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2008 McCain's Temperament Fails Again
realclearpolitics.com ^ | September 23, 2008 | George Will

Posted on 09/22/2008 10:55:36 PM PDT by Checkers

"The queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. 'Off with his head!' she said without even looking around." -- "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

WASHINGTON -- 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 that was "unpresidential" and demonstrated that McCain "doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does."

To read the Journal's details about the depths of McCain's shallowness on the subject of Cox's chairmanship, see "McCain's Scapegoat" (Sept. 19, Page A22). Then consider McCain's characteristic accusation that Cox "has betrayed the public's trust."

Perhaps an old antagonism is involved in McCain's fact-free slander. His most conspicuous economic adviser is Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who previously headed the Congressional Budget Office. There he was an impediment to conservatives, including then-Congressman Cox, who as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee persistently tried and generally failed to enlist CBO support for "dynamic scoring" that would estimate the economic growth effects of proposed tax cuts.

In any case, McCain's smear -- that Cox "betrayed the public's trust" -- is a harbinger of a McCain presidency. 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 Manichean worldview drove him to

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: chriscox; economicpolicy; financialcrisis; georgewill; mccain; mccainpalin; temper
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To: jazusamo

wrong crowd in that picture.

too many people in that picture.

obama’s crowds are shrnking to the 1-2k


61 posted on 09/23/2008 4:48:56 AM PDT by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: Checkers

In the real world at a major Fortune 500 company, Paulson and Cox would both be fired.

Either that or they’d both receive promotions and a chance to work in Uzbekistan... where they could explore new career opportunities and do less damage to the economy.


62 posted on 09/23/2008 4:57:17 AM PDT by o2bfree
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To: roamer_1; cherry; Checkers
Hell, no. If you want your socialist so damn bad, go vote for a democrat.

A Democrat...like McCain?

It's funny and sickening at the same time to realize that folks are so scared of the monster in the closet that they are willing to surrender to the equally scary monster right under their own beds.

63 posted on 09/23/2008 5:04:07 AM PDT by rabscuttle385 (No, no se puede, Juan! No to bailouts, no to amnesty, no to carbon credits, no to Big Government!)
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To: rabscuttle385

IF you think they are “equally scary” than you must be the type who wets himself over their own shadow


64 posted on 09/23/2008 5:05:22 AM PDT by Hegewisch Dupa (The goo on John Kerry's flip-flops)
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To: rabscuttle385

“Beg your pardon...which of the two Big Government freaks running for office were you referring to: the one with the (R) or the one with the (D)?”

Don’t you know?

Obama is the devil and McCain is the Messiah.

Now, switch the names and you have DU, KOSKIDS and Moveon.


65 posted on 09/23/2008 6:03:49 AM PDT by Checkers (Voting for McCain? Then don't complain. (Hey, that rhymes.))
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To: o2bfree

o2bfree
Since Aug 30, 2008


66 posted on 09/23/2008 6:04:41 AM PDT by Checkers (Voting for McCain? Then don't complain. (Hey, that rhymes.))
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To: Checkers

So what? Care to elaborate on your complaint?


67 posted on 09/23/2008 6:32:02 AM PDT by o2bfree
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To: Checkers

George Will is another in a long line of self-styled conservative Gods who look down their noses a la Charles Gibson at the Girl From the North Country. All these Beltway types i.e. David Brooks, Ben Stein, Charles Krauthammer, Will and most of the Bow Tie Geniuses at the American Spectator are driven to distraction by the notion that pretty can’t be smart or tough or strong or principled only “cute”. Sick of em’. Leave em in the dust.


68 posted on 09/23/2008 7:00:47 AM PDT by lmc12
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To: longtermmemmory

Correct...Don’t know for a fact but believe that crowd in the pic is from Portland, OR when he was stumping against Billary.


69 posted on 09/23/2008 9:38:04 AM PDT by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.org | DefendOurTroops.org)
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To: Chet 99
Good point, I think many of the politicians hoped that they could keep this under wraps for a bit longer and avoid the bail out that we are now faced both sides of the Atlantic.

Instead Obama decided to make political capital out of it, but of course we are not allowed to question his patriotism. The classic thing is that both parties are equally to blame and one held Congress and one held the White House so really neither candidate should be able to to make political capital out of it no doubt though the MSM will ensure Obama does.

70 posted on 09/23/2008 10:23:09 AM PDT by snugs ((An English Cheney Chick - Big Time))
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To: Checkers
I read anything written by someone on the Washington Compost with skepticism. I really hate when people post pro Obama articles here. There are enough on DU.
Obama lacks experience and even he said in 2004 that it wasn't a job where you should do on job training. He is a Marxist and anyone would be better for America.
71 posted on 09/23/2008 11:13:05 AM PDT by nclaurel (I think therefore I vote Republican.)
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To: Checkers

Why don’t those who want a third party start years before the election instead of casting their vote for someone who may get 500 votes? I think both parties are broken at the moment and have no problem with a true conservative party I would like that, but I won’t throw away my vote I will use it to stop Obama is possible. To do otherwise is to cut off your nose to spite your face.


72 posted on 09/23/2008 11:34:36 AM PDT by nclaurel (I think therefore I vote Republican.)
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To: nclaurel
Why don’t those who want a third party start years before the election instead of casting their vote for someone who may get 500 votes?

This has been a question I've wondered for a long time. These third-parties really need to do more to make themselves known and to show how they are an alternative to the others.

73 posted on 09/23/2008 12:22:53 PM PDT by Sister_T (Sarah Palin can lead a horse to water AND make him drink.)
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To: Publius6961

We found the McLiberal Strawberries. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd ate them. The one with the Messiah complex is McLoser and his jock straps.

74 posted on 09/23/2008 12:34:52 PM PDT by VRWC For Truth (Palin is sugar on a turd ... No mas Juan "Traitor Rat" McAmnesty)
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To: Checkers
McCain's fact-free slander

He seems to reserve this for his Republican colleagues while embracing his "bipartisan" friends on the left.

Will nailed this one.

75 posted on 09/26/2008 11:15:34 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: VRWC For Truth

“The one with the Messiah complex is McLoser...”

“My friends” indeed...


76 posted on 09/27/2008 6:20:57 AM PDT by Checkers (Voting for McCain? Then don't complain. (Hey, that rhymes.))
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To: calcowgirl

“He seems to reserve this for his Republican colleagues while embracing his “bipartisan” friends on the left.”

Four years of this? And people wonder why I may have to pass...


77 posted on 09/27/2008 6:23:51 AM PDT by Checkers (Voting for McCain? Then don't complain. (Hey, that rhymes.))
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