McCain’s Instincts–Updated

September 23, 2008 / 10:52 am • By Dr. Melissa Clouthier

So, I spend the morning telling my friend that Barack Obama is a terrible choice for president even though I have reservations about McCain. And then I read this which quotes George Will who says:

Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

Will’s supposition is, of course, that Obama’s only problem is inexperience, when I’d argue that his problem is as much temperament as McCain’s problem is temperament. Maybe more. Obama demonstrates an inability to make decisions and a wobbly moral center, if he even has a center. Where
McCain has “certitude”, Obama seems unsure even in the simplest difficulties. He can always confer with his advisers though.

This is a tough election for conservatives. There is never a perfect solution when it comes to politicians, but this election seems to have the least perfect solution that has been presented for a long time.

Cross-posted at Right Wing News

Updated:

I get the feeling that George Will is just one more elitist snob, holding his nose at the crass baseness of the McCain-Palin ticket.

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  • Naqamel

    He can always confer with his advisers though.
    So can McCain.
    In fact, I’d suggest that the more McCain consults with the Next Vice President Sarah Palin on things, the better.

  • Mike Devx

    George Will, in the last two days, has now offered two unrelenting attacks on John McCain that present not even one iota of defense of him. I find that extraordinarily troubling.

    George Steph’s ABC This Morning talk show panel had the long knives out for John McCain, in an unrelenting twenty-minute long savage attack. George Will, as the sole conservative, should have felt compelled to offer up a defense – in fact a *spirited* defense! – to this vicious assault. Instead, he wholeheartedly chimed in. It was horrifying to watch.

    How difficult would it have been to offer the criticism *along* with a defense? What George Will could be saying:

    - On firing SEC Chair Chris Cox (forcing to resign) :
    “When your local baseball or football team is melting down into collapse, the head coach is usually fired, even when the problems lie with the players. Partly, that’s just the American way. Also, in order to turn the disaster around, you usually need someone new at the top. I don’t agree with McCain on firing Chris Cox, but really it’s just a part of a standard, typical American solution to fixing the problem.”

    - “The fundamentals of the economy are strong”
    What John McCain means – and we all know this – is that the Main Street economy is cruising along just fine. Greater than 3% economic growth in the last quarter is a perfect result for this country. The parts of Main Street, America, that are hurting have been run by Democrats for decades. Wall Street – in fact the World’s Wall Street – is in complete crisis, in a way we haven’t seen since at least the Great Depression, but when John McCain says that Main Street is doing just fine, he’s merely stating an obvious truth.

    And so on, through the rest of the complaints: A competent defense could have been made! But no, George Will seeks to undermine John McCain for reasons completely unknown. Perhaps he is one of Chris Cox’ closest friends? Or perhaps this is a facet of the Washington Elite striking back at the decidedly non-elite McCain/Palin ticket.

  • J David

    Hussein regularly demonstrates his inexperience, and would be an excellent FAILED presidency for the Republicans (whose RECORD spending of our money lost them power)to hang the fast approaching disasters on in the next 2-4 years. McVain is the end of conservatism(as a Soros-owned commie-lib Dem ally)in the GOP, and his election will be a catastrophe of epic proportions for true conservatism. He is the very definition of *RINO*.

    Conservatives, buckle-up, and hold on tight, ’cause this thing is going to get ugly beyond Bella Abzug’s looks, or Olberman’s behavior!

  • Glynn W.

    This is weak. And ridiculous.

    First, let’s fully quote George Will.

    “Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is NOT Barack Obama.”

    McCain is running about acting as crazy as his absurd Vice Presidential pick – while Obama is making both of them look silly.

    But it’s a hard job they have. After all, this Financial Debacle is brought to us by the same incompetents that brought us the Iraq Debacle (immediately after their Afghanistan Incompetence).

    And after reading this site accuse Obama for over a year of being a “socialist”, shouldn’t we all pause a moment and reflect that we are all TRILLION dollar socialists now, thanks to the fiscal thuggery of the GOP?

    And yet, in the middle of international crisis – oil shock, China surge, Iranian Nukes, Global Fiscal Bailout, Georgian separatism, Pakistani civil war, and Afghan disintegration – your fans applaud a vice presidential pick that couldn’t find Iraq on a map and received her first ever passport LAST YEAR.

    No wonder we need a trillion dollar bailout.

    Dumb and Dumber was supposed to be a movie – not a philosophy.

  • Naqamel

    Oh, where to begin…

    After all, this Financial Debacle is brought to us by the same incompetents that brought us the Iraq Debacle (immediately after their Afghanistan Incompetence).

    Strike 1!

    The financial debacle was started by Carter and exacerbated by Clinton. Source

    To his credit – in 2006, John McCain warned everyone about this. Source

    And after reading this site accuse Obama for over a year of being a “socialist”

    Swing and a miss, Strike 2!

    Close – Obama is a fascist who is the ideological equivalent of Benito Mussolini. Source

    your fans applaud a vice presidential pick that couldn’t find Iraq on a map and received her first ever passport LAST YEAR.

    How many foreign heads of state did then-Governor Clinton meet with?

    And he was at the top of that ticket.

    Obfuscation: Swing and a Miss, Strike 3. Yer out. Now go back to the dugout and think about your failure, liberal.

  • http://conservativebelle.blogspot.com Conservative Belle

    I would simply respond to Will’s argument by asking when in such recent years (when the SCOTUS appointments were so fiercely debated) has a president made an impulsive decision? He could respond with Harriet Miers, but alas after much outrage from the conservative base, Bush withdrew her name and picked someone better (Alito) and more qualified. McCain has made concessions with the conservatives before and he would do it again.

    I am not a huge McCain fan but I don’t buy Will’s argument on this. McCain is arrogant but not stupid.

  • http://marlettsmith.com/blog/ Antoinette

    George Will would rather see a less than perfect Republican fail than see the country protected from Obama’s very socialist policies. Obama would appoint judges who think their will and not the Constitution is what should govern this country. No we don’t know how McCain would pick, but we know for sure that Obama sees nothing wrong with extreme leftists on the court. George Will was a major influence on my becoming a conservative, but I lost respect for him a long time ago.