, which I don't have the background on, McCain actually does quite well here, in my opinion.

I think four more years of Republicanism, esp. now with the barbarian from the North on the ticket, will just about finally sink us. But if you want to bring down the G.O.P. ticket, you'd better not use this clip. I'm telling you that it won't work -- there's no doubt about that.

China just (in the summer of 2008) admitted that it held U.S. servicemen from the Korean war after the conflict as leverage to get onto the U.N. Security Council. The Pentagon did not pursue the issue publicly, made some private overtures, and then claimed that all POWs had been returned. Well, they weren't and it took the Chinese to be honest about it.

These POW / MIA families have proof of live-sightings of some of their loved ones, sometimes years after we were forced out of Vietnam. Three former Secretaries of Defense testified that we left POWs and MIAs behind!!!! These families aren't "kooks" -- they are trying to get justice for their loved ones who served this country and then were abandoned.

McCain is running as a POW while he's gotten his own record sealed (what is he hiding? And where are his full medical record) and in 1996, when he shoved the wheelchair of a mother of an MIA, he was working to sabotage the Missing Personnel Act. That act would have ensured that the government actively searched for FUTURE POWs and MIAs, like the ones that we no doubt have in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Let me make it very simple: McCain is running on his POW status, but he betrayed his fellow POWs and MIAs, their families and America, including the ones to come.

By the way, check out McCain's vote on this latest GI bill -- he voted AGAINST college benefits with the rationale that promising a GI an education would encourage he or she to leave the military.

As an Arizonan and a registered Republican, I want to warm America right now that McCain is CRAZY, mean and would get us into a nuclear attack because he has NO control over his temper. Don't make excuses for him.