McCain's Out of Control Anger: Does He Have the Temperament to be President?

newsmax.com ^ | july 5, 2006 | Ronald Kessler

[jubail]

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is considered a front-runner for the 2008 race, but does McCain have the temperament to be president?

As portrayed by the mainstream media, McCain is an engaging war hero, a man of political moderation positioned between the left and the right.

But to insiders who know him, McCain has an irrational, explosive side that make many of them question whether he is fit to serve as president and be commander in chief.

Nowhere is that sentiment stronger than in the Senate, where McCain has few friends or supporters. In fact, when McCain ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2000, only four Republican senators endorsed him

[jubail]

You only get backdoor stories about this, but they have been known for years. I remember Pete Dominicie, republican senator from new mexico, saying on tv that no one likes to be screamed at the way McCain does to fellow senators. You wont hear this from Russert, Mathews, Kristol or Hannity.

[samadams2000]

He's our early stage Murtha. He needs to quit now before someone gets hurt.

[Vaquero]

I yam what I yam.....ach ach ach ach...

[tigtog]

He is insane. Remember SC primary, the man is deranged.

[Ancesthntr]

McCain appears to have an "anger management" problem. I'm just an ordinary person with no inside information, and this is my impression of him. On that basis alone, even if I completely agreed with his policies (which is not even close to the case), I could not vote for him.

[futurekentuckylawyer]

What's the story here? Third-generation Navy vet uses "bad words"?

[rod1]

You don't have to go to his temperment to disqualify him. McCain's political stances are equally illogical and unpalatable. In fact his bright ideas are usually diasters in the making.

His best chance is to run as a democrat.

[Cobra64]

I agree. I've never understood why even people here on FR could even consider this nut-job Presidential material. McCain is a cross between Screamin' Dean and Jack Murtha.

[butternut_squash_bisque]

I read a story on FR a few months ago about a FReeper being at a speech McLame gave, and how he went off into the netherworld of Star Trek or somesuch fantasy. People got frightened, were stunned and began to leave.

I thinks he's nuts and unfit to hold any office, after observing him over the years. He's a RINO, and untrustworthy unless the liberal media's polls support him.

I also think he's carrying too much mental baggage from 5 years as a POW. The 'backdoor' stories about those 5 years are very unsettling.

[Redbob]

Murtha?
McLame is the GOP's Howard Dean!

[sam_paine]

You get more than backdoor stories. It's right out in the open.

I heard McCain one day on a Sunday Show (where else!) say something to the effect of , "...yes, every day I have to try to control my temper about all these things..."

I was so stunned at the time that I don't remember it verbatim, but I thought, "Lord, can you imagine this nut with his fnger on the nuke button?"

I was shocked I didn't see a whole thread on FR for that one quote! But if he runs, someone will find it for a campaign ad, I'm quite sure. It has to be FNS, since that's all I really listen to.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

"He had very few friends in the Senate," said former Senator Smith, who dealt with McCain almost daily. "He has a lot of support around the country, but I don't think he has a lot of support from people who know him well."

Well, that explains ole Johnbo slumming around with any DemonRat that'll give him the time of day.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Poster-boy for Ex-Lax.

[ansel12]

A lot of us saw this during the 2000 campaign, under stress cracks seemed to be showing up revealing something a little scary.

Somewhere I saw a journalist (or politico, I don't remember), he had liked McCain and got to spend time in his entourage, he said that with the close up exposure he saw a side of McCain that was deeply disturbing, he would not tell us what it was, but left it clear that he thought McCain was unstable.

I think his position was a hope that McCain never sit in the oval office, regardless who the opponent was.

[Jeff Chandler]

I've heard him in radio interviews go off on callers who asked pointed questions. He would as dangerous as Clinton in the White House.

[trebb]

Over the years, he has had lapses where the real insanity would shine through his eyes. When that occurs, he make Pelosi look like a bastion of sanity and decency. There are some seriously twisted connections in that skull of his.

[pleikumud]

I'm more concerned about McCain-Feingold, and what that says about McCain's political views, than I am his temper. McCain-Feingold is an assault on the 1st Amendment, and should be repealed. It originated as a totally absurd answer to the Clintons taking campaign money from communist China. The solution should have been to put the Clintons in jail, not infringe on our right to support candidates.

[Arizona Carolyn]

Someone should send this to Hannity.... maybe it would think twice before propping the guy up on his show.

[Eagles Talon IV]

But little missy Chrissy Matthews sure does have a crush on him.

[Arizona Carolyn]

No ex-prisoner of war with more than a few screws loose... not completely de-programmed if you ask me.