Scary McCain (temperamental warrior)

American Thinker ^ | 30 March 2008 | Judith Klinghoffer

[K-oneTexas]

Scary McCain

By Judith Klinghoffer

With McCain you get the real thing while with Obama you may get an audacity of rhetoric based on nothing but political expediency and imagined racial grievances. Recent polls reveal that the American people are beginning to get it and that scares not only McCain's Democrat opponents but also European leftists, especially following his successful stops in Britain and France.

These European McCain foes recognize the inherent weakness of the main ammunition their American counter parts have been using, his age. Late night comedians' tasteless jokes aside, in an era where 60 is the new 40 and 70 the new 50, too many Americans can look at the vitality of their own 72 year old parents, aunts and uncles or grandparents, as well as McCain's own performance on the campaign trail, and recognize the absurdity of the feebleness charge.

It is this context that we should read the Financial Times column written by Cambridge historian  and New American Foundation senior fellow, Anatol Lieven entitled: Why we should fear a McCain presidency? His intriguing answer which appears in bold print in the paper edition is:

Some of the worst 20th century catastrophes were caused by brave men with passionate sense of national mission.

Really? I was curious. Who could he mean? I could not think of an example. Apparently, neither could he. The closest he came to naming names is comparing McCain to Andrew Jackson, a highly regarded 19th century Democrat president and not a particularly scary one. He does tell us that so extreme is the McCain presidency going to be that it will make leftists look back with nostalgia at George W. Bush.  Indeed, European governments should start immediately planning on "how they could either prevent a McCain administration from pursuing pyromaniac policies or, if necessary, protect Europe from the ensuing conflagration." 

No, Lieven does not merely worry that McCain may bomb Iran (though he does worry about that) but that he will "not know how to deal cautiously and diplomatically with Russia and China." Well, Lieven seems desperate, indeed. You see, he argues that McCain shares "the American establishment's hatred of Russia" and, hence, may offer more support than Bush to Georgia's wish to restore its rule over Abkhazia and South Ossetia leading to a Georgian-Russian war. The notion of a severe deterioration of US relations with China is just thrown in for good measure.

But why should Americans believe that as experienced and knowledgeable a warrior as John McCain would behave so irresponsibly? Because he has an ungovernable temper, Lieven answers: 

"Mr McCain's policies would not be so worrying were it not for his notorious quickness to fury in the face of perceived insults to himself or his country. Even Thad Cochran, a fellow Republican senator, has said: ‘I certainly know no other president since I've been here who's had a temperament like that.'"

Well, let me enlighten him.  World War II hero and two term president Dwight Eisenhower was another military man with a lightening temper.  In her book First Mothers, Bonnie Angelo describes his mother's failure to teach him temper control. "From childhood those lightening flashes were as much a part of Ike as the contagious smile," she writes.

Biographer Carlo D'este describes  instances when "he totally lost his self-control -- whether beating an apple tree with his fists as a child, banging his head against a wall when playing poor tennis, or punching his fist through the wall of a cafe."  White House seamstress Lillian Rogers Parks tells how his wife Mamie lived in constant fear of his outbursts. Angelo reports that presidential aides became most familiar with a vein in his forehead which would noticeably stand out during press conference he found annoying as signaling, "Caution: high voltage temper."

White house advisor Merlo Pusey wrote:

Sometimes his anger is aroused and it may set off a geyser of hot words. The President's emotions are close to the surface and his irritations are registered on his face almost as readily as his general good humor.

That said, Eisenhower did help win World War II but did not start World War III. He, merely, ended the Korean War and presided over 8 years of relative peace and prosperity. Not a bad record for a brave honorable, if temperamental, warrior.  If temperamental McCain does as well we should all be very happy.

It is not McCain's age or temperament that truly scares Lieven but McCain's unapologetic pursuit of American national interest as well as his conviction that American national interest is irrevocably tied  to the interest of other democracies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.  For Lieven, realism means appeasement and McCain, like another "old and scary" American president named Ronald Reagan, refuses to appease.  

Dr. Judith Apter Klinghoffer is the author of Vietnam, Jews and the Middle East: Unintended Consequences, the co-author of International Citizens' Tribunals: Mobilizing Public Opinion to Advance Human Rights and  a  History News Network  blogger.

[The_Media_never_lie]

At least McCain is on our side.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Is this an attempt to portray McCain as a Goldwater?

[Cringing Negativism Network]

Can’t have those enemies out there, on the other end of red phones, launch sequences and terrorist cells,

“afraid” of our president.

Oh no. Whatever will we do?

Let’s all hug.

[Grunthor]

Our side? Which are you, an illegal alien or a Democrat?

[Sacajaweau]

George Washington had a TERRIBLE temper.

[VRWC For Truth]

I’m awaiting the McShame “Howard Dean” moment when he goes bonkers.

[gitmogrunt]

"Well, let me enlighten him. World War II hero and two term president Dwight Eisenhower was another military man with a lightening temper.

Dear Author;

There's nothing wrong with having a temper....sometimes it is necessary for survival...however.....,

PUHLZEEEEEEE Don't EVER try to equate the character traits of the dignified General and President Eisenhower to this McQweeg rat.

[Rastus]

Hopefully it’ll be big enough and soon enough that we’ll dump this disaster at the convention.

[SolidWood]

Take your polemics elsewhere. McCain won’t put up with crap from Russia, China, Iran and Al-Q. That’s a heck of a lot better than any else (real existing, not some fictious conservative dream knight we all long for) candidate. McCain is the R candidate, not a Bolshevik like Hillobama and would make one damn fine CiC.

[TexasCajun]

[yoe]

Two very important aspects of John McCain and Barack H. Obama are these :

McCain has Cindy, seemingly unflappable and she is proud of her country. Cindy is pretty much a federalist as is her husband.

Obama has Michelle a bitter female Belafonte...actually a racist. Michelle is your typical Socialist with hard line Marxist leanings.

A Republic v Socialism.

[karnage]

I read that Andy Jackson killed a bunch of guys in duels.

[ozzymandus]

I’m an American, and I’m voting for McCain. I live in the real world, and have to make real choices, not sit at my computer and whine that there’s no “perfect” candidate.

[Grunthor]

“not sit at my computer and whine that there’s no “perfect” candidate.”

Oh perfect left the building long ago. Now you get to choose between two evils. Never before has that saying mean’t so much as now.

[Kozak]

As an aside, wonder what a GOP convention full of McCain delegates will be like? Denver Lite?

[yoe]

"McCain won’t put up with crap from Russia, China, Iran and Al-Q."

McCain is a seasoned adult – imperfect but who isn’t, however just about 100% more qualified to lead the nation than his depressing-down-with-America opponents.

[Cicero]

The planter, the farmer, the mechanic, and the laborer... form the great body of the people of the United States, they are the bone and sinew of the country men who love liberty and desire nothing but equal rights and equal laws.
—Andrew Jackson

The safety of the republic being the supreme law, and Texas having offered us the key to the safety of our country from all foreign intrigues and diplomacy, I say accept the key... and bolt the door at once.
—Andrew Jackson

The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.
—Andrew Jackson

There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses.
—Andrew Jackson