Why John McCain Loves Being the Underdog—an inside look at the candidate's "runt" psychology

October 13, 2008

Polls show John McCain trailing Barack Obama in the presidential race by as many as 10 points. reason Editor in Chief and McCain: The Myth of a Maverick author Matt Welch delves into the psychology of the Arizona senator and tells voters why you should expect to see him grinning more and more as he falls further behind. (And yes, we know that Marlon Brando played the title role in Viva Zapata!)

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Comments

|10.13.08 @ 12:13PM|#

Oh my God, that is so disgusting! Reason, you should be fucking ASHAMED at such an assertion. I can't believe ...
Oh, it says "runt."
Never mind.

|10.13.08 @ 12:25PM|#

charlton heston wasn't in "viva zapata" marlon brando was.

fyodor|10.13.08 @ 1:09PM|#

Damn, he must have been so bummed out after winning all those Senate races!

|10.13.08 @ 2:24PM|#

Runt psychology?

Jesus fucking Christ.

Needless to say we will not get any profiling of Obama's psychology here at Reason...but i would not want it...how about some articles actually about their policies?

Cat scans readings by Welch is only slightly less informative then what a witch doctor can tell me from chicken guts.

Ebeneezer Scrooge|10.13.08 @ 2:25PM|#

And soon we will see people wondering why Matt likes to dig so deep into John McCain. Get it while you can, McCain isn't going to matter that much longer.

Kelly|10.13.08 @ 2:34PM|#

McCain's runt psychology, and Obama's deny and deflect psychology. What a couple of winners.

Mike Laursen|10.13.08 @ 3:07PM|#

Needless to say we will not get any profiling of Obama's psychology here at Reason...but i would not want it...how about some articles actually about their policies?

Normally, I'd agree. But I read Welch's book a while back. Looking at McCain's past and his psychology is very relevant. They reveal that looking at his specific policy statements isn't that useful because it's likely he doesn't really mean a word of it, and is likely to abandon it all right away to get us involved in some new foreign war.

|10.13.08 @ 3:55PM|#

But I read Welch's book a while back. Looking at McCain's past and his psychology is very relevant.

When did Welch get a a Phd in psychology?

When did 90% of psychology stop being bullshit?

Mike Laursen|10.13.08 @ 5:31PM|#

Fine, let's not use the word, "psychology". Welch's book clearly shows a history of McCain's not saying what he really thinks and not really meaning what he says. And bellicosity and an ideal vision of the military life.

|10.14.08 @ 4:58PM|#

So, the difference between the McCain campaign and Pelvic Inflammatory Disease is.......

Unreasonable|10.15.08 @ 12:56AM|#

Seems like a pretty unreasonable thesis when you consider that John McCain is 5'7" tall and the average height of his age group is...5'7".

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_John_McCain's_height
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad347.pdf (see p.10)