McCain’s troubles highlight party rift (McC put in ice water as kid to calm temper)

[KansDem]

McCain’s troubles highlight party rift
By Edward Luce in Washington

Published: October 23 2008 20:09 | Last updated: October 23 2008 20:09

The more trouble John McCain’s campaign encounters, the more it highlights the cultural divide between the “real America” the Republican candidate says he represents and the Washington “cocktail party circuit” that largely disdains it.

That circuit is swelling with disaffected Republicans. Some complain about Mr McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin, whose appeal to “Joe Six-Pack” may have been dented by revelations this week that she has spent more than $150,000 (€117,000, £93,000) of other people’s money on her wardrobe. Others are upset at the negative tone of the campaign.

But all point to concerns about Mr McCain’s allegedly impulsive temperament. Citing the candidate’s story of how, as a child, his parents would put him in a bath full of iced water to calm his volcanic temper, Christopher Buckley, the novelist and son of the late conservative icon, William Buckley, said Mr McCain continued to display the same traits at 72.

“I have known McCain since 1982 and what has always stood out is his temperament,” said Mr Buckley, who endorsed Barack Obama last week. “Having observed him during the campaign and in the debates with Barack Obama I think he needs to be doused in another bath of cold water.”

Staunch Republican commentators, such as Charles Krauthammer and David Brooks, have come close to endorsing Mr McCain’s rival by citing Mr Obama’s “first-class temperament” – a reference to a comment by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jnr on Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Others question whether Mr McCain’s experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam burnished him with the credentials to be commander-in-chief – a central element of Mr McCain’s “country first” rallying cry. They cite fellow PoWs, such as Phillip Butler, who was also a colleague of Mr McCain at the Naval Academy. “Having been a PoW is no special qualification for being president of the US,” Mr Butler wrote this year. “I can verify that John has a quick and explosive temper that many have experienced first-hand. Folks, quite honestly that is not the finger I want next to that red button.”

--more--
Financial Times

:wtf:
I've had issues with my children regarding their tempers but I'd never put them in ice water! Is this an viable remedy for such behavior that I don't know about?

[DesertFlower]

1. holy shit.

put in ice water? that's bizarre.

[Wanet]

2. Sounds like child abuse

I don't think Child Protective Services would consider that an acceptable form of discipline.

[Raschel]

3. Put him in ice water? Boy that'll help your emotional stability. McCain has serious issues.

[Jamastiene]

4. Damn, no wonder the Repugs agree with torture.

It's SOP in their child rearing.

That's child abuse if I have ever heard of it. Dayum.

[Shallah Kali]

5. You are exactly right. A little torture as kids made 'em into the fine upstanding adults they are

so what is a little waterboarding is nuthin in their book. :puke: :puke: :puke:

IMo everyone should read For Your Own Good by Alice Miller especially if they plan on having kids

http://www.nospank.net/fyog.htm

n the clear, strong, poetic language that distinguished her first book, the highly acclaimed Prisoners of Childhood: The Drama of the Gifted Child, Alice Miller has written a groundbreaking study of the origins of violence. So convincingly does she show how harmful and cruel are the principles ruling our traditional upbringing that she even unexpectedly found confirmation from a church-oriented reviewer, who wrote in Church World: "For Your Own Good is a shattering, frightening, and eventually one of the most illuminating and life-view-changing works that I have ever read. I challenge any thinking and feeling person to read this book. ..and not in turn be changed or altered."


"This is a book of extraordinary importance, for it makes as clear as a beacon-light the root causes of violence as a consequence of our misguided child-rearing practices. For Your Own Good should be read by all who are troubled by what has happened to our world and to our children. I cannot sufficiently stress the importance and urgency of reading For Your Own Good."

-Ashley Montagu

[Karenina]

6. . .

[lostnfound]

7. How sad. nt

[knitter4democracy]

8. And he needs to be doused again?

*shudder* What the hell is wrong with these people that they think that's okay?!

Childhood abuse like that sure explains a lot of his past. Acting out at the academy, reckless behavior, rage, massive sense of entitlement, difficulty empatizing with others. It explains a lot, but unlike other presidents who'd been abused and dealt with it (like Clinton), he's still that angry kid all these decades later. He needs therapy, not the White House.

[machI]

9. Kick