Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi assumed office on December 27th, 1978, four years before John McCain became a U.S. Senator. Therefore, Sen. Cochran has been a close witness of John McCain’s entire senate career. And Senator Cochran was not shy in voicing his terror at the idea of a McCain presidency.
“The thought of [McCain] being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.” – Senator Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi), the Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee
Sen. Cochran made that remark back in January, long before McCain chose a totally unqualified running mate. I can only assume that the selection of Sarah Palin reinforced Cochran’s conviction that John McCain is ‘erratic’. Sen. Cochran is not a bomb-thrower and he doesn’t make many headlines. He is a workmanlike senator that keeps a low profile. During the primaries, he took a risk in sticking his neck out to warn Republican voters not to fall for the phony image of McCain. He told them in the strongest terms not to trust the nomination to a ‘hothead’.
I hope that undecided voters will heed Cochran’s warning better than the Republican primary voters did.
I wish that the so-called Republican moderates would have the intellectual honesty to stand up and put country before party and talk about what a lousy decision maker McCain is. I have heard rumblings that Dick Luger isn’t happy with his selection of Palin as VP, and that Voinivich is equally disturbed. I with the environment were such that these guys could actually say something loud about this mess.
I hope that undecided voters will heed Cochran’s warning better than the Republican primary voters did.
To be “fair” to the primary voters, they had a lousy field to choose from. None of them were particularly attractive this time around and McCain mostly seems to have won the primary because of low turnout and a view that he was the “most electable” of the candidates that were there.
I don’t think moderate Republican voters were expecting McCain to go batshit insane between April and November, though.
I don’t think McCain has really changed. He’s just lost his media allies.
Thanks for this one. McCain is the candidate – not whatserface. If he behaves as Cochran describes, it will make for a real interesting series of debates.
[Worth reading: Douthat on Palin.]
Hotheadedness = asset of ‘wildman president’, considered by some a necessary to scare our enemies.
In that way McSame would certainly be more of the same as Bush, who used the mindless, drunken cowboy to much the same effect.
Stop saying The Highlander is hotheaded (angry scotsmen are hardly a new concept – there is even a gum) – it feeds his ‘toughest guy on the block’ appeal to power-worshipping authoritarian types. In short, you’re doing his leg work for him (especially since ‘The Angry Scotsman’ is an appeal that has likely already worked on everyone it might work on).
Hate to say it, but his drilling his age and perhaps spiced up with some potential age-related mental infirmity is a better tack (which is why Palin’s qualifications SHOULD be an issue). From the perspective of the power-worshipper, the old man should just fade away.
Treat him like we did Dole and he’s done.
Thank’s grampa, you’re so wonderful and honorable, but you’re like so 20th century!