McCain Angry With Himself?

During John McCain's particularly erratic last couple of weeks, he turned into a 21st century Che Guevara, lashing out at Wall Street greed and falling just short of denouncing internationalist plutocrats. This newfound populism is so off the wall that even the Wall Street Journal has given up on him. In truth, McCain IS angry, not so much about the assumed economic disaster just right around the corner, but that he did not see it coming. And in that sense, he surely knows to blame himself for his acknowledged lack of financial understanding, and his stubborn insistence that the economy is fundamentally strong. McCain is a 26-year veteran of Congress, a man who married his way out of middle-class economic woes and now enjoys 8 homes, 13 cars, 1 plane, and access to a 9-figure fortune. We are not mad at him for that, or even for not being able to relate, but clearly he is mad at himself now that he realizes what his financial complacency has wrought: an imploding campaign whose best hope appears to rest on getting a single one of Maine's electoral college votes.

McCain's temperament has been an issue in Washington for decades, and must have been before then too. In recent weeks, it has taken many forms: against the media in general, and specific outlets in particular; against Barack Obama; against Congress; against the world. The causes are understandable: Obama is above 50% for the first time in national polling (and is the first Democrat in decades to achieve this feat); McCain's popularity is tanking; swing state after swing state (and a Republican one here and there too) is swinging to the Democrat; Obama is fundraising and outspending him into oblivion; conservatives are once again turning against McCain; his VP pick would be the laughing stock of most of the country (minus some creepy conservative guys who are openly turned on by her), were it not for her chilling ties to terrorist Alaskan secessionists and her fundamentalist views on rape and abortion. This is more than enough to make anyone angry, but even the slightest self-awareness, which McCain may possess (as opposed to, say, George W. Bush), tells him that there is only one person accountable for this mess: himself. And he is surely angry about that: angry that he could not make himself overnight into a decent manager; angry that his impetuousness has gotten the best of him for the hundredth time; angry that he can't help but lie; angry that he has lost his magic touch with the media; angry that he is so out of touch with the country; angry that he has not come up with a new idea in a decade; and angry that he is once again letting a younger alpha male dominate him.

McCain thought he had learned a valuable lesson from his defeat at the hands of Bush in the 2000 GOP presidential primary: the meaner candidate wins. Thus he has allowed his natural fury to take its course, letting his mean streak increasingly show at random moments (a debate here, an interview there, a limp handshake elsewhere). He has also let his Rovian pack of pitbulls, now including Palin, go at Obama, with more and worse to come in the closing weeks of the campaign. Time will tell how successful that will be, but for now he is trailing Obama by more than any other Republican at this stage in many years. McCain is so inflexible that he has failed so far to grasp both the mood of the country, and that his opponent is not Bush. He still does not seem to realize that he has been knocked down by Obama's poise, not the Democrat's nastiness. Obama has been consistent in his message, mostly unswerving in his positions and, most importantly, level-headed in a crisis. McCain has responded with acerbity, unpredictability, breathtaking fabrications and a fly-by-night campaign that has been a painful (or enjoyable, depending on where you stand) contrast with his younger opponent's. Not only has the ever-changing McCain "strategy" failed to bring down Obama's popularity, it has enhanced it by making him a more acceptable presidential choice to wavering voters. It has also thrown McCain's numbers into the doldrums, to the point where even many Republicans do not see a path to victory for their candidate.

Conventional wisdom is that Palin's debate performance has stanched the bleeding. This, of course, is the same wisdom that decreed the previous debate a "draw" when it was a turning point in the campaign in favor of Obama. In fact, Palin continues to drag down McCain, reinforcing the perception of irresponsibility and incompetence, so obviously canned are her scripted efforts and so uninformed and inarticulate are her unscripted ones. The very last thing Americans are looking for right now is a team of inept, self-styled "mavericks." Did anyone else notice how during both debates, whenever McCain and Palin mentioned the word the approval tracking (at least on CNN) dipped steeply? In fact, the Obama campaign should use the "m word" freely to describe its opponents: it can only benefit the Democratic candidate.

McCain's dreadful management of his campaign is not only bringing down his own ticket, it is having a poisonous effect on Congressional races, so much so that it is becoming increasingly likely that Democrats could reach 60 seats in the new Senate. McCain's frenzied approach to the financial crisis stains all Republican candidates, a stark reminder that their party has been in charge of what passes for an economic policy for the past eight years. Regardless of the GOP's responsibility for the current recession, there is no doubt that the party in charge is to blame for the need to bailout Wall Street: after all, if the crisis is bad enough that the government must step in now, the financial industry was surely ripe for public intervention a long time ago. You cannot pretend the government is the problem, as the GOP does, and then suddenly decide that it (and therefore taxpaying voters) is to come to the rescue when things spin out of countrol, without paying an electoral price.

There is an insanely desperate element to the current Republican campaigns for president and for the Congress. It is as if McCain's own madness is trickling down to every corner of every race in the country, even in the reddest parts of Georgia, Indiana, or Colorado, for instance. The raw anger displayed by McCain, seconded by Palin who is not adept at saying lines she doesn't fully understand, is so over the top that he cannot seriously be targeting it at anyone but himself and perhaps the Republican party he has grown to hate, first for rejecting him, then for embracing him reluctantly and exacting the price of his own shoddy soul. Perhaps unconsciously, McCain is finally sabotaging his own bid and that of every other Republican in the land, one true, final gesture of eccentricity. For even the stubborn old coot must know, as George Will (our new best friend) recently said: "We don't elect angry presidents and John McCain looks very angry at the moment."

Follow Paul Jenkins on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PaulcJenkins

Comments

[jacobomorales]

he is old and the world is too complex for him, he should try again in his next life, when he comes back as an economist.

[GoVeg]

McCain should show the white flag and start repairing his reputation. After this race, he'll pretty much retire.

[vicenteduq]

McCain is as unpredictable as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Both are moved by hate, aggression, and self righteousness.

Hugo Chavez has profound and deep inferiority complexes. I think that McCain is in a similar Psychological profile. McCain was a very bad student in the Naval Academy, he was in the lowest 1% of students in the matter of grades and school achievement. His intelligence is good for marrying rich heiresses and milking the cows of the Surge and the POW.

He is an antiintellectual. Anti Rational, like Joseph McCarty of fhe 1950´s.

There is a lot of Anger, Bitterness and Revenge in McCain. That is why he is an attack dog with so many lies, exaggerations and smears against the other candidate.

McCain is rich in Dollars but very poor in his emotions and affections.

It seems to me that McCain doesn't believe in friends, personal or international.


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I think that a Linguist or Psychologist would find many instances of "threats against our security" language in McCain's and Palin's speeches. Also the "hate" word appears too much.

They refer too much to haters outside the USA and very little to friends and allies that love the USA and want to help U.S. Policies to succeed. Palin's Universe is confrontational, like that of Bush. Poor grades in cooperation with other nations.

**********­**********­**********­**********

Young Voters and Ethnic Minorities may save America and the World on November 4.

TossUpStates

http://tossUpStates.blogspot.com/

Milenials

http://milenials.blogspot.com/

Vicente Duque

[Matterrr]

McCain makes experience look very unattractive.

Oh, and guess what, Palin makes inexperience look very unattractive too.

[newshawk14]

McCain is angry because old age has caught up with him. He no longer has the ability to change
hands without losing a stroke.

[darker]

S. PALIN = SMILE & SMEAR.

no thanks.
we cannot afford Republicans.
they're too corrupt & too expensive!

[darker]

McCain = Bush
THE SAME NARCISSISM, the same "son of privilege" upbringing, the same trying to measure
up to ADMIRALS dad and grandad, the same psychological and personality PROBLEMS.

We don't want PRIVILEGED GUYS ACTING OUT THEIR PROBLEMS ON AMERICA!

No more years for Republicans:
THEY'RE TOO MUCH TROUBLE, TOO DAMN CORRUPT & DANGEROUS
AND WE CAN'T AFFORD THEM.

[snellock]

As far as the 'm' word goes: I wish somebody would point out to John that generally , at least in the westerns I have seen, when a fella agrees with the boss 9 times out of ten they don't call him a maverick, they call him a side-kick.

[noamjunior]

from my observations of McCain- he doesn't have the self awareness to Angry at himself
He thinks this is everyone's fault but his own
He thinks Obama has been dishonest
He thinks his staff is incompetent
he thinks the media has been "unfair"
and he thinks the public is stupid
He thinks the ecconomic meltdown is bad timing to hurt his election chances

[fionamacknz]

Don't worry about John-boy; he lets others do the suffering. Remember his comment on the topic?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: "As a politician, I am instinctive, often impulsive...I don't torture myself over decisions. I make them as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can. Often, my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint."

Now if WE could just figure out what to do with the anger he's causing us!

[pineapplegal]

History in the making. I have children from 7 to 17 and I have to wonder what they will study in high school, college and beyond on these years. Bush, without fail, will go down as the worst President in the history of our country. Palin will be remembered as the one who caused McCain to lose so badly and McCain will likely no longer be of this realm by the time its all being written in the books. I hope to God that Palin goes back to Alaska and they throw her out of politics forever....she is much too crazy to be running anyone's lives, even her own.

[fistbump]

Nope, he's mad at Obama. He can't believe that he's put in so much time and seniority, has fostered the media for so long, has compromised so many of his stances, and yet this young, less experienced guy is walking in and taking away what he believes is rightfully his. He is a spoiled brat who was never denied anything, and he can't believe he can't have it now. He's no better than a 3 yo throwing a tantrum.

I hope that Obama, in Tuesday's debate, fosters the simmering hostility in McCain that he can't seem to control of late. Show the public how erratic and out of control McCain really is. Needle him until he blows.

[BillyMae]

Maybe he will get screaming mad and walk off the stage. That should do it.

[Dystopic]

hit him on honor, mccain thinks that he has honor, but doesn't. Ask McCain, I once thought you were honorable, but now, whatever honor you had, has been sold to the lowest common denominator

Honor, Integrity, Honesty are all really easy targets

[moreupnorth]

I was really enjoying this article until I came to this "...chilling ties to terrorist Alaskan secessionists..." I am just fed up with the use of the word terrorist to describe someone who doesn't share your views. Boths sides are doing this and it belittles what the word really means.

Terrorists are not successionists. They may be frustrating, annoying, self centered, egotistical, but they are not terrorists. Terrorists highjack airplanes, bomb boats and buildings. Their ultimate goal is to control a country's will and not to occupy or remove a tract of land from it. And yes William Ayers was one of those. But that does not make Obama one!!!!! And flippantly using the term terrorist to inflict the same kind of disingenuous untrue inuendo is no better than the tactics of the right wing fear mongers. Calling a successionist a terrorist is exactly like saying someone is a terrorist because they once knew one!

Otherwise I think the article was right on. He is erratic because he is angry and he is also angry because he is erratic. And it has been showing for quite some time.

[Glenn1441]

I too found cause to pause when coming across that statement.

[Paul Jenkins - Huffpost Blogger]

The reason I felt comfortable using the word terrorist in this context is because the AIP leader, Joe Vogler, was killed in a plastic-explosives sale gone bad (see: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940CE3DB153CF936A25753C1A962958260). I do not think it is a stretch to say that a member of a radical group who is involved in a transaction involving explosives is a terrorist, but, you are right, he never was convicted of a terrorist act.

[rwt1138]

It is highly unlikely that Joe Vogler intended to purchase the plastic explosives to use against human beings. He was a crank and a crackpot, notoriously ill tempered, but hardly a terrorist or murderer. What is more likely is that he was intending to use them for fishing or mining, albeit almost certainly in a manner in violation of the law. The AIP is not a terrorist organization. Part of Vogler's hatred of America was the imposition of laws and regulations--such as limitations on who could use explosives and for what--that accompanied statehood.

There really aren't any violent radical groups in Alaska; the state is fairly open and tolerant of all views, however repellent or ridiculous, as long as you don't try and force them on others or do anyone else harm as a result. I think this is not unrelated; because no groups in Alaska are truly persecuted, there really isn't much need to radicalize to the point of violence.

[hollybork]

McCain better change and change fast now. People are losing their jobs, will soon pull their kids from college and halt travelling and eating out, will stop paying their car payments and credit cards just so they can pay the rent. Joe Sixpack is not likely to vote Republican if he cannot get together enough money each weekend to stay decently drunk, fill his truck with gas, heat his home with fuel oil this winter, and his wife is taking in laundry to get enough money to buy the kids shoes at the Walmart.

McCain needs to spend time finding some really good economic advisers with deep knowledge and insight into depression economics. They better figure out how to present solutions to a global financial collapse because that is what we are facing in the next 3- 6 months. They should engage in some unaccustomed farsighted "thought experiments". Does McCain really care about the nuts and bolts of running a national government during a depression?That's not an instinct job, and must be grounded in something other than war theory when the US lost nearly 800,000 jobs this year, and the potential credit default swap loss may exceed $40 trillion - more the US GNP. McCain might show his maverick's ability to change by engaging in straight talk. "Ladies and Gentlemen, it is the end of the Reagan era, and we are all about to look to the government as the solution, not the problem."

[StPeteDoc]

The increasingly erratic and historically tempestuous behavior of John McCalin over the last couple of weeks on a number of domestic and foreign policy issues is disturbing, to say the least. Is this really the guy who we want as president? Do we really want McCain to have his finger on the nuclear (sorry, folks, I forgot: NU-CYU-LER) trigger? Even more disturbing is the fact that coupled with McCain as the "Prince of Diplomatic Preconditions" and "Champion of Gunboat Diplomacy" on the Republican ticket is his running mate, Sarah Palin, who on her best day, is nothing more than a Pollyanna-like flute-playing form-over-substance former prom queen who completely misinterprets the Constitution, who can't remember the newspapers that she reads, who is completely unfamiliar with Supreme Court decisions (relevant or otherwise), who has a complete over-reliance on canned talking points and responses when asked pointed questions, who indelicately avoids any direct questions that require reasoned and thoughtful responses, and who apparently is bereft of any original thinking. You're kidding me, right? Is this really the best that the Republican party can offer the American voter in November? In point of fact, John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate is a glowing testament to the fact that erratic thinking can easily dissolve into irrational behavior for which ordinary Americans will pay the price.

[TruthStar9]

Right-on! St.PeteDoc! Cound not have said it better!

Touche!

[CarolinaDem]

He's probably also mad that he finds himself running against an African-American! It's like pitching against the guy who's about to break DiMaggio's record: your win, if you get it, is going to look like it came from the rednecks instead of the 'true Americans' if you can't prove the guy is unpatriotic. You're stuck with looking like George Wallace, so you really have to run like George Wallace, and that's infuriating.

[robXdion]

Heck, he IS George Wallace. That doesn't infuriate him. He's angry that it all comes down to a black man in his way.