There's so much wrong with the McCain campaign, I don't have the time or patience to get into it all. But I think the thing that's wrapped around all the other problems is this: McCain is the most miserable, dour and downright angry candidate I think I've ever seen. He's even angrier than Bob Dole.
Now, angry can be kind of interesting. Ross Perot was angry, but he was interesting, because what he was angry at was the same thing we were angry at: the wasteful, spend-happy U.S. government. But even Perot's act got old after awhile, and even his funny, high voice couldn't save it. With McCain, there's a funny voice, but not "ha ha" funny -- more like, "wierd guy who's house you're scared to trick or treat at" funny.
Even when McCain does smile, which is rare, it's damned creepy, like when he follows statements like "that's not change you can believe in" with a spooky, grimacy laugh.
It would be different if McCain came off as righteously indignant at some external ill that All Americans can relate to; if he railed against an economy that's hurting the little guy, or against big corporations that take American jobs overseas... if he spouted off about the administration's failure to find Osama bin Laden (something that would also help distance him from his ball and chain, George W. Bush.) Instead, McCain's constant outrage these days is that Barack Obama won't admit that the surge is working, damnit! Not exactly the issue on the top of struggling middle class American minds.
McCain rages that Obama won't allow the big oil companies to have more oil leases (though he says nothing about oil companies that refuse to drill on the leases they have, or who are bilking the American people (not to mention his opposition to a bill that would have forced oil companies to sell any oil they drill offshore in the U.S., to Americans, rather than the higher bidding Chinese...) Thus, he misses the chance to take advantage of a tried and true political axiom: attack the unpopular big guy in defense of Joe American.
Most of all, McCain doesn't seem to be angry on behalf of the American people -- he seems angry for HIMSELF, and at his situation, which makes him look petty and mean. He seems to be angry that his ambitions are being dashed, that his luster has been stolen away by someone else, that some little nobody has dared to take away his newness, his "wow factor," his change message, and even his friends in the press. In short, McCain seems to be angry at life -- at the fact that for the second time, a guy he thinks is inferior to him is taking away his chance to be president.
That's not a good look.
And so, John McCain turns to yet another attractive quality: his penchant for ridicule:
DENVER (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, ridiculing Barack Obama for "the audacity of hopelessness" in his policies on Iraq, said Friday that the entire Middle East could have plunged into war had U.S. troops been withdrawn as his rival advocated.
Speaking to an audience of Hispanic military veterans, McCain stepped up his criticism of Obama while the Illinois senator continued his headline-grabbing tour of the Middle East and Europe. The Arizona Republican contended that Obama's policies - he opposed sending more troops to Iraq in the "surge" that McCain supported - would have led to defeat there and in Afghanistan.
"We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right," McCain said, a play on the title of Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope."
McCain laid out a near-apocalyptic chain of events he said could have resulted had Obama managed to stop the troop buildup ordered by President Bush: U.S. forces retreating under fire, the Iraqi army collapsing, civilian casualties increasing dramatically, al-Qaida killing cooperative Sunni sheiks and finding safe havens to train fighters and launch attacks on Americans, and civil war, genocide and a wider conflict.
"Above all, America would have been humiliated and weakened," he said. "Terrorists would have seen our defeat as evidence America lacked the resolve to defeat them. As Iraq descended into chaos, other countries in the Middle East would have come to the aid of their favored factions, and the entire region might have erupted in war."
Noting that the buildup was unpopular with most Americans, McCain said: "Sen. Obama told the American people what he thought you wanted to hear. I told you the truth."
Not exactly "morning in America."
Worse, McCain made his latest miserable remarks in Colorado, where he met with the Dalai Lama. Maybe the zen master could teach him to loosen up.
It strikes me that Americans don't like dour, angry presidential candidates. Historically, the country has tended to chose the sunnier candidate. Americans picked buoyant Kennedy over glowering Nixon (even with the latter's substantial experience); they chose optimistic Ronnie Reagan over grim school marm Jimmy Carter, and saxophone toting Big Bill Clinton over clock watching scold George Bush. Even Al Gore was done in by the frat boyish George W. Bush, because Bush was the guy America wanted to spend the soon-to-be-squandered surplus on beers with (which is why Bush was able to get close enough for his dad's friends on the Supreme Court to make him president.)
So can McCain "win angry?" Maybe, but only if enough Americans are as dour and miserable and rejectionist as he is. And then, what kind of country would that mean that we are?
Even the right has remarked on McCain's demeanor. Back before the right wing bloggers got on the conference calls and got the orders to become slavishly devoted to the Republican nominee, Riehlworldview had this to say about McCain:
Intolerant, Angry McCain
While I'm not a big fan of protesting during a speech, there is something to be said for free speech. It shouldn't include being brow beaten with a now tired response from John McCain. He continues to use an exceptional case to close down debate on illegal immigration. And his temperament in doing it doesn't really play well at all.
If he wants to yell and curse at his colleagues in the Senate, it's their business if they want to put up with it. But how long before this guy really goes off on someone in the heat of a national campaign?
Mr. Shamnesty-Short Fuse almost walked off the stage during a campaign event with the AFL-CIO in Michigan. Audience members didn’t like his soft-on-illegal immigration blather. They booed.
Of course now, he's rational, exceptional, wonderful McCain, but there you go. Politics. Some of us can't get it out of our heads that this guy is a ticking time bomb of randomly placed rage (examples here, here, here and here.) More on McCain's McTemper:
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
