McCain embraces his inner Peter Finch
posted at 5:30 pm on May 7, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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After a few weeks of attempts by Democrats (and the media) to get John McCain to lose his temper publicly — with absolutely no success — John McCain has decided to embrace his passion rather than deny it. Speaking today in Rochester, Michigan, McCain admitted that he gets angry, especially when he sees fraud and waste in government. He thinks we should be angry, too, when we see that, and that we shouldn’t take it any more:
Republican John McCain pretended to snarl when asked about his temper Wednesday in Michigan. “How dare you ask that question!” McCain said, chuckling. His questioner persisted, reading a comment by a fellow Republican, Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, that the idea of McCain as the GOP presidential nominee sent a chill down his spine.
“I’m all too familiar with the quote,” said McCain, who has since smoothed things over with his colleague.
McCain, whose temper has earned him the nickname “Senator Hothead” by more than one publication, said he does get angry — about corruption and runaway spending in Washington. “You know something, the American people are angry, too, and they’re not going to take it anymore,” he said.
If he really had a temper problem, McCain said, he would not have been able to work with fellow senators such as Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat; Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat; and his friend Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee who now is an Independent.
The line paraphrases one from the movie Network delivered by Peter Finch, who played a lunatic newscaster that struck a chord with viewers by saying, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!” The line resonated with movie viewers, too, and entered the cultural lexicon as a populist chant. Finch played a character somewhere between Lou Dobbs and Keith Olbermann, with a bit of Al Franken at the 2004 Republican Convention thrown in for good measure.
McCain takes a clever approach to the issue of anger management. So far, he has shown no particular nastiness on the campaign trail, so the effort to paint him as an unstable hothead has flopped. However, this gives him an opportunity to display passion about the ills of federal government, especially the stupidity and corruption that angers most voters. To whom will voters relate more — someone who offers academic criticism of business as usual, or someone with an actual track record of reform who sounds pissed off about the need for more of it?
James Carville once said that the best strategy for beating an opponent was to turn their strength into a weakness. The best defense in politics could be turning a vulnerability into a strength. At least McCain can have some fun turning this particular table on the Democrats.
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A point he made in one of the early debates. Cliche, but smart way to play it off.
Spirit of 1776 on May 7, 2008 at 5:32 PM
First thing McCain has said in a while that I really agree with…
I am angry at Washington… problem is that McCain is a Washington insider…
Romeo13 on May 7, 2008 at 5:34 PM
When obnoxious reporters persist from now on, I vote for McCain to pull a waffle out from his pocket, and begin munching.
windbag on May 7, 2008 at 5:36 PM
Is there a clinic that offeres to put folks into a frozen state or chemically induced coma for 4 years?
I think I might like to try that.
EJDolbow on May 7, 2008 at 5:37 PM
Obama is the one who seems to have an anger management problem.
bnelson44 on May 7, 2008 at 5:42 PM
It’s gonna be an epic disaster in november.
lorien1973 on May 7, 2008 at 5:44 PM
If he really had a temper problem, he would have called it a “mother$%#*ing wall” instead of a “god&*$# wall.”
If McCain got angry when he saw fraud in government, we would not have the McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill or the McCain- Feingold “campaign finance reform” bill.
Jeez, Ed, get off the Kool-Aid. You’re like the MSM people who were enthralled about how great a liar Clinton was — never mind the fact that he was lying.
BigD on May 7, 2008 at 5:47 PM
Over/Under on the number of days it takes the DNC to chop that quote into an ad?
BadgerHawk on May 7, 2008 at 5:48 PM
The pic on the front page is AWESOME!
MikeZero on May 7, 2008 at 5:48 PM
Maybe he should consult Michelle Obama.
Entelechy on May 7, 2008 at 5:49 PM
It’s gonna be an epic disaster in november.
lorien1973 on May 7, 2008 at 5:44 PM
EPIC LANDSLIDE IS COMING. Obama will be the next president. When he becomes the official nominee the media will go into super false god worship mode and mccain will be the KKK
PrezHussein on May 7, 2008 at 5:51 PM
OK, John… I’ll take your advice to heart…
I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.
I’m mad as hell, and I’m not voting for people just because they have the a certain letter next to their name any more.
I’m mad as hell and I’m not taking insults from Politicians any more because I want immigration laws enforced any more.
I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take idiot politicians shoving their nutty economy destroying global warming laws down my throat any more.
I’m mad as hell and I’m tot taking voting advice from people who say, “well, he sucks a little less than the other guy” any more.
LegendHasIt on May 7, 2008 at 5:51 PM
Yeah, how dare I write about the actual candidate rather than the Fantasy Primary that some people apparently continue to live within.
Ed Morrissey on May 7, 2008 at 5:52 PM
I’m missing the point, what would anger McCain about working with fellow liberals on liberal issues?
RJL on May 7, 2008 at 6:03 PM
I’m an angry voter, McCain. I’m angry about fraud and waste in the federal government. I’m angry about the tens of billions of tax dollars that were wasted on the failed “virtual” border fence, and the billions more currently being wasted on easily-breached single-layer fencing. I’m angry about the tens of billions of American tax dollars spent every year to provide free schooling, emergency room care, welfare benefits, etc., to illegal aliens. I’m angry about the billions of American tax dollars spent every year to chase, incarcerate, prosecute, and imprison thousands of illegal alien criminals who are preying on law-abiding American citizens.
I’m a very angry voter, McCain, and I’m also one of your Arizona constituents. We’re mad as hell here, McCain, and we aren’t going to take it anymore.
AZCoyote on May 7, 2008 at 6:10 PM
Nobody was talking about the primary; we were talking about McCain and his well-documented anger and his well-documented disdain for his own party. You have him talking about the “stupidity and corruption that angers most voters” without ever mentioning that he is perhaps a contributor to those very same problems.
You know, I was an avid reader of Captains’ Quarter’s and I think you are a good contributor to Hot Air. But I have come to believe, Ed, that you are a finger-in-the-wind moderate.
If you like McCain, that is fine. But don’t sugarcoat, or worse, pass over, his past behavior, policies and legislative initiatives in the spirit of ….. I don’t even know what you’re trying to accomplish.
Bot for God’s sake, be honest about the man.
BigD on May 7, 2008 at 6:10 PM
Sorry Ed, but BigD wrote about the candidate too, and not with the rose-colored glasses you apparently have.
Shay on May 7, 2008 at 6:13 PM
Great. Now I’ve got this song running through my head.
RushBaby on May 7, 2008 at 6:17 PM
To be fair, he can’t just lock Michelle in a basement.
SouthernGent on May 7, 2008 at 6:18 PM
So, McCain is running against earmarks and waste? Sorta like saying matricide is a bad thing. You’re not going to get much of an argument.
No to La Raza
No to Amnesty
No to McCain
MCPO Airdale on May 7, 2008 at 6:24 PM
BigD, what did Ed write that was dishonest?
juliesa on May 7, 2008 at 6:24 PM
AZcoyote, has Arizona really had it with him? Is AZ going to go for Obama in the general?
juliesa on May 7, 2008 at 6:28 PM
I’d guess, it’s not that what Ed was said dishonest, but it’s the fact that we are willing to propagate the spin. McCain has tremendous temper, a fact I think is common knowledge. To pretend that he just gets upset about wasteful spending is comical. So it’s just disingenuous (by which I mean not accepting the reality, even when cited by other R’s)acceptance and propagation of spin.
In Ed’s defense, it’s just a political football. So the spin is important in so much as it lets people take one of his issues off the table if they are so inclined.
Spirit of 1776 on May 7, 2008 at 6:32 PM
Thanks to Spirit of 1776 for explaining my point so well.
In addition, Ed’s statement that, “McCain takes a clever approach to the issue of anger management” is to me no different than Nebraska Democrat Senator Bob Kerrey’s statement that, “Bill Clinton is an unusually good liar.”
That fact that Ed believes McCain is being clever does not mean that MCain does not, in fact, have an anger problem. Ed never really does acknowledge that. Spin, indeed.
BigD on May 7, 2008 at 6:48 PM
No. Juliesa, Hot Air is crammed to the gills with border fanatics. If you disagree with them on any aspect of immigration policy, legal or illegal, you’re not a real American, you’re not a Real Republican, and you’re not a Real Conservative. It’s unfortunate, but it really is the only flaw here so I don’t think it’s that big a deal.
Some of them will sit out the election in the hopes that Obama wins and we get Amnesty plus no wall instead of Amnesty with a wall under McCain, but I think in the end a good number will come to their senses and accept that in politics you don’t get everything you want. Till then we’ll have to endure their fulminating against McCain from time to time. That’s fine with me too because they’re so angry and incoherent that they’re completely unpersuasive and they obviously need someone to scream at just for the purposes of emotional Venting. I don’t mind being one of those people.
Aside from their utopian demands for the Republican nominee to be 100% pure conservative they seem like reasonable folks to me. Better not to engage them on this stuff and just “MoveOn” to coin a phrase.
The Apologist on May 7, 2008 at 6:56 PM
LOL…I believe your argument plays both directions.
Back to anger; Get angry John. We damn sure could have used a bit of that in the last eight years.
Limerick on May 7, 2008 at 7:09 PM
Most people don’t remember “Network” and the Finch character lost his marbles, so I don’t know how far that gets him.
thatcher on May 7, 2008 at 7:35 PM
I think most of us are willing to accept that we won’t get everything we want….
We’d just kind of like to have someone who offers us a little more than 20% of what we want.
We’d just kind of like to have a Republican candidate that likes Republicans little more than he likes the Democrats.
If we have to have a President that intends to destroy the economy, we’d just kind of prefer that it NOT be a Republican.
We’d just kind of like a candidate that doesn’t shift the Republican party further to the left than it already is….
Heck, at this point, I’d be thrilled if we could maintain status quo.
We’d just kind of like to have a candidate who deserves a campaign slogan somewhat better than:
LegendHasIt on May 7, 2008 at 7:35 PM
Yeesh. What’s next? Ideological purity tests? An Inquisition? A show trial? Cries of “J’accuse!” from “true” conservatives?
Let the Democrats eat their own on their own; there aren’t enough of us to afford imitating them.
irishspy on May 7, 2008 at 7:39 PM
No, no, no.
The main thing to remember about Howard Beale was that though he was having an on-air breakdown his speeches were entirely rational. Remember when he was giving out about “The Arabs! The Arabs!” buying up financial interests in the West and using OPEC to the gain leverage over the West? Beale’s bout of depression is caused in part by the Arab oil crisis
If only someone in real life had taken the concerns in that film seriously. Beale gets dragged into an empty meeting room by the Network President, a globalist who is even madder than he is, who delivers an insane lecture about how the global market works and that he should just accept it and that theres nothing he can do about it?
People always seem to forget those parts. Watch the film over. Its creepy how prescient it is.
“The Arabs! The Arabs!”
aengus on May 7, 2008 at 7:39 PM
To the windows!
JetBoy on May 7, 2008 at 7:40 PM
The Arabs are simply buying us
There are no nations…there is no democracy
aengus on May 7, 2008 at 7:53 PM
Ha! People use to say the same thing about the Germans after reunification, and the Japanese before that, and the Arabs before that, etc., etc.
It’s called the free flow of capital. Let the Arabs hold a stake in American business during a downturn. Americans always buy it back later or create bigger, better competitors when things move up again. How? We allow the free flow of capital and the most open and free market in the world. It’s why we pass our competitors and those who are supposedly buying us out from decade to decade. The Pat Buchannen economic model has been wrong since the day the first protectionists dreamt it up hundreds of years ago.
The Apologist on May 7, 2008 at 8:11 PM
But they’ve bought out the State Department too. When does that get bought back?
Plus we now have Shariah banking in global markets.
I’m not as optimistic as you. The Germans and Japanese had no real motive to create mischief after the war. Arab Muslims do and I am genuinely worried about what they are up to.
The Saudis have amassed ten trillion dollars since the 1970s and seeing as they spend it all on jihad it will eventually run out but what sort of state will the world be in by then?
aengus on May 7, 2008 at 8:21 PM
Right, so you can’t keep the status quo and a Democrat is gonna shift the whole country farther left than McCain so the obvious option is to not elect McCain. That doesn’t make sense.
Leaving aside the absurd notion that with an 82% rating from the American Conservative Union McCain is only 20% conservative.
It makes me wonder, do we have you to thank for the Clinton Presidency? Were you one of the Ross Perot dead-enders? Who’s this cycle’s new conservative Messiah? Buchannen again? Newt? Bob Barr? Huck? Who’s gonna save the GOP from getting elected this time?
Who cares? Not me. I’m with Johnny Mac. He’s more than just better than Obama. He’s a good, if not great, conservative.
The Apologist on May 7, 2008 at 8:26 PM
Unless it’s for one of his pet projects like Iraq or funds going to La Raza.
He doesn’t seem to get too angry about that.
MB4 on May 7, 2008 at 8:27 PM
I guess Chris Matthews isn’t the only drama queen.
MB4 on May 7, 2008 at 8:32 PM
Good Lord, another drama queen. Maybe there is something in the water. I dunno, could be.
MB4 on May 7, 2008 at 8:34 PM
That’s an overstatement, but simply not listening to them is one option. It’s certainly one Bush has employed many times.
Plus we now have Shariah banking in global markets.
Which is fine with me. If bankers are stupid enough to arrange for loans that don’t bear interest they’ll pay the consequences in global competition with those that don’t. Non-capitalist banking systems don’t tend to make much money or even function very well so who cares?
The Saudis have amassed ten trillion dollars since the 1970s and seeing as they spend it all on jihad it will eventually run out but what sort of state will the world be in by then?
They spend some, not all. And if you remove their preachers and replace them, inspire Iraqi Arabs to embrace moderate Islam, encourage the disconnect between violence and faith, and slowly turn the populations around by protecting those who speak out and creating spaces for dissent to simply survive in the Arab world, it will spread. And then all the infrastructure the Saudis have spent decades building will be turned against them. It will take time, a generation or more, and there will be setbacks and failures along the way, but it can certainly be countered. The more free these people are politically the harder it is for the Saudis to treat the Islamic world like a dictatorship and the mosque like a military barracks.
The Apologist on May 7, 2008 at 8:40 PM
New Bumper sticker.
If you only want a few scoops of $hit in your milkshake
instead of several - vote McCain!
MB4 on May 7, 2008 at 8:46 PM
That was quoted and re-iterated yesterday in the Fred Barnes thread by Jaibones at 10:59pm.
Am I still a drama queen MB4? Or am I some other kind of fairy?
The Apologist on May 7, 2008 at 8:52 PM
If you only want a few scoops of $&*! in your milkshake
instead of several - vote McCain!
82% consistent = Defecatory abomination. Admit it - you have been a Republican since we chased the JBS out in the 60’s have you? Do you still think Eisenhower was a commie?
The Apologist on May 7, 2008 at 8:58 PM
Should read “haven”t“.
Damn. Damn. Damn.
I hate to see a solid punch squirrled like that.
The Apologist on May 7, 2008 at 9:02 PM
You’re Mohammed’s Fairy Godmother. There’s no such thing as moderate Islam. You can’t separate the violence and the faith because no disconnect is possible–jihad (warfare against the unbelievers) is the most central duty of Islam. It is incumbent upon all true believers. Converting all 300 million Americans to Islam would be far easier by contrast.
aengus on May 7, 2008 at 9:05 PM
LoL. That was actually very funny. I agree with you that your interpretation of Islam is the most accurate and the most consistently held these days, but it doesn’t matter. Christians are supposed to love their enemies as themselves, they’re supposed to give their shirt to coat thieves, they’re supposed to live life without fear of evil beacaus etheir God is great, good, merciful, generous, and just. They do none of these things. Just because the Koran and the hadith command it doesn’t mean Muslims will do it or even do do it. Most aren’t true believers and as political violence becomes less accepted so will religious violence. As political freedom becomes more common so will religious freedom. The Arabs have never had self determination. They have never had real freedom. When they get it they adapt and love it very quickly.
The Apologist on May 7, 2008 at 9:18 PM
Crap. I’m tired. I’m making too many typing errors. I’m sure we’ll continue this conversation some other time. Have a good night.
The Apologist on May 7, 2008 at 9:21 PM
How many times do I have to debunk that 82% ACU rating? If it weren’t for his early years of actually voting conservative reliably, it would be down in the 70-60 range. It was only 65 in 2006. It did jump a bit last year when he was pretending to be a conservative, hoping that people be able to remember back further than yesterday’s lunch.
Funny, you McCainiacs think anyone that doesn’t support your guy is either a democrat in disguise or a Buchannanite. You are very free with the insults. You can’t for a minute imagine that we were the body, the soul, and the open wallet of the Republican Party until you guys that get that tingly feeling up your leg for Mavericky RINO Moderatism (but call it conservatism) took over the party.
Newt hasn’t been worth a bucket of warm spit for ten years, and the rest of those guys you mentioned were NEVER worth a bucket of warm spit. (Well, Perot was a pretty good guy until he went insane… about the time he decided to run for President.)
Most of us don’t expect a savior or a conservative messiah this year. We just don’t want the guy that destroys the economy because he is an ‘America Causes Global Warming’ stooge to be a Republican. If he is, then the chances for a Republican ‘Messiah’ to save us in 2012 will require an even greater Miracle than having one this year.
POP QUIZ:
Of the three major candidates still running…
Only one of them has ACTUALLY authored and got enacted legislation which is unconstitutional and limits the First Amendment rights of individuals as they apply to political discourse.
Which Candidate is it?
Yeah, The guy who has managed to stomp all over the First Amendment is a REAL Conservative Icon all right.
LegendHasIt on May 7, 2008 at 9:29 PM
DOH! Me too.
Stick a WOULDN’T in there between people and be.
LegendHasIt on May 7, 2008 at 9:34 PM
BigD likes to accuse me of dishonesty because I don’t hate McCain the same way she does. Well, sorry, I don’t. I don’t like the BCRA, and I want secure borders first, as I wrote the other day. However, I’m not going to lead every single McCain post I write from now until Election Day with that as a header. I’m going to write about the topic at hand without screaming about immigration.
Now, does McCain have a temper? Sure. Has it caused him problems? Not that I’ve seen. Thad “Pork King” Cochran may not like it, but then again, I don’t like the $700 million in earmarks he has in this year’s budget. And whether he has a temper issue or not, this was a clever way of dealing with it as a political issue — which was the point of the post.
If BigD wants a daily recitation of the McCain Hate, then I presume she’ll be good enough to provide it. Since I don’t hate McCain, I’ll just stick to the issue in the topic.
Ed Morrissey on May 7, 2008 at 9:37 PM
Ed LOL yes, BigD, Valiant, and the rest are reliable providers of said content. It does allow one to focus on other things :-)
funky chicken on May 7, 2008 at 9:54 PM
LOL
funky chicken on May 7, 2008 at 9:59 PM
I have no idea what that gibberish means.
Do you still beat your wife?
MB4 on May 7, 2008 at 10:09 PM
Mohammed, the Messenger of Allah’s eternal word, was not moderate. No moderate can legitimately tell another Muslim to stop doing the extremist things Mohammed himself did. The Koran condones violence and coercion to further the Islamic agenda. People whom we call moderates are labeled hypocrites by Allah Himself in the Koran. “Moderates” will always lose the argument because, as ex-Muslim author Ibn Warraq says, “There may be ‘moderates’ in Islam but Islam itself is not moderate.”
- A_Plague_on_Both_Houses
MB4 on May 7, 2008 at 10:21 PM
If he really had a temper problem, McCain said, he would not have been able to work with fellow senators such as Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat; Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat; and his friend Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee who now is an Independent
Whatever points he may have gained in his “mad as hell” statement, he immediately shoots himself in the foot by mentioning Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold. Just how tone deaf is McCain?
poodlemom on May 8, 2008 at 3:58 AM
Most excellent point.
LegendHasIt on May 8, 2008 at 6:06 AM
Dufus alert!!! Dufus alert!!! Dufus alert!!! Obama wins 49 states!
sabbott on May 8, 2008 at 7:07 AM
For the record, I have never accused Ed of dishonesty, much less enjoyed doing it. I have accused Ed of sugarcoating things and, in at least one instance, attributing something positive to McCain which was in fact not true.
I also do not hate McCain as a person, as I do not know him and in general do not “hate” anybody. I will admit a healthy does of skepticism and dislike.
BigD on May 8, 2008 at 7:29 AM