John McCain Has A Temper,Say Many. He Is as Hard-Headed as Bush II

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"There's going to be other wars. I'm sorry to tell
you, there's going to be other wars. We will never surrender, but there will be
other wars." — United
States Senator and presumptive
Republican presidential nominee John McCain

This quote scared the hell out of me when I first read it.
Of course, it's true. McCain is a realist, and I'm not naïve enough to believe that
man will ever stop waging wars. That's not what scared me.

I was worried because it was John McCain who said it.

McCain's temper is legendary. Don't believe me? Do a
Comcast Search on "McCain+Temper." He kind of reminds me of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman
from Full Metal Jacket. Dude drops

F-bombs in the Senate, called a high school kid a "little jerk," and
wants the Beach Boys to perform at the Bombing of Tehran. Do we really need a
Commander in Chief with a beef? At this time in our history, the last thing we
need is a President, blinded by rage, having a knee-jerk reaction to an
incident, foreign or domestic. Turns out I'm far from alone here.

In January, Republican Senator Thad Cochran, who has known John McCain for more than three
decades, said, "The thought of his
[McCain] being President sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is
hotheaded. He loses his temper, and he worries me." Cochran then endorsed McCain a month later.

Retired Army colonel Larry Wilkerson, who was former
Secretary of State Colin Powell's top aide, put it this way, "No dissent,
no opinion to the contrary, however reasonable, will be entertained [with
McCain]. Hardheaded is another way to say it. Arrogant is another way to say
it. Hubristic is another way to say it. Too proud for his own good is another
way to say it. It's a quality about him that disturbs me."

Now, before the cries of "liberal bias" come rolling in, note
that I have a lot of respect for John McCain. A United States
Senator since 1987, McCain served
our country admirably during the Vietnam War. A skilled naval
pilot, McCain was shot down over North Vietnam. He fractured both arms and a
leg, and then nearly drowned when he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake in Hanoi.
He was pulled out of the lake, only to be beaten by locals and held as a
prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years. He was tortured, interrogated,
lost 50 pounds, and his hair turned white. So who could blame the guy if he loses
his cool?

"My temper has often been
both a matter of public speculation and personal concern," McCain wrote in
his 2002 memoir, Worth the Fighting For.
"I have a temper, to state the obvious, which I have tried to control with
varying degrees of success because it does not always serve my interest or the
public's. I have regretted losing my temper on many occasions. But there are
things worth getting angry about in politics, and I have at times tried to use
my anger to incite public outrage. I make no apologies for that… When public
servants lose their capacity for outrage over practices injurious to the
national interest, they have outlived their usefulness to the country."

I will never question John McCain's contributions to our country,
nor do I believe he's outlived his usefulness. Nonetheless, his temper is an
issue to consider when voting for our next President. I, for one, don't want a President with a notorious
temper — one whose colleagues have called him "erratic" and "hotheaded" — hovering over the Red Button.

Message Edited by Kevin_Boyce on 03-28-2008 10:20 AM