by Damozel | Specifically, he compares McCain to the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, whose only anger management technique was to screech, "Off with his head!"
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... (WaPo)
To my surprise, Will's as concerned as I am about what McCain's tantrums and posturings, and his way of excusing in himself and his own campaign conduct he doesn't tolerate in others, will mean if he is elected.
For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are "corrupt" or "betray the public's trust," two categories that seem to be exhaustive -- there are no other people. McCain's Manichaean worldview drove him to his signature legislative achievement, the McCain-Feingold law's restrictions on campaigning. Today, his campaign is creatively finding interstices in laws intended to restrict campaign giving and spending. (For details, see The Post of Sept. 17, Page A4; and the New York Times of Sept. 20, Page One.)(WaPo)
Steven Taylor of Poliblog notes: "This reminds me of Steve Bainbridge (a McCain supporter) who stated at the time in regards to McCain’s rant against Cox: “There’s so much stupidity here, it’s hard to know where to begin.”"
Will concludes with a dark caveat for his followers:
Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either. (More)
Wonkette's Sara K. Smith marvels:
Jesus, a weekend or two ago George Will was on one of them Sunday talk shows defending McCain’s “Obama wants to teach your babies how to have sex” ad. He was possibly the one American pundit who actually thought it was a good, true ad. And now even that guy wonders if John McCain is fit for office, because of his “temperament.”
She has a theory about what's really up with McCain;
It seems that the last week of utter financial fuckery has really brought out the worst in McCain. Why is this? Because he finds the economy endlessly dull, so he throws a tantrum every couple of days just to look like he’s sort of interested. (Wonkette)
Ron Beasley remarks:
That certainly sounds like an un-endorsement of John McCain to me. McCain has made his temperament an issue
Steve M. wonders if this means he's losing the right wing punditocracy again.
With respect to McCain's populist pivot, Kyle E. Moore suggests:
I don’t think he understood the conservative (actual conservative, mind you) approach to the economy well enough to be able to pivot in the wake of this crisis and make a reasoned argument.
In other words, McCain, in a matter of days, went from being Deregulating, Fundamentals are Strong, Conservative McCain to Populist Crusader, Throw the Bums Out McCain, and no one’s buying it.
McCain supporter James Joyner confesses that his own enthusiasm is "lessening by the day.".
It appears that George Will has had enough of John McCain. Like myself, he’s long been a bitter opponent of McCain-Feingold and thought Sarah Palin an unimpressive — if thus far politically shrewd — choice for vice president. McCain’s odd reaction to the recent bad news from Wall Street, though, has apparently been the last straw....
McCain has indeed been horridly disappointing on the financial crisis. While Obama has looked unprepared by not having an instant response to the unfolding crisis — which was also the case with the Russian invasion of Georgia — McCain has perhaps gone too far in the other direction.
George Patton famously said that, “A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.” He offered no advice, however, on what to do with a bad plan.
Todd Beeton at My DD muses:
We are not the only ones who feel burned by Bush, you see. Conservatives feel that betrayal even more acutely because they didn't trust him in 2000 but they shut up and went along in the interest of a Republican victory and now what do they have to show for it? The destruction of the Republican brand and, perhaps not far behind, the destruction of the conservative brand. As a result, we're seeing some conservatives in revolt. "Not this time," Will might as well be saying. Not again will he be a party to the betrayal of conservatism as he sees it. Too bad for Will, it just might be too late.
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i would say he stated that well
Posted by: rawdawgbuffalo | September 23, 2008 at 11:22 AM