So You Want to Talk about Character, Eh?

Posted on September 7, 2008 in Campaign 2008

The thought of (McCain) being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.

Senator Thad Cochran, Republican, Mississippi

Today it has come out that John McCain pushed a woman in a wheelchair back in 1996. This is yet another tale in the many about his temper. Many who have worked with him have said “It’s his way or no way”. His classmates used to call him McNasty.

It’s fair play to bring up these issues because McCain himself insists that he is in control of his temper. But pushing a woman in a wheelchair does not sound like a man who is in control. And shouldn’t we care when the button that launches the bomb is involved?

McCain may have a partial defense. He spent 5 1/2 years in the Hanoi Hilton, two of them being tortured. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is certainly a relic of such treatment. But shouldn’t a man of character with this condition recuse himself rather than subject the nation to the uncertainties of the disorder? It is one thing to be a senator with PTSD, but quite another to be a president.

Barbara Boxer has pointed out the difference one sees in Barack Obama: when under the most horrendous attack by the most vitriolic right winger, he stays “cool as a cucumber”. We need a man like this as our commander in chief. McCain just carries too much baggage loaded with dynamite.

[tags]Campaign 2008, Mean John McCain, PTSD[/tags]

Palin’s pulled the faux feminist card and told reporters that she will not consent to interviews until she is “treated with decency and respect”. Seems that character is losing out in this department of the McCain campaign machine, too.