Bill Kristol writes in the New York Times:
The prospect of John McCain as the likely Republican presidential nominee has produced a squall of anger on the right. Normally reserved columnists and usually ebullient talk-radio hosts vie to express their disgust with McCain, and their disdain for the Republicans who are about to nominate him. The conservative movement as a whole appears disgruntled and dyspeptic.
Now I have nothing against a certain amount of disgruntlement and dyspepsia. The ways of the world, and the decisions of our fellow Americans, occasionally warrant such a reaction.
But American politics tends to be unkind to movements that dwell in anger and relish their unhappiness. In the era from Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy, liberals tended to be happy warriors  and that helped their cause. The original civil rights movement succeeded in part because it worked hard to transcend a justifiable bitterness. Liberalism faltered when it became endlessly aggrieved and visibly churlish.
Kristol might have added that Ronald Reagan also had great success as a happy warrior known for his sunny optimism.
It is, however, an odd argument to make in arguing for conservatives to reconcile with the legendary “Senator Hothead.” McCain has apparently managed to moderate his rage somewhat since the nickname was bestowed on him by a friendly media in 2000, but apparently not as much as he has moderated his political stands:
Last spring, at a closed-door meeting of senators and staff, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas tried to amend the immigration bill to make ineligible convicted felons, known terrorists and gang members. Agitated that any attempt to amend the bill would jeopardize its slim chance of passage (ultimately, the bill failed), McCain snapped, “This is chickens–––.” Cornyn shot back that McCain shouldn’t come parachuting in off the presidential-campaign trail at the last minute and start making demands. “F––– you,” said McCain, in front of about 30 witnesses. (A Cornyn aide says that the Texas senator was unbothered by the incident. “I think he just thought, ‘Here’s John being a jerk’,” says the aide, who declined to be identified speaking for Cornyn.)
McCain’s Senate colleagues, faced with McCain’s likely presidential nomination, are trying to reconcile themselves, but Sen. Thad Cochran, described as one of the more “genteel” members of the body, is supporting Mitt Romney, telling the Boston Globe:
“The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine,” Cochran said about McCain by phone. “He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”
McCain is apparently vindictive enough that some will only speak on condition of anonymity:
“John has an enemies list longer than Nixon’s,” says a former Pentagon official who did not want to get on it. “And, unlike Nixon, McCain really does try to get you.”
As noted earlier today, Cindy McCain also has an enemies list. It’s two lists for the price of one.
Perhaps McCain’s temper is not a deal-breaker. But it does not convey the image of a sunnily optimistic “happy warrior.” And it suggests that the reconciliation going on in the Senate may be less the product of McCain mellowing than the product of fear.
If McCain promises to, in his first 100 days in office, use the exact words, “…and Nancy can lick my left ball if she doesn’t like it”, I’ll warm up to him.
He’s childish is what he is. The pictures of him and his mommy are the straight talkiest of them all.
Having participated in a dozen blogger conference calls with Senator McCain, I can attest to the fact that he’s passionate about the issues he believes in and quite forceful in expressing himself. He’s clearly Type A, someone who believes he’s right and you’re wrong (if you’re on the opposite side of the issue). Does that sometimes bubble over? I’m sure it does.
But don’t ignore that even those on the opposite side of the issues sincerely like him, and that’s because he has enormous personal charisma, that sometimes doesn’t come off on TV. The media like him (for the most part), because he’s a very likable guy, not out of some convoluted plot to deceive the Republicans into nominating him, at which point they can proceed to savage him.
Ask yourself honestly, who’s going to go along to get along, Romney or McCain? And who’s going to put his foot down and say, “No, hell no!”
Kristol seems to be conflating the emotional tenor of Presidents with that of the constituents. We have to be happy with McCain because otherwise he will be an unhappy President? What would he say about the emotional reaction of the Democrats if say Lieberman was the assumed leader in the race for the Democratic nomination?
Brainster,
I’ve been blogging for weeks that McCain’s appeal to voters is more about personality than issues, so clearly I agree that he has something to offer on that point. I note you are not making the argument that Kristol implies, i.e., that McCain is a “happy warrior” or a “sunny optimist.” Ruffini hits much closer in portraying him as the rough-and-tumble Jacksonian.
happyfeet,
The presence of McCain’s mother is a response to people like Chuck Norris suggesting McCain might die in office.
Karl, I agree on you regarding the personality versus issues bit. A happy warrior, he’s not, but I’d argue for sunny optimist. Ask some of the other people who’ve been in on the blogger calls, like Captain Ed, who’s endorsed Romney. McCain’s the same guy after a big win as he is after a bitter defeat, upbeat and positive.
I hope you will all read Kristol’s full column, which Karl links to at the start of his post above. I have grave reservations about McCain — especially his agreement with the global warming alarmists — but Kristol makes some going points about the consequences of having either Hillary or Obama in office with likely Democratic majorities in both branches of Congress.
I are people like Chuck Norris.
Judith Apter Klinghoffer thinks that McCain’s belligerence is an asset, as far as foreign policy is concerned. Wonder how this will play with the press which was so upset by Bush’s “cowboy diplomacy”?
http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/47021.html
Will the MSM destroy the reputation of their “pet conservative” once he wins the nomination?
http://www.chequer-board.net/story/2008/1/31/84750/7300
I wish Romney were more appealing on TV. Observers say he is most impressive in small groups.
I’m not sure there would be a whole lot of difference between McCain or Clinton in the White House. The GOP’s “maverick” Senator has made a career of “standing up” to his own Party, rather than to the opposition, and cutting deals with the Democrats, much to the detriment of the country. Being “upbeat and positive” on the campaign trail is a requirement for anyone running for national office, but a “sunny optimist” McCain famously is not.
Bet on it. Give points as well.
#8 Michael Smith
I hope you will all read Kristol’s full column…
I did.
If a Democrat wins the presidency, he or she will almost certainly have a Democratic Congress to work with. That Congress will not impede a course of dishonorable retreat abroad. It won’t balk at liberal Supreme Court nominees at home. It won’t save the economy from tax hikes.
If, by contrast, McCain wins the presidency  and all the polls suggest he’d be the best G.O.P. bet to do so  he’ll be able to shape a strong American foreign policy, nominate sound justices and fight for parts of the conservative domestic agenda.
Oh please… I want some of what Kristol is smoking. McCain has spent the last decade working with the Democrats to further their agenda and told conservatives to “f*ck off” in no uncertain terms. His lasting legacy will be as the Democrats’ go-to guy in the Senate to derail the GOP agenda.
Hence the media love…until he gets the nom.
Hence the media love…until he gets the nom.
You know, if he’s such a hot head, it might be fun watching him tear Helen a new asshole.
Ask yourself honestly, who’s going to go along to get along, Romney or McCain? And who’s going to put his foot down and say, “No, hell no!â€Â
I have, repeatedly. The career Senate opportunist loses to the career executive every time.
“I’m not sure there would be a whole lot of difference between McCain or Clinton in the White House.”
the diff is bilary will be barnacled in there for 8 years while, like happyfeet an chuck norris suggest, makaniak may well kick while in office.
…and this is your brain on Clinton Derangement Syndrome. Any questions?
A head that big takes lots and lots of teeny tiny fragile little blood vessels. Septuagenarians can go at any time. One foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel is how they splained this in Texas.
at this point bilary derangement syndrome shud be a healthy immune response from the body politic to the profound bottomless pure and elemental ambition that defines the twoheaded monster that bilary.
that IS bilary.
heres a wee thot experiment for u, McGeehee, like einstein was so fond of.
try to envisage a situ, any situ at all, where bilary wud put the interest of the country over their own.
cant do it can u?
[…] In case you’ve forgotten, here’s more of that lip-smacking strong-on-national-security deliciousness: McCain, on prospectively amending his amnesty bill to exclude flinging down the welcome mat and […]
Re #21
Nope, I can’t imagine that. Scary.
At least we know what we’re getting with McCain (since he’s been kicking around for 25 years).
• We know he carries serious grudges and whatever mood he happens to be in at a given moment will override any critical thinking.
• He loves the spotlight and makes decisions to satify those needs based on the how much appreciation he will get from MSM.
• Important to conservative Republicans: Illegal immigration, lowering taxes, pork, and the security of this country. (3 out of 4 he sucks at: 1,2 &3. You might argue 3 isn’t right. Has he cut pork?? or led the way to cut pork??? Where is his No Pork-McCain bill??
• The bills he has signed for photo ops = McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy (amnesty).
But NOW it matters, so  NOW he’s going to cut pork. NOW he’s backtracking on his amnesty bill, NOW he’s going to have permanent tax cuts. He is a “career Senate opportunist” and he’ll be a career presidential opportunist.
We know what we are getting. And we are going to get McCain.
If I was voting tomorrow, it wouldn’t be for McCain. I’d be taking my chances with Romney right now.
Like I’m going to do a “thot” experiment for somebody who can’t spell thought.
Speler-ist !!!!!!!!!!!!!
[…] been subjected to Bill Kristol trying to paint McCain as a “happy warrior” instead of “Senator Hothead,” and a Jeff Jacoby column distorting Ronald Reagan’s record in support of McCain.  Now Dole […]
If they’re really a warrior just accept their defeated. Maybe there’s another chance to be won and if will happen the last laugh be on them.
[…] will not take kindly to being told to “grow up” and “calm down” by Senator Hothead or his proxies. It demonstrates a certain lack of irony or self-awareness, which is no […]