The Curious Mind of John McCain; Ambition and Emotion Color the Complex Intellect of the Candidate

The Washington Post ^ | 2008-08-01 | Robert G. Kaiser

[rabscuttle385]

In his 2002 book, "Worth the Fighting For," John McCain offered this confession -- an acknowledgment of a restless mind: "Although I seem to tolerate introspection better the older I am, there are still too many claims on my attention to permit more than the briefest excursions down the path of self-awareness. When I am no longer busy with politics, and with my own ambitions, I hope to have more time to examine what I have done and failed to do with my career, and why."

[rabscuttle385]

He is a striver and a combatant, often at war with himself, who has conducted a lifelong struggle "to prove to myself that I was the man I had always wanted to be," as he has written.

So many voices, so little time! What a schizo. /snicker

[rabscuttle385]

The Just Say No to Juan McCain Ping List. "It's like traveling around with a circus." —Lindsey Graham, on McCain's campaign To join: FReepmail rabscuttle385 to subscribe or to unsubscribe from this ping list. This can be a very high-volume ping list at times. We are exploring giving subscribers two different options for receiving pings: either to individual threads or to a single "digested" thread at the end of each calendar day. FReepmail rabscuttle385 if you are interested in receiving one or the other. Take care to check the "mccainlist", "mccaintruthfile", "mcbama", "mcqueeg", and "mccain" keyword search links for related threads, since we can not possibly ping you to every relevant article that is posted. To flag a relevant thread, please add the keywords "mccainlist" and "mccaintruthfile". Republican Commissar’s Warning: By joining this ping list, you may be subjected to the irrational rants and ramblings of McCainiacs, of "moderate" Republicans, of deeply confused conservatives resigned to voting for the lesser of two Democrats, and of countless trolls who simply want to meet a new overlord. Per FR posting guidelines, we kindly ask that you be civil and polite in your comings and goings. Bonus points for being optimistic and in good cheer.

[Chunga]

More SPAM! Eat up, you Third-Party Goofballs.

[rabscuttle385]

More SPAM! Eat up, you Third-Party Goofballs.

McCain's campaign is all spam.

[endthematrix]

“Our nation has a unique place in the world. We are the greatest force for good on earth. We chart history’s course. Yes, we must be involved in the destiny of other nations.” - McCain

“Now is the time to build new bridges across the globe as strong as the one that bound us across the Atlantic. Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century.” Obama

[calcowgirl]

"What he really enjoys, although the witnesses seldom do, is to put opposing witnesses on the same panel, and sit back and watch them fight, and see who has the best argument," Salter said. The Senate Commerce Committee chaired by McCain did this in 2001-02 during hearings on global warming, convincing the chairman that the scientific debate was settled -- the Earth is warming.

Ugh.

[Man50D]

The Senate Commerce Committee chaired by McCain did this in 2001-02 during hearings on global warming, convincing the chairman that the scientific debate was settled -- the Earth is warming.

No, that is just Congress over heating.

[TADSLOS]

“The other John McCain doesn’t speak for me”- John McCain

[GBA]

I'm not a McCain supporter. I was once, voted for him and then he made me regret my votes many times since. Obviously, McCain is not my first choice to be President, in fact, he doesn't even make my list. But an Obama presidency is not preferable to McCain in any way, shape or form.

Obama will be bad for America, for race relations and for our future. I do not want the policies of Pelosi and Reid to become the law of the land. Nor do I want their picks for the supreme court, the end of the 2nd amendment, much higher taxes, their silly and dangerous energy policies, etc. etc. etc.

McCain may not be the best warrior to fight them, but he is the only choice we have this time and as much as I don't want to and have vowed I wouldn't, it appears that I will have to vote for McCain to keep Obama from inflicting his racist preacher's philosophies on us. I don't want to know how bad things can get.

[pangaea6]

“In war,” he has said, “there is no such thing as compromise; you either win or you lose.” But he has not defined victory in Iraq, and many wars have ended ambiguously

I agree with John’s thinking, as soon as you start to compromise, you’ve lost. You either win or lose, compromising is just a better way of saying we lost.

[yorkie01]

Complex Intellect is an oxymoron insofar as Juan McCain is presented. McCain was fifth from the bottom of his graduating class at the US Naval Academy.

[Mojave]

McCain may not be the best warrior to fight them

Kinda like Benedict Arnold.

[GBA]

"McCain was fifth from the bottom of his graduating class at the US Naval Academy."

And what does that mean exactly? That he was good enough to be both accepted by and to graduate from the Academy? Few have what it takes to be Naval Academy graduates, regardless of class rank. Obama certainly doesn't. And even fewer have what it takes to fly an A-4, to land it on a carrier in all sorts of weather and to take it into combat. Fewer still have what it takes to survive the Hanoi Hilton. I'm not a McCain supporter, but I respect his past and know that he has been tested in ways few of us can relate to.

[GBA]

Benedict Arnold? You’re kidding, right? McCain isn’t the conservative Ronald Reagan was and he certainly has made me regret voting for him, but he’s no traitor. I have no doubt he would again fight for America against all enemies foreign and domestic...as long as they aren’t “undocumented” aliens.

[AuntB]

“there are still too many claims on my attention to permit more than the briefest excursions down the path of self-awareness.”

Yes, he’s been busy campaigning in NH for 8 years and too busy to bother to cast votes for his Senate job, but not busy enough to push through another amnesty.

[AuntB]

LOL!

[goldfinch]

bump for later

[E. Cartman]

“Lulz” is how trolls keep score. A corruption of “LOL” or “laugh out loud,” “lulz” means the joy of disrupting another’s emotional equilibrium. “Lulz is watching someone lose their mind at their computer 2,000 miles away while you chat with friends and laugh,” said one ex-troll who, like many people I contacted, refused to disclose his legal identity.

The above quote is from an NYT article on trolls, and as I was reading it, it suddenly occured to me that for at least the last two decades, John McCain has been the original political troll, a dysfunctional fellow who'll toss a stink bomb into the middle of a harmonious group not going his way purely for his benefit only.

{Said in a doddering half-witted voice}. "My friend, my friend, on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?"

[E. Cartman]

"McCain was fifth from the bottom of his graduating class at the US Naval Academy."

Yorkie, you're being awfully generous and should stop damning with faint praise. While McCain was, indeed, in the bottom fifth of his graduating Annapolis class, this at least offers the possibility that he could have been in the 20th percentile, which he wasn't. More precisely, McCain was in the bottom 1% of his graduating class.

If his daddy and his granddaddy had never been Admirals in the USN, he would most likely have been the class goat (if he'd been even considered for admission in the first place). With his abysmal performance history, if he hadn't been born to a life of privelege, he certainly would never have been admitted to aviation school.

McCain is a man of low character and middling intellect; and the only thing not below average about him is his enormous ego. That a man of his mendacious character should be the GOP's nominee shows just how far the GOP since Ronald Reagan and the American political class have sunk.

[E. Cartman]

I agree with John’s thinking, as soon as you start to compromise, you’ve lost. You either win or lose, compromising is just a better way of saying we lost.

But, but, but I thought Juan was the original compromiser. I mean no one's compromised his conservative values as well as John McCain. So, I guess, then, I'm going to listen to our candidate that I shouldn't compromise my values and will stick by my principles by not voting for a Trojan Elephant.