Emotional Rescuer

Matt Welch | August 1, 2008

Washington Post heavyweight Robert Kaiser today has a pretty smart profile of John McCain, which can probably best be boiled down to the assertion that the candidate reacts more emotionally than intellectually to policy issues. One scrap of red meat for Hit & Run readers:

In last week's interview, McCain recalled and embraced another TR quotation: "Unfettered capitalism leads to corruption. We are seeing that with the subprime lending crisis."

Whole thing here.

Comments

|8.1.08 @ 9:56AM|#

"Unfettered capitalism leads to corruption. We are seeing that with the subprime lending crisis."

He trolls pretty well for a guy who's never been on the internet.

Nigel Watt|8.1.08 @ 9:58AM|#

He trolls pretty well for a guy who's never been on the internet.

You'd know. But seriously, that statement makes my blood boil. Central banking is not unfettered capitalism. EABOD, McCain.

ed|8.1.08 @ 10:00AM|#

TR is on Mount Rushmore. The very equal of Washington! And he walked up San Juan Hill. That's a very steep hill! And he, um, he read a lot. And like McCain, he couldn't use a computer. McCain is smart to model himself after TR, though history will most likely remember him as Dole II.

The Race Card|8.1.08 @ 10:03AM|#

I love how you play me, Senator McCain. < 3

|8.1.08 @ 10:04AM|#

...though history will most likely remember him as Dole II

C'mon Ed its almost 2010.....we refer to him as Dole V2.0.0

Colin|8.1.08 @ 10:04AM|#

Not defending McCain in the least, but something tells me Obama would have no problem with that TR quote. I believe he's said that TR was his favorite Republican president.

Episiarch Montoya|8.1.08 @ 10:05AM|#

"Unfettered capitalism"

You keep using those words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.

Warty|8.1.08 @ 10:07AM|#

Just when I was starting to think I might dislike President McCain less than President Obama...

Actually, I think I might still, just because McCain stands a better chance of dying before he gets any of his stupid agenda accomplished.

|8.1.08 @ 10:18AM|#

McCain's quote fits perfectly with today's Friday Funnies 'toon as a caricature of the media's total antilibertarian bias.
JMR

|8.1.08 @ 10:19AM|#

probably best be boiled down to the assertion that the candidate reacts more emotionally than intellectually to policy issues.

Meaning, I suppose, he thinks in terms of intent, rather than effect, when seeking "policy solutions" to the problems of the day. Like a housing bill which provides money to municipalities for buying repossessed homes (resulting in what good outcome, exactly?). This does not exactly differentiate him from the Other Guy.

Wishful thinking is a poor foundation for government policy.

ed|8.1.08 @ 10:27AM|#

Dole V2.0.0

Heh. That beats "Dole II: The Bitch Is Back!"

Bob Dole|8.1.08 @ 10:28AM|#

Nobody upgrades Bob Dole.

J.A. Fields|8.1.08 @ 10:28AM|#

Wow! Did anyone catch this tidbit?

Salter asks McCain in writing his book for him:

This is what I think about you. Is this fair?


Let's say McCain becomes president - will he be even worse than Bush in the "leaning on advisors" department!?? That's a very troubling thought.

|8.1.08 @ 10:34AM|#

Episiarch Montoya | August 1, 2008, 10:05am | #
"Unfettered capitalism"

You keep using those words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.

Sweeeeeeet

enrique|8.1.08 @ 10:36AM|#

Would Bush's presidency be worse or better without advisors?

|8.1.08 @ 10:52AM|#

Warty,

McCain stands a better chance of dying before he gets any of his stupid agenda accomplished

I'd like that too if he didn't pick some tool as a running mate. President Romney might be worse than McCain...

|8.1.08 @ 10:57AM|#

Bob Dole | August 1, 2008, 10:28am | #

Nobody upgrades Bob Dole.

I thought that was..."Nobody puts Bob Dole in the corner"!

Episiarch|8.1.08 @ 10:58AM|#

NutraSweet for VP!

|8.1.08 @ 11:01AM|#

Methinks its unfettered politicians, no longer shackled by the constitution, that leads to greater corruption.

Ska|8.1.08 @ 11:02AM|#

EABOD, McCain.

Eat a big ol' dick, McCain.

That's what that acronym means, right?

|8.1.08 @ 11:04AM|#

Epi,

Would you like to be Attorney General or Director of the FBI?

Nigel Watt|8.1.08 @ 11:07AM|#

Ska: Eat A Bowl Of Dicks.

ed|8.1.08 @ 11:11AM|#

Oh, McCain is going to taste donkey dick all right.

ed|8.1.08 @ 11:11AM|#

Black donkey dick. Cindy will be envious. But we digress.

The McCain Campaign|8.1.08 @ 11:13AM|#

Stop playing the Race Card, ed!

Episiarch|8.1.08 @ 11:13AM|#

NutraSweet, I want to be Secretary of the Department of Partying and Girls Gone Wild.

Ska|8.1.08 @ 11:13AM|#

OK, close enough.

I prefer to use Tom Nutall's line from Deadwood, re: the great bicycle challenge:

Those who disagree suck cock by choice.

But that doesn't really fit the circumstances here.

|8.1.08 @ 1:17PM|#

Epi,

Done.

|8.1.08 @ 1:27PM|#

Where is this "unfettered capitalism" of which you speak? Surely it is nowhere on planet Earth.

|8.1.08 @ 2:14PM|#

Everytime McCain opens his mouth, another Republican bails for Barr. The three legs of the GOP stool are small-government, pro-business and traditional values. McCain shits on the first two and mumbles incoherently about the third.

Matt Welch|8.1.08 @ 2:17PM|#

Let's say McCain becomes president - will he be even worse than Bush in the "leaning on advisors" department!??

I don't think so, no. Salter and McCain understand each other -- and mirror each other -- much more closely than even Rove and Bush did, in my opinion. It's a unique relationship.

Mike Laursen|8.1.08 @ 3:44PM|#

Emotional Rescuer

Goddammit! I had that song fully purged from my brain.

Paul|8.1.08 @ 5:28PM|#

Ed, you're a gem for your post. I read it to co-workers.

B|8.2.08 @ 10:42AM|#

Am I the only one who has noticed that for every negative post about Obama, there are about twenty for McCain? My only question now is: when is Reason Magazine going to publish its edition that endorses Obama for President?