OK, let me get this straight.

McCain is acting like a total jerk, and it's because he can't stand acting like a total jerk.

Put this one in the Annals of Tautology.

It's the real McCain. It's time to retire McCoy.

A close McCain friend said the reason is clear: McCain is miserable about having to run a campaign that's antithetical to his persona.

How does this even make sense? Who else besides McCain can make the decision to run this kind of campaign? The idea that McCain is an innocent victim of the kind of campaign that he has decided to run is, well, sadly typical of the "the buck stops nowhere near here" approach to leadership we've seen so much of over the last several years, including from McCain, who has blamed his campaign style on Obama ("This wouldn't be happening if Obama had agreed to appear with me in town halls", etc.).

If a candidate can't take responsibility for their own actions, but instead pretends that they are incapable of controlling even their own campaign, how can they claim to be able to do anything as a leader?

I think that nothing explains his swan-dive into the depths of human crapitude better than his decision to hire Tucker Eskew.

I mean really. He hires the man who so cruelly slandered him not 8 years ago? A man who had a special place in hell reserved for him (or so 2000 McCain would lead me to believe)

It's actually quite stunning when you think about it. Would you place your life's ambition in the hands of someone who treated you like vermin?

boggling.

At the risk of stating the way-too-obvious -- McCain is grumpy because it appears he may lose by landslide. If the election were held today, and the polls are correct, he'd lose by 200 electoral votes. I'd be damn grumpy if I were in that position.

Everything's conspiring against him: an economic downturn at the worst possible time, following the one of the most disliked presidents ever, running as the standard bearer of a party who's run out of ideas -- and all this combined with facing a man who seems to have the best run, best disciplined, campaign in the history of the human race.

"For him to be on the attack constantly, attacking Obama's character ... McCain is uncomfortable with that, and it's made him grumpy."

This is the silliest excuse for a bad temper I have ever heard. One would think someone was defending a teenager who had destroyed the family car, "Well Judge, Johnny has been made tempermental by having to conform at basic standards of behavior at school, so that's why he wrecked the car."

He's John McCain and he approved this message.

so McCain isn't in charge of his own campaign? since he's being 'forced' to run this way? who is in charge?

or is he 'forced' to run this way because it's his only chance of winning, and the ends justify the means?

again, any journalist told that McCain is being 'forced' to run this campaign should immediately follow up with "who, exactly, is forcing him?"

seriously, he held out against torture by the North Vietnamese (or so we are told, again and again) but someone can force him to give up his honor now? by talking? I don't get it.

I see. If McCain runs a positive, issue-oriented campaign, he's a great guy

Yeah, except he doesn't seem to understand the issues or the positions he has been forced to take any more than Sister Sarah.

This is a total bullshit argument that McInsane apologists have been making for months now. Are they trying to argue that McInsane doesn't call the shots in his campaign? That his handlers tell him what to do and what to say? Some maverick!

The fact is that McInsane believes that this is his time, and is peeved that a young neophyte is taking the prize away from him. that's why he's lashing out, not because he's bristling at being so negative. Actually, he seems most natural when he's being negative.

Jeebus,

Have none of these people ever read Vonnegut's classic Mother Night??

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

It hardly matters what rationale is given. The bottom line is that McCain will do ANYTHING that it takes to win. Period. The man has sold his soul.

So often in this world, we are what we do! For McCain, he is what he is doing - shameless attacker, thrower of smear equals despicable character.

People in the press defending McCain's shameless behavior and rhetoric - well, look at them and see what they are doing. Apologists the lot of them! Rationale providers with no ifs ands or buts.

Sycophants and toadies - this is the demographic that remains in the McCain camp, and any reporter who bothers to argue differently, well, go back to sycophants and toadies, only in media garb! -Kevo

Of all the political comments I've read in the past 18 or so months, this one has to be the stupidest and most transparent. As others above me have aptly noted, If John McCain Is So Put Out By The Style Of His Campaign, then why the fuck is he running it like that????

I can't wait to read the behind-the-scenes exposes of the McCain campaign that will come down the pike after the election. Can't wait...

If he can't even control his own campaign, how can we believe he'll even try to control the massive federal beuracracy? Who's in charge anyway?

Huh - my eight year-old occasionally tries to use the same excuse..."You made me cry and slam the door because you wouldn't let me watch TV before doing my homework." I don't buy it from her, and certainly don't buy it from a 72 year-old who should know better. The GOP is supposed to be the party of personal responsibility. If McCain is so distressed by what his handlers want him to do, he should fire them and get new advisors. Instead, he chooses to behave like an ass. As they're so fond of telling the rest of us, choices have consequences.

He is just not a guy that goes on the attack in public...and it's made him grumpy.

I'm not the first to observe that this is like the abusive husband who says "look what you made me do."

The "real" McCain (and this is not up for debate or silly rationalization) selected Sarah Palin as his running mate - despite the fact that she has strong ties to a radical Anti-America organization:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/10/07/palins_unamerican/

That's the "real" John McCain. And he can continue to cloak himself in the flag while shouting "Country First" - and whine about the media when he isn't portrayed the way he would like - but at some point even his most ardent republican supporters will turn on him for being a fraud.

If "grumpy McCain" is merely some stump and debate persona which the candidate reluctantly drags out in public, how do you explain his chilly response to Obama on the floor of the Senate? Did Rove tell him to play against his normally sunny disposition and act grumpy 24/7? Or is McCain just a small-minded, petty man?

McCain was already running as something he's not: a "maverick."

McCain was already grumpy after being George Bush's bitch for eight years.

Duh!
.

For anyone who still thinks what we're seeing isn't the real John McCain, I recommend this profile from Rolling Stone.

It's amazing what the mind will insist up in order to be right. At any cost.

Even if you desperately want to believe McCain used to not be "that guy," he's "that guy" now. Feel free to think of him like a heroin addict, someone who used to be responsible and good to his family but now is an irresonsible dirtbag. Whatever. He is now what he is now.

"He is just not a guy that goes on the attack in public.

Er, yes, he is. You know how I know that? Because I regularly see him going on the attack in public.

And right, right, John McCain, former bomber pilot, lifelong rageaholic, noted for his hair-trigger temper even among his friends and colleagues, is not comfortable going on the attack. Sure, and neither is his wife, Morgan Fairchild.

There is a much simpler explanation for the McCain orneriness.
As someone who has observed the deterioration of a family member with dementia McCain has all the symptoms. "Grumpy" is a kind description for the angry, irrational outburst and the visibly frustrated appearance. McCain recognizes the decline and is doing his best to mask the impact of the disease but he and his handlers can only do so much.

Maybe McCain is grumpy because he doesn't like who he is in his campaign. He is probably even more grumpy because it isn't working. People who hate themselves are usually considered to have personality disorders.

The more I read about John McCain, the more I lose respect for him. My God, the last couple of weeks of his antics have made Bush look good by comparison. Why can't he just step down and let Palin be the top of the ticket and save us from a repeat of this farce in four years?

This is all Obama's fault. If only he'd run a suckier campaign, McCain wouldn't need to do any of this. The idea that Obama is willing to destroy a POW war hero simply for his own self-agrandizement is all the evidence we need that he's unfit for the Whitehouse.

We need to give McCain the presidency to save him from himself. Same goes for every other POW war hero who isn't able to defeat Obama, particularly if they can cook some great BBQ. Sure, the Founding Fathers may not have envisioned a pity presidency, but this is what their lack of foresight brought us to. But perhaps that's why they wouldn't let black people vote, and we only have ourselves to blame for this deplorable situation.

A close McCain friend said the reason is clear: McCain is miserable about having to run a campaign that's antithetical to his persona.

"Having to run"? I thought a maverick never "had" to do anything -- isn't that what being a maverick is all about?

This is part of a larger cultural narrative. Most Americans really don't want to get rid of their memories of John McCain as a maverick, even if those memories are a lie. So they're going to hate on anyone who tries to take those memories away -- including John McCain himself.

If McCain loses, I give it about three months before he makes his usual contrition tour, and about two years before people remember him fondly, instead of as the asshole he is.

Remember: Bill Clinton's done all this more than once. I'm not sure he's going to be able to get past his conduct in this particular race -- that may have been one too many dog-huntin' ticks -- but even with Clinton's obvious betrayals people still cling to the image Clinton built over time.

In the end, I think McCain's pissed because he's losing, and because he's never been subjected to this kind of accountability in his entire life. The fact that some dumb-ass broad from Alaska is making him look like the weak half of the ticket probably isn't helping.

I don't see a single person who already wasn't a McCain supporter buying this convoluted double speak.

If it smells like crap, it is crap.

McCranky strikes again. "I'm mad at myself for being angry about being mad. And that just makes my blood boil. But it's mostly Obama's fault."

"McCain is acting like a total jerk, and it's because he can't stand acting like a total jerk."

NO -- McCain is a sick old man who got kicked in the head once too often. 40 years ago, his body handled that kind of abuse. Now as a senior citizen, the body is failing. If he wasn't running for President, we'd say he was senile.

A few months after he becomes President, his actions will all but demand that he report to a military hospital for "treatment" and VP Palin will be President will take the oath of office under the terms of the 25th Amendment.

Maybe Cindy's portfolio has dropped to $50M. There are a lot of "middle class" people getting grumpy these days.

And another thing....

What's this odd qualifier: "...in public..."?

Oh yeah, that's right: in private he's a bullying motherfucker with a temper like a blow torch. At least that's the feeling you get when you read about how another Senator actually feared for his physical safety when McCain went mental on him.

So okay. We're supposed to forgive his discomfort when we see flashes of the headcase that others have to deal with everyday.

Good to know....

First, let's get the bullsh*t out of the way. McCain likes to play dirty when it suits him. That anecdote about how he went out of his way to embarrass Governor Mofford years ago over an arcane question involving the Colorado River should put the lie to the noble McCain myth for once and for all. He didn't have any particular reason to do so, certainly not over that issue, but did it because, he said, "I'm duty bound to embarrass a Democrat whenever I can." And when questioned about it he screamed at the press that they were out to get him. Same old same old. http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/24/07/murphy2407.html

On the other hand, I think that McCain might just be the one candidate who has ceded control over his campaign. I'm guessing that he lost a lot of power last year, when his campaign ran out of money and a number of his staff left. Sometime after that he hired Satan and his minions. So, sure, he may feel like he's not in control--but that doesn't change the fact that he's still responsible for everything his campaign does, including the vile stuff that he utters.

I heard a similar excuse used for G.H.W. Bush after his despicable 1988 campaign, which was based entirely on the Pledge of Allegiance and Willie Horton. A conservative commentator wrote, apparently with a straight face, that Bush had recoiled in distaste from the aggressive campaign waged on his behalf, because he was too gentlemanly by nature to be as aggressive as those thuggish Democrats.

It is possible, however, that McCain is not as much in charge of his own campaign now as he might have been 8 years ago, and for the same reasons that Ronald Reagan was not as much in charge of his second-term administration as of his first. We don't know whether Reagan had any symptoms of Alzheimer's yet, but he was certainly older and had more serious health problems by then.

And it never occurred to all those sophisticated journalists over the years that they were being rolled? Not once? Sure, he could be a nice guy on occasion; so could Stalin and Mao -- though granted, they didn't HAVE to quite so often. There's been enough sub-rosa anecdotal evidence over the years to to doubt his psychological balance, and enough out-in-the-open behavioral evidence to doubt his moral balance. Maybe, deep down inside, there's a John McCain I'd have a beer with, though I doubt it. Nowhere, on the surface or deep down, is there a John McCain I'd have in the White House.

Forget the pop psychology.

The fawning, obsequious courtiers to right-wing power who make up the corporate media's "political press corps" are just doing their job, which is to help John McCain and Sarah Palin get close enough to steal the election with voter disenfranchisement and fraud.

It has turned out to be a harder job than they expected, so they are grumbling about it. They are, after all, a lazy bunch.

But they are very, very, very well paid by the giant corporations who own and control America's mass media, and they want to keep their fat paychecks coming, so they will say and write whatever preposterous inanities they can come up with to try to slather more lipstick on the maverick.

In examining the most recent apoplectic tirades of the "shrivelly-hearted troglodyte" formerly known as J.S. McCain III, a mind rooted in logic and scientific thought can only come to one of three conclusions: Either (1) McCain is demonstrating an affliction of self, whether by neurological imbalance or chemical addiction, or (2) McCain is merely a puppet for a behind-the-scenes puppetmaster so sinister that he/she/they dare not come into the open until the reigns of absolute power lie firmly within their grasp, or (3) a dangerous combination of botPersonally, I can find the means to deal with a crack-addled McRumpelstiltskin, and I can most certainly find the means to deal with another bout of Baal Cheney's Traveling Devil-Muppet Theater---but both at the same time?

Let's just say that McCain makes Walter Matthau look like a ray of sunshine.

I heard a similar excuse used for G.H.W. Bush after his despicable 1988 campaign, which was based entirely on the Pledge of Allegiance and Willie Horton. A conservative commentator wrote, apparently with a straight face, that Bush had recoiled in distaste from the aggressive campaign waged on his behalf, because he was too gentlemanly by nature to be as aggressive as those thuggish Democrats.

George H.W. Bush is a patrician. Generally courteous and gracious, he feels that politics is not a game for gentlemen. Thus, there are no rules and if sleazy works, it is used.

John McCain has a sense of entitlement toward the Presidency as a reward for the hideous suffering he endured as a POW, and as a way to finally trump his admiral father and grandfather. He sees the prize slipping away toward Obama, in a potential landslide, and this positively enrages him.

The real McCain? What we see is what we'll get and a careful look at him indicates that he's no different than he's always been. He 'reluctantly' allowed himself to be cast as a hero because he was a POW for five years--a GREATER HERO than any of the other POWs. He has ridden this horse into the ground, always coming back to it as if to remind a nation of draft dodgers that he suffered for their sins--Jesus on the cross and Johnny Mac in his cell. He's played the long suffering hero so long that he believes the story is true and therefore the nation should reward him with the White House. Never mind that he was career military aspiring to be an admiral and a combat tour in Vietnam was getting his ticket punched for further advancement. Compare that with the real heroes, the thousands of draftees who didn't need to get their tickets punched in Vietnam, but they went anyway. They went, they fought, and they died by the thousands. By wearing his military service as a badge of superior patriotism McCain belittles their sacrifices. In his case, it was nothing more than a career move; they were the true patriots. He's a worm, he always has been.

McCain is "grumpy" because he is sacrificing his long-cultivated (if mostly illusionary) image of being a good guy -- and he is still losing. It is clear that he would be willing to make this sacrifice for the sake of gaining his ultimate dream of being president, but it currently looks as if he will end up with neither his dream nor his reputation. That's gotta hurt!

McCaintankerous thinks that Obama will lose his cool tonight? Ha. The more Obama stays calms and rational, the more unhinged McCaingry will get.

He's going to have a McMeltdown with cheese on national television tonight.

I think it's probably true that Mccain doesn't like the way he's campaigning, and has been convinced by unscrupulous subordinates that he has to do it anyway. He's probably rationalized it by saying that it's what he has to do to win, and once he's in power he'll do a better job running the country than Barack Obama. Yeah, I don't think I'm seeing the real Mccain, but rather a face he's put up in order to hopefully win an election. But it's his choice, isn't it? He chose to run a viciously dishonest campaign. He chose to put victory above honor. He's not excused from his actions just because he might not like taking them. "Vote for me: I'll abandon my principles when the going gets tough" isn't a stirring campaign slogan, and not just because it's wordy.

So if McCain were to run a clean campaign he would lose without question, so he is forced to run a dirty campaign to stand a chance of winning.

It not his fault, it's the stupid Americans that don't get how awesome John McCain really is. So he is forced to crawl in the mud so he can win and prove to us how above all this he really is.

Pathetic.

McCain is miserable about having to run a campaign that's antithetical to his persona.

For chrissakes. Anyone who has two or more small children knows that the "but mom, he made me!" defense is a crock of shit.

Seriously. He's such a maverick that his campaign is making him act how he doesn't want to?

Is anyone buying this horseshit?

I guess John McPOW is so busy stifling the talented Mrs. Palin that he doesn't have time to control his own campaign.

As for whether the MSM/SCLM (-Fox) were going to pick up on McCain's Ayers diversion per below post, check this out:
Is CNN stirring the Ayers thing? According to Breitbart, they are:
CNN Finds Extensive Ties Between Barack Obama and ‘Terrorist’ Bill Ayers
http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=190343
Breitbart means suspicious framing, but take a look and see what you think they're up to.

I think McCain is unable to accept that he has had to 'run' for the office. That we did not just turn the keys to the country over to him as his reward for all that suffering and that he is losing to the first black guy in history - his body language is saying much, much more than "I have negative campaigns"

McCain is calling the shots, and if he didn't like his campaign's direction -- indeed, if it were making him "miserable" -- it's within McCain's power to change it immediately.

And if he isn't calling the shots in his own campaign, he has no business being President. The "McCain is miserable about having to run a campaign that's antithetical to his persona" excuse stinks on ice.

I met John McCain back in 1986. I saw him give a moving speech against the torture he now supports. And when I went to shake his hand, he was a dick to me. He was a grumpy old man before he was even an old man. McCain really hasn't changed. He was always an opportunistic asshole. What we're seeing now is just what some of us got to see before when the cameras were off. The only difference now is that the cameras are never off.

Y'all are a tough crowd. I take a more sympathetic view. Today I was forced to run out of a coffee shop, triple espresso in hand, without paying after I discovered I'd left my wallet at home. I was feeling a little frisky around lunchtime and my husband couldn't meet me, so I had to sleep with a client. And I was put in the position of strangling my neighbor's kitten after it wouldn't get out of my way on the stairs. All of this has naturally put me in a very cross mood.

Well, obviously, the key question, shortstop, is whose idea was the cheerleader outfit?

Why so much verbiage here?

All we need is this:

Shorter McCain: the Devil Obama made me do it.

If John McCain is in charge of his campaign, then he has to accept responsibility for its outrageous lies and is unfit for office.

If he is not in charge of his campaign, then he lacks basic leadership skills and is unfit for office.

and what, exactly, does all this say about McCain's attitude towards Americans in general? "Y'all stopped paying attention to me! Now I have no choice but to act like a jackass until you love me enough to vote for me! If all your standards weren't so low, I could've continied running with honor! I AM WHAT YOU MADE ME! If you'd just grow up, and accept my public persona without question, I could go back to my public persona! But Nooooooooo...I have to be a dick, apparently, that's what yeeewwww people want!"
It's "Let 'em eat cake" as re-written by Aaron Sorkin.

Ah, yes, the HLCs. I'd forgotten all about them. Time to take one out for a walk*, perhaps?

*Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

McCain is so filled with arrogance, and has
this enormous wall of denial about him--he's not rich, he's not angry: It's frickin' insane.
It is also classic psychological projection.

People see the calm, composed, intelligent Obama and the difference from McCain is just overwhelmingly evident to even the casual observer.
The barn is on fire.
McCain is continually off the mark, wrong on almost all accounts.
His tenure as senator reflects an out of touch, wealthy war-mongerer.
Obama was the only one who assessed the Iraq invasion accurately!!

But what about our election machines and procedures?
Inadequate numbers of voting machines in key states such as Ohio in 2004?
That coup d'etat in Florida 2000?

In my area, lawyers stay in the polling places throughout the voting day.

Poor John, things just aren't going his way, are they? If he doesn't like how his campaign is being run, then maybe the big hero should man up and do something about it!

Reading the Rolling Stone article "Make-Believe Maverick," confirmed my opinion that John McCain has always been an ill-tempered, spoiled Navy brat. The article is a must read for every voter.

Anyone who refers to himself and expects other to call him "hero" must have an ego problem. Those who have worked with him say he is gruff, vulgar, insulting, and sometimes violet- a nasty,old man.

Whether it was attending prep school or West Point, crusing around in his corvette, wrecking Navy planes, womanizing, drinking, gambling, cheating on his wife, John Sidney McCain III has always used his connections, whether family or friends, to get what he wants.

McCain is an aggressive bully, an egotist with little patience for those he considers lesser. There is also an air of racism about him. Overly sensative, short guy with a big ego- Napoleonic complex, anyone?

That could account for his crankiness in losing in the polls to a young, less experienced, black man.But it doesn't excuse the slimy, sleazy turn his campaign has taken. It's one thing to criticize your opponent. It's quite another to whip crowds into a frenzy, yelling "terrorist" and "kill him." In my opinion, that borders on a hate crime.

The reason that some people can't seem to internalize the possibility that this is the real McCain or that he is responsible for his actions is because of a phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance. A person like his apologists have internalized their perception of him as being a nice guy, despite all the evidence to the contrary, and now that the evidence is too great to ignore, they have to pretzel themselves to somehow make their perception and the evidence congruent. Remember that at one time the news media was McCain's base so most of the pretzel makers are going to be reporters, especially those who were close to him prior to his exposure as a jerk.

I was going to mention the Rolling Stone article "Make-Believe Maverick" as well. But you beat me to it.

What now seems clear is that my previous impression of McCain was the facade, the charade. I don't believe he was ever honorable, nor extraordinarily heroic. And there are certainly Vets 10x more heroic alive today you receive little or no recognition.

I get Rolling Stone Magazine in the mail.
When I read that article, I was filled with hope that more citizens would register to vote--since it was delivered before the weekend.
What a tattoo-you article by Dickinson, and Taibbi's contributions also.

Reminds me of when Jimmy Carter was on the cover of RollingStone and was elected.
I collect old issues

Cindy McCain today accused Obama of running the dirtiest campaign in American history.

More than 600 American servicemen were held captive during the course of the war in Vietnam. Most of them did not find it necessary to confess to war crimes at the behest of their captors. For a party that still nurses a grudge against Jane Fonda the Republicans are good at overlooking McCain's collaboration with the then enemy. McCain's actions were a direct violation of the Military Code of Conduct.
Yeah, I'm a Vietnam vet, Brown Water Navy, and I despise McCain. I don't despise him for what he did all those years ago, I despise him for pretending to be something that he isn't now and never was. He isn't fit to wash the feet of those with whom I served.

He's freakin' grumpy because he's coming to the realization that the presidency has slipped through his hands for the second and final time.

Cindy McCain today accused Obama of running the dirtiest campaign in American history.

And if a drug-thieving adulteress says it, it must be true!

John McCain has no honor.

How is Blue Girl?

Character reveals itself in times of trial. We are seeing the REAL John McCain. What's interesting is how similar his campaign is to Hillary Clinton's. The same attack lines. The same erratic behavior. Maybe what accounts for that is the McCain character mixed in with a healthy dose of Beltway Magic...... ah... that's the secret sauce that would account for that slight taste of peevishness.

Character reveals itself in times of trial. We are seeing the REAL John McCain. What's interesting is how similar his campaign is to Hillary Clinton's. The same attack lines. The same erratic behavior. Maybe what accounts for that is the McCain character mixed in with a healthy dose of Beltway Magic...... ah... that's the secret sauce that would account for that slight taste of peevishness.

I have occasionally felt sorry for Cindy McCain. She looks so fucking miserable all the time.

Now I see she has it coming.

What I love so much about this is that McCain destroys himself either way. Either he is revealing his true character - so you shouldn't vote for him. Or he is a guy who wilts under pressure and chooses to do bad things - so his unfit to be President.
It is truly lose lose.

Remember that at one time the news media was McCain's base

He still has Brokaw.

How is Blue Girl?

Hi CWA! Busily blogging away! Not much time to comment these days, because if it's worth commenting on, it's usually worth posting about, you know?

He only hits us because he loves America so damn much....

There they are, ready to debate. McCain is sitting like I do when my skirt is too short.
Golly, he looks ill at ease.

It may be the part of himself he's ashamed of, but it's definitely a part of himself and he's unleashing it. He spends an inordinate amount of time talking about how much honor and integrity he has and too little time demonstrating it. Anytime a person extolls their own honesty to that extent, I keep my hand on my wallet. It's a diversionary tactic.

It is really sad that mccain has to be this way but i guess it's a result of the company he keeps.