Is it just me or is John Mccain an EXTREMELY bitter and angry old man?

[Politics_Guy25]

It's not so much what he says or does but how he says it and how he acts that have me wondering. It's kind of a reading in between the lines type thing I guess but I think that he is still extremely bitter that he lost the presidential election last year and angry. It's kind of hard to understand since he lost fair and square. His opponent, the President, ran a clean campaign, didn't smear him, just won on the issues, competence and likabilty. Mccain can't point to being Willie Hortoned the way Dukasis was or having the election stolen from him the way Al Gore did. To me, I think that he's furious that to him some young upshot African American (especially African American) stole his precious. If you remember, from 2001-2006, the media said that he was guaranteed to be the next president, that Hillary was guaranteed to be the democratic nominee, and that he was unbeatable against Hillary. See ABC News the Note Archives from early 2007/late 2006. Shows what they know. ROFL.

The reason that I bring this up is his personal attack against the President at the congressional meeting yesterday on Afghanistan saying that it's not the time to take leisurely decisions and our President had to slap him down saying that this was far from leisurely. It's not just that. It's that he's DONE NOTHING to help the president out from the economic stimulus package in January to health care reform. There was some talk that Mccain may be an Obama ally after the election. Instead, Mccain is one of the top Obama haters. How anyone can say that he's a bipartisan senator is outrageous.

What's more is this bitterness is creepy. George H.W. Bush was denied a 2nd term by Bill Clinton but 41 and 42 have a very friendly and cooperative relationship now. George H.W. Bush has never uttered a bad word about 42 post November 1992 as far as I remember.

The only conclusion that I can reach is that Mccain is screwed up from the Vietnam experience, unable to gracefully accept defeat and is especially bitter that an African American defeated him.

Remember as well that there was some criticism of his concession speech as trying to minimalize the President's victory as largely due to trying to improve race relations.

It doesn't matter really what he thinks but I'm just surprised at how bitter he has acted for the past YEAR. Time to get over it John! I know that he's GOP and it's what they do, however.

Do you all feel that he has acted jerkish as well, even in the context of GOP-Dem relations?

[Captain Hilts]

1. He's been that way since 2000. nt

[Kahuna]

3. Yep. He never got over * beating him...Now the black guy?????

It's a blow to his sense of entitlement.

[Captain Hilts]

7. That's actually not how the guy thinks.

Remember, McCain is the ONLY major govt. official that admits to benefiting from affirmative action. He admits the ONLY reason he got into the Naval Academy was because his dad and grandfather went there. What a contrast to GWB, who thought he earned his perquisites. McCain - and I know folks that know him - and his IS an ill-tempered shit - but he isn't a racist. He didn't like Palin any more than you or I did.

[Kahuna]

12. Not a racist? Is that why he was against honoring MLK? He may not think

he's a racist. But he does hold racist views.

[Captain Hilts]

13. I know folks that know him. Being against an MLK day is not enough

to establish anyone as a racist. If it were up to me I'd get rid of MLK Day, Presidents' Day and Columbus Day. I don't go for days with folks' names on them.

[Kahuna]

17. He used racist campaign tactics against Obama. Maybe his friends and

you don't consider that racist. But, I do. To each his own.

[billh58]

29. Well, there

goes Christmas...

[Captain Hilts]

33. Good one!

[RaleighNCDUer]

26. It doesn't mean a majority of his constituents are not racist.

It's not that he is racist - he just doesn't want to oppose the racists who support him.

I have never thought he was racist.

Crazy? Definitely. Racist? Unlikely.

[Captain Hilts]

34. Indeed. Could be. I've not been to AZ, so I don't know. nt

[ErinBerin84]

2. I think he's always looked at Obama as a "young whipper snapper"

Remember that nasty letter that McCain wrote to Obama when they were both senators? It was kind of funny, just in that you can tell what a bitter person he is.

[Captain Hilts]

9. He sees him as a lilly-livered Ivy Leaguer. nt

[Solomon]

32. Yeah. Anything but racial.

Anything. Let's find some more stuff. Like he has white hair and Obama doesn't. Works just as well.

[T116]

4. I think he's been that way since W stole the R nom by smearing him.

In 2000, McCain likely would have won the general election fair and square.

[hedgehog]

5. I think he was a pretty nasty piece of work before he ever got out of Annapolis.

"In 1958, you could get a Black N for keeping a television set in your room. That's how Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a graduate of the academy who endured years of captivity in the Vietnam War, came within a hairsbreadth of joining the Black N society.

"McCain and his friends hid their TV inside a pipe locker on their fourth-floor dorm hallway, bringing it out on weekends to watch boxing matches and episodes of "Maverick." All was well until their company officer got wind of the TV and demanded that someone be held accountable. McCain's friends played paper-rock-scissors to decide who would take the punishment, but excluded McCain, whose high jinks were already legendary.

"If McCain had been fingered, he could have faced expulsion, his friends from that era said."

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/02/850738.aspx

[Captain Hilts]

8. Yes, he's always had a chip on his shoulder. nt

[firedupdem]

6. He's a spoiled brat. He has been given just about everything in

life, and losing the presidency to Barack Obama has truly pissed him off. How dare HE beat me?

That creep said he knew how to get Bin Laden...why hasn't he revealed that information yet? I hate all of these people, and that's a word I try not to use too often. This president inherited major shit, and he's getting spit on by the obvious, as well as some that I used to have respect for. It's sickening.

[Ineeda]

19. It goes way back. Link to Rolling Stone article 10/08 below

really interesting, disturbing stuff.
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23316912/makebelieve_maverick/print

[invictus]

28. +1

[ErinBerin84]

10. Remember how

Cindy McCain had made that comment about how Obama had "waged the dirtiest campaign in HISTORY" or something strange? I can see the McCains (Cindy and Meghan I mean) being bitter out of loyalty, but I couldn't believe that she considered it dirtier than what Bush did to her family in 2000.

[Cha]

38. OR Dirtier than her own bitter

husband's of 2008..she's a dime a dozen liar like they are. She's no better than palin.

[GoCubsGo]

50. Projection is big among republicans

They like to accuse people of that which THEY are guilty. Can someone please tell me what the Obama campaign did that could be considered "dirty"? If the REALLY wanted to be "dirty", they could have pointed out how her husband crashed four million-dollar airplanes, and made hay over his involvement the USS Forrestal incident and the resulting deaths of 134 sailors. Regardless of how much or little he was responsible for it, the Obama campaign could have swift-boated him BIG TIME. Yet, they didn't. You KNOW that if Obama had that in his background they would have smeared him with it the second he won the nomination.

[Cha]

55. Exactly! They always accuse others of what they are

guilty of..it can't get much worse than that. They have a built in handy attack point.

[iceman66]

11. I wonder if he regrets not accepting the offer to be John Kerry's VP

[Captain Hilts]

14. I think he must. nt

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. I doubt it. He doesn't want to be ANYBODY's VP, he wants to be the boss

And I don't think he has the patience to try to leverage a VP position into the big job. I do wonder if the effects of aging are also at play here. Some people seem to lose their abiity to suppress angry impulses.

[blm]

22. It was never offered. Biden suggested it would be a good idea to bring country together, but

Kerry would only CONSIDER that suggestion IF McCain left GOP. McCain's camp exaggerated to better position themselves for favors for 2008.

[karynnj]

54. It also was a McCain person who approached the Kerry people with the original idea

and as BLM said, Kerry would consider it only if McCain became a Democrat - and both of them ended up realizing that they were too far apart on issues.

The contrast between Kerry and McCain after defeat is stunning. Kerry, though obviously disappointed that he would not be able to do things he desperately thought were needed was focused on fighting to achieve those goals as well as he could - even though fighting for them was incredibly hard. No one who listened to him 2005 until the present would ever describe him as bitter - though that is what McCain is.

[MiniMe]

16. GET OFF MY LAWN

Damn kids

[hileeopnyn8d]

18. By all accounts

he was a bitter and angry young man too.

[callous taoboy]

20. Yup. He lost to "that one."

[zulchzulu]

21. The guy needs to retire and live in his 10 houses...

McCain was a spoiled rich punk when he was a kid and then was a shitty, cocky flyboy. He got shot down because he sucked as a pilot and then became known as Johnny Songbird in Nam because he was able to screw Viet Cong whores for denouncing his country. He was one of the Keating Five and then had to sleep at night with the memories of knowing he betrayed his country and disappointed his dad.

Why is he angry? Well, guilt has a funny way of torturing one's soul.

[Jennicut]

25. You summed it up perfectly.

He was always troubled. All who knew him as a young cadet say he was a troublemaker and a hell raiser. He pretty much went through life expecting to get whatever he wanted but he could not win the Presidency. The only thing is that there are Rethugs even worse in the Senate then this turd.

[zulchzulu]

39. If Shakespeare had McCain as a character in a play, he'd have perished in the First Act

The guy is one big bucket of Boring.

[grasswire]

23. I think he's extremely damaged...

...and has hidden it pretty well. And who wouldn't be damaged under the experiences he endured? I don't believe he should hold the reins of power. His repressed anger makes him dangerous.

[polichick]

24. He's a nasty little man who believes he's entitled to be prez, just as he was entitled...

...to be a military "hero" and Senator.

[sofa king]

27. He didn't get anything he wanted.

I've always felt that the key to understanding John McCain is in the fact that he's a Senator, rather than an admiral. He comes from a true-blue naval family. He's the son and the grandson of admirals, both of whom fought with distinction in the Second World War.

Even though he wasn't the best of students, by the mid-1960s he was already on the fast-track to the Pentagon. You can't captain an aircraft carrier without being an aviator, and that's what he was learning. You can't win your flag without combat experience (unless nobody else has any, either), and that also is what he was learning.

Then he got shot down, didn't receive the medical care he needed to keep himself flyable, and spent years in horrid conditions as a senior officer among POWs. He dislikes the Vietnamese because they didn't just hurt his arm, they took away his flag. He dislikes the French because the French screwed up Vietnam in the first place.

John McCain spent a lot of time in the Senate, but every four years his hat was in the big ring, because there's really only one job where an invalidated Navy man can tell other Navy men what to do, and that's as Commander-in-Chief. Now, he's not going to get that, either.

To be any good at all as a Senator, and McCain does his job okay even though I don't like what he's doing, one has to master the art of gaining consensus and compromising, two things an admiral never has to do. So every day that guy shows up to work, he has to behave in a manner completely contrary to everything he wished. I'll bet he's pissed off.

[Ineeda]

35. excellent summary n/t

[RepublicanElephant]

30. mccain's just being a repub.

look at how stupid palin's acting after her defeat.

anger, bitterness and vengeance are just prereqs for being a good republican.

[undeterred]

31. Its just you.

You asked! :hi:

[mzmolly]

36. Yes, yes he is. You can add envious

to that list as well. :hi:

YOU'RE NOT THE PRESIDENT MCCAIN! :P

[Forkboy]

37. Nope, not just you. Anger is his calling card.

[politicasista]

40. It's not you. It's true

Anyon who is siding with this GOP, bitter man over a Democrat aka proven Liberal Senator is disturbing, especially on a site that supposedly caters to Democrats, Progressives. Really. :eyes:

[SemiCharmedQuark]

41. He's been an asshole for a long time. Trying to score points at a fundraiser by mocking a teenage

girl's appearance proves it.

[saltpoint]

42. McCain lives and thinks in a pre-Eisenhower American landscape,

a landscape that's long ago disappeared.

He has a kind of social amnesia, and when he's called on it, when he's challenged, he tends to bark rather than offer a reasoned response.

He's cursed as well with not being all that bright to start with. He's glued together with slogans which extoll "values" he imagines still comprise American life, but which again have all but disappeared.

He gets a warm welcome at venues like the VFW posts and is still darkening the doorway of the Sunday talk shows, but was also the GOP candidate who had to struggle to defeat Romney and Huckabee. They kept scoring peripheral victories in the primary season and diminished McCain considerably. Tancredo and Giuliani defeated themselves, but if either of them had had half a brain McCain might not have even been the nominee.

Then, to light a cigarette at the gas pump, he picks Palin as his veep nom.

Kinda dumb, utterly antiquated, and prone to mean-spiritededness. I hope Arizona voters retire his sorry butt next cycle.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

43. He's the consumate flip-flopper

with a very visible streak of cruelty. I believe many of his colleagues in the Senate do not respect him, but just put up with him. And I totally agree with Gene Robinson who wrote in a recent column he really owes Americans an apology for Sarah Palin.

[tomm2thumbs]

44. his 'porch' is bigger and he yells louder because of his position, but bitter old man is right

he also did/does have a temper problem and you can see it in videos of him all over YouTube

[jeanpalmer]

45. McCain has a short fuse and is psychotic

And yes he is bitter. He strikes me as being petty and holding a grudge. My guess is the only person he despises more than Obama is Sarah Palin.

On the surface, both Obama and McCain appeared conciliatory after the election. But remember how Obama gave McCain the finger during the speech he gave where acknwledged MaCain's "positive campaign." They don't like each other.

McCain, along with the other Republicans, is trying to suck Obama into into the Afghanistan morass. They know it's a loser. They know it will take down him and the Democratic Party. They recognize it as an issue that could bring them back to power. I hope Obama has the brains and the balls to stand up to them. God help us if he caves.

[Hekate]

46. Yes he is; also an aging mind in a not very healthy body. He would not have lasted 2 years as Prez

... according to someone analyzing his health history during the campaign.

Mr. H -- who is neither an actuary nor a doctor -- took one look at Sarah Palin and expressed his opinion that McCain was a fool who better get a food-taster.

All of us had reason to fear that if McCain were elected there would be a President Palin before the term was out. :scared:

Hekate

[JNelson6563]

47. Still bitter over 2000.

He got screwed by his own party. They let him have his obligatory shot in 08 but he never had a chance after 8 years of GOP screw-ups--and they knew it, so did he.

He's nasty and bitter. Time to retire old man.

Julie

[Life Long Dem]

48. Yeah McCain is hot and cold.

Then he lets the slap settle for a minute so he can start his BS again without any real confrontation to the Presidents calling his hand.

[ksoze]

49. I am convinced this guys dad he twitters about is McCain

http://twitter.com/Shitmydadsays

[watercolors]

51. He keeps showing up to make sure he is alive!!

nt

[Politics_Guy25]

52. MSNBC first read picked up on this-quote below

The highlight of the meeting appears to be the snippy exchange between President Obama and his '08 foe, John McCain. Depending on your point of view, it's either the picture of the wise Washington sage lecturing the young naive war president or the angry old guy snapping at the guy he still holds a grudge against for denying him the presidency. (Remember, when the C.W. crowd in Washington thought the loser of the Obama-McCain matchup would go out of their way to work with the new president?)

[Politics_Guy25]

53. MSNBC first read picked up on this-quote below

The highlight of the meeting appears to be the snippy exchange between President Obama and his '08 foe, John McCain. Depending on your point of view, it's either the picture of the wise Washington sage lecturing the young naive war president or the angry old guy snapping at the guy he still holds a grudge against for denying him the presidency. (Remember, when the C.W. crowd in Washington thought the loser of the Obama-McCain matchup would go out of their way to work with the new president?)

[southernyankeebelle]

56. I come from a military family too with over 60 yrs service - I can't stand

crybaby McCain. He is no hero especially to the missing VN vets. He would not allow files openned for prisoners of war. Why? What is he hiding about his own stay in prison? He is a bitter old man that never had a chance in hell to win the election. Being friends with the press just didn't do it.