John McCain's Temper

I heard today on my local liberal/progressive radio station that John McCain in a display of temper referred to his wife as a "trollop," a linguistic choice which indicates his very advanced age, and as a "cunt," a linguistic choice that indicates that this is not a very nice man, certainly not the sort of man a woman ought to be with. Both illustrate the fact that he has a temper. Fact checking brought up The Atlantic.com's reference to these linguistic droppings.

The author of the Atlantic blog offering asksW

hat do you think the age cutoff is below which it becomes utterly implausible that someone would use the term "trollop" in a non-ironic context?

My answer to that question is that the person would have to be older than my 69 years. My guestimate is that maybe 85-90 years old would be a reasonable cutoff age for someone to have "trollop" in his productive vocabulary. To actually have it in one's active linguistic vacabulary, one would need to be totally out of touch with the world he lives in.

The Washington Post has a 1999 article bringing McCain's volcanic temper to the attention of the nation, claiming

In a front page article and separate editorial Sunday, The Arizona Republic said it wanted the nation to know about the "volcanic" temper McCain has unleashed on several top state officials.

Those who have been on the receiving end of a McCain uproar include Republican Gov. Jane Hull, former Republican Gov. Rose Mofford and former Democratic Mayor Paul Johnson of Phoenix.

The article went on to say

McCain blamed the Bush campaign for helping plant recent temper stories and said the "hothead" portrayal was inaccurate.

"Do I insult anybody or fly off the handle or anything like that? No, I don't," insisted McCain.

Clearly we are dealing with a long standing problem.

There was a time when Presidential temperament was a major issue in selecting Presidents. Obama clearly has an even temper. Hillary gets high marks though Bill no longer does (when defending his wife). McCain does not. He is also very, very old, even older than I am if that's possible. I will probably have more to say about this but I will leave you with this thought: no one ever says anything that is not on his mind. Watch your guard, Mrs. McCain who though very made up hardly looks like a trollop. She's actually very nice looking to my ancient eyes.