George Will Goes Off: McCain May Be Unfit For Presidency

Conservative columnist George Will turned heads this weekend for savaging John McCain over his "un-presidential" reaction to the economic crisis. "McCain showed his personality this week," Will said, "and made some of us fearful."

Now Will has expanded on his comments in Tuesday's Washington Post with an op-ed titled, "McCain Loses His Head." The piece begins:

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

Channeling his inner Queen of Hearts, John McCain furiously, and apparently without even looking around at facts, said Chris Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, should be decapitated. This childish reflex provoked the Wall Street Journal to editorialize that "McCain untethered" -- disconnected from knowledge and principle -- had made a "false and deeply unfair" attack on Cox that was "unpresidential" and demonstrated that McCain "doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does."

But the most incendiary paragraph is the final one:

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

Read the full op-ed here.

Comments

[ElizR]

www.McCainNotFit.com – this is horrifying; organized facts/videos about McCain. Why everybody should focus on him instead of Palin.

www.McCainHatesWomen.com – Yes he does indeed. That’s why he selected someone that wants to control women

www.FirstLadyDebates.com - Side by side videos of Michelle and Cindy. (I’d rather have a beer with Michelle)

[yeswecancan]

The short answer is "No." Claire McCaskill said it best -- there is no honor without honesty and John McCain has sold his honor down the river for the possibility of the presidency. He has shown himself capable of flat out LIES, and when confronted with the truth, he blames the media or even Sen. Obama. Amazing ... and of ALL the LIES his picking the right wing darling Sarah Palin to be one cancer-survivor heartbeat away from the presidency is the biggest one. Watch this hilarious video of her "foreign policy" visit to NY.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nb8Y9ojenM

[keyrr]

Transparent and straight talk my right eye! This is why we question the validity of a Mccain presidency!

...line item of " conservative legacy" during the past eight years...

The worst election fraud in history - the 2000 presidential election...

The first Major attack against America in the lower 48… (9/11)

The first American attack against a sovereign country in history - Iraq, all based on subversion and duplicity...there were no WMDs!

The worst federal handling of a catastrophic even in American History, Katrina...

The worst time period in American history for privatizing the federal institutions of war, education, prison, etc.
There still trying to get our social security and give it to the stock market!

The largest federal debt in American history...from great prosperity to collapse in just 8 years!

The worst collapse of our mortgage, banking and lending institutions to date...
I could go on all day...i get sick to my stomach!

So is this what happens when you elect two GOP ex-oilmen to run our nation?

And now the right wing wants to give us McCain, a 95% mirrored image of past failed GOP policies and Palin, who is more to the right then Bush/Cheney: an absolute dolt, no intelligence...
just more of that self-righteous underachiever garbage that Bush represents!

Dump the GOP presidental race- "thats real change we can believe in!"

[jupitor]

We've turned into a communist country thanks to John Mccain! He's black balled the media and says the american people have to right to ask question of him or His V.P! this is Insane!

[lylo]

Nope. Communism provides education and health care for people, though in both cases it's poor quality.
Our beloved country is just a fascist dictatorship with phony elections every few years.

[oldfart1]

George Bush is broken. John McCain is broken. Never turn your back on Sarah Palin, she will stick a knife in you without blinking.

[tktvr2]

If, as George Will speculates, Sen. McCain is not suited to be the president of the U.S., can we drop him, and run Gov. Sarah Palin for president?

[Tommygun264]

Why do you hate America?

[DoTheMath]

I love this site!

[GuyRC]

George Will and the other rats are jumping off the ship. You know what that means.

[Lolasmom]

Thank you George Will.
I admire your integrity.
We are beginning to look more like Russia with every day that goes by; no access for the press to the GOP ticket.
No control over the bailout.

What happened to freedom?

McCain is at the beginning of ALZHEIMER's and have him even being considered to be President is INSANE!

He should be tested if he wants to serve for ALZHEIMER's.

[758880]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/19/chris-matthews-humiliates_n_87493.html


http://www.eyeblast.tv/Public/Video.aspx?rsrcID=2036


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2yaFl_CmTE

http://www.atlah.org/broadcast/ndnr09-03-08.html

[jadeba]

Nice try but, more recently a Mc surrogate couldn't name one single policy position that Mc differed from Dub. By the way, thanks for the last 8 years, you should be so proud of what you and your friends have done for this country. I blame Washington, sure, but more than Washington, I blame dullards who voted for this administration.

[tsloan]

Truly we are in the end of times....when conservatives eat their own young....I mean old.

[picval]

I always read the other side, and George has always been a very interesting read. Last Sunday I missed but caught the replay of the old gang....These smart people seemed very distrubed in reguard to McCain. I hope the center comes over to the Dem side this election. The US needs the World just as much as we need them, these are scary times and we need HOPE! Hope is FREE!

[Opt1musPr1me]

Wow! I said McCain wasn't fit mentally, physically and everything "LY" to be president the day he clinched the GOP nomination. I mean look at the first big decision he made! She is a dingbat on any issue not related to Alaska.

[Stonecipher]

Of course McCain's not fit. He's a liar!

http://stonecipher.typepad.com/the_stonecipher_report/2008/09/dear-america-yo.html

[Speakupper]

George Will and other conservatives' problem with Mc Cain is that he isn't Dick Cheney he's Lon Chaney (horror movie actor-"man of a thousand faces"-and just as scary).

Mc Cain has taken so many conflicting positions that voting for him is "like a box of chocolates" you'll never know which one you'll get until its too late. That's what makes him a risky choice not just for ultra conservatives who supported him, but moderates as well. People who say they support Mc Cain must ask themselves, "Which one?" Unfortunately, the one they think they support may not be the one they get as president, if he's elected.

People like George Will and co. are beginning to admit what others have been warning all along-
"Maverick Mc Cain" is really just a brand name for "Unpredict­able/unrel­iable Mc Cain".

Further, because Mc Cain has demonstrated little control of his temper, he can't even claim to be "crazy like a fox". He's just raging, out of control, erratic, and is therefore a dangerous choice for the country in this time of crisis.

[whateyesay]

How anyone can say that Obama's 'lack of experience' makes him 'unfit' or 'unqualified' to run our country, when, the collective pool of 'experience' has left this country up craps creek without a paddle, is beyond me.

[raskolnikov72]

Great line... Obama should borrow it.

[Ironquill]

I don't agree with Will's philosophy in general, but he has a brain. What great original prose is the phrase--"..boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes"--you have to like it regardless of the target. The thing I can't stand is snarling sarcasm with no brain involved--for example the Ice Magnolia's one liner about community workers.