It’s for the Press, Not Obama, to Raise the Issue of McCain’s Explosive Temper
John McCain’s explosive temper is well documented. His hometown newspaper The Arizona Republic calls his temper “volcanic.” Published reports refer to scores of intemperate blasts in which he has called opponents and colleagues “shitheads,” “assholes,” and in at least one case, a “fucking jerk.”
These are not partisan charges from Democratic opponents. Here are examples of McCain’s short fuse as offered by Republicans:
• Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi told the Boston Globe this past winter, “He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me. The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine.” Cochran recalls that at a diplomatic meeting in Nicaragua in 1987, McCain, in a fit of rage, grabbed an associate of Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega by the shirt collar and pulled him out of his chair.
• Former GOP Congressman from New York John LeBoutillier has said, “I think he is mentally unstable and not fit to be president.”
• Former New Hampshire GOP Senator Bob Smith stated, “I have witnessed incidents where he exploded at colleagues. He would disagree about something and then explode. It was incidents of irrational behavior. I’ve never seen anyone act like that.”
• When McCain ran for president in 2000, GOP Senator Pete Domenici was lambasted with profanity by McCain at a Senate committee hearing. Domenici told Newsweek, “I decided I didn’t want this guy anywhere near a trigger.”
• In 1992 McCain and Iowa GOP Senator Charles Grassley had a confrontation in a Senate committee meeting room where there was shouting, profanity, and some shoving. Grassley didn’t speak to McCain for more than two years.
• When asked about McCain’s temper, former Pennsylvania GOP Senator Rick Santorum, who campaigned for Mitt Romney in the GOP primaries, said, “I don’t know anybody in Washington who has worked extensively with the senator from Arizona who does not have a story to tell.”
Even McCain’s wife Cindy has not escaped his wrath. On a 1992 campaign stop, Cindy McCain ran her fingers through her husband’s hair and mentioned it was getting a little thin. McCain, in front of several staffers, reportedly replied, “At least I don’t plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.”
McCain has always admitted to struggles to control his temper. In a 2002 memoir, he wrote, “My temper has often been a matter of public speculation and personal concern. I have a temper, to state the obvious, which I have tried to control with varying degrees of success because it often does not serve my interest or the public.”
There is no reason to believe that McCain’s bad temper somehow came about because of his incarceration in a North Vietnamese prison camp. McCain recalls in his writings, how, as a toddler, he sometimes held his breath and fainted during moments of fury.
There is a serious issue to be resolved about whether this man is too volatile, has too short a fuse, and is too subject to tantrums to be trusted with control of the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons.
While this is an issue of grave importance, it is not one to be raised by Obama, by his campaign staff, or by his surrogates.
In time McCain must be confronted by a reporter’s question, “Are you temperamentally suited to hold the office of president of the United States?”
As I watch the election procise, who to say that the short temp McCain will not send our children, dads, cousins, aunts, uncles back in to harms way as our curent short temp president have. Peace is what is often spoke about when it comes to the elections. lets stick to a new goverment one for the people and ran by the people with that being said lets do the right thing and bring a new and fresh idea in by electing Barack Obama. There is the face of real change and fresh ideas. It will take Ms. Barack a couple of moths to show the changes but if we all stick with it. It will not take long for us to see that change. I as many americans are ready to see the changes.
I think the news must question McCain temper righit away
Lets put him on the defense..and see what happens in front of millions.
I GUESS WE DO NOT WANT A FREAK LIKE MCAINE WHO CAN NOT CONTROL HIS TEMPER IN THE WHITE HOUSE. WE NEED SOMEONE WHO IS NOT GOING TO BLOW ON PEOPLE AND MAKE DECISION BASED ON HIS TEMPER TELLS HIM SO OLD MAN STAY HOME WE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR COWBOY FRIEND.
People in AZ have seen McCain’s temper for years. The man goes drastically “out-of-control.”
Will he, in a fit, hit the nuclear? I hope Americans don’t have to find out.
Sen. Obama, for reasons I do not agree with and don’t really understand, has suffered significant obstacles from his reputed lack of qualifications to be Commander-in-Chief. In order to win the election, Obama is going to need to answer this criticism more convincingly than he apparently has so far to a fair number of voters. Al Gore made a great argument comparing his qualifications to Abraham Lincoln’s. However, I would like to propose what I feel is a much more direct answer to this criticism: Just how is finishing at the bottom of your Naval Academy class a good qualification to become Commander-in-Chief? McCain’s instructors must have seen his shortcomings, as he then went on to get himself shot down in one of his first and only military combat actions - good enough for 40+ years of sympathy, but really NOT a good qualification to be Commander-in-Chief!
Sen. Obama must ask McCain this question very seriously and directly and without any apologetic qualifiers when McCain attacks his qualifications in one of the upcoming debates, which WILL happen. He should then be prepared for a show of McCain’s angry temper in response, and introduce some question about residual chronic post-traumatic stress disorder being a sequel of his POW years, which must be seen, at least in part, as a result of his own reckless behavior contributing to his being shot down.
This is admittedly an unusual way to view McCain’s experiences, but will cause people to ask questions and reflect that his honored military experience REALLY WAS NOT ANYTHING TO BRAG ABOUT. I am very tired of people, including Sen. Obama, always apologetically prefacing valid criticisms of McCain with salutes to his loyal military experience. How great do you have to be to nearly flunk out of the Naval Academy, get yourself (and an expensive plane) shot down, and languish in a prison camp for 5 1/2 years without making a good escape attempt? Those are not the qualifications I want for my Commander-in-Chief!
After Sen. Obama gets a chance to drop this in a debate, then it should be heavily pushed in advertising, whether directly from Obama’s campaign or more indirectly, like the successful swift-boating attacks on Sen. Kerry.
Sen. McCain’s preparedness to be Commander-in-Chief is NO MORE DEFINITIVE than is Sen. Obama’s, and this important qualification should not be ceded him without some real scrutiny of just what DID McCain do that would win a conflict? I don’t want to be led by a commander who IS qualified to make the United States prisoners of war!!!
-Michael Grinberg, M.D.