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As a guy who cuts and paste what other people say
Rising Hegemon —
I agree with this: As a psychotherapist and someone who treats people with anger management problems, we typically try to educate people that anger is often an emotion that masks other emotions. I think it's significant that McCain didn't make much, if any, eye contact because it suggests one of two things to me; he doesn't want to make eye contact because he is prone to losing control of his emotions if he deals directly with the other person, or, his anger masks fear and the eye contact may increase or substantiate the fear. ...
McCain "needs to make an opponent an enemy in his mind to kind of get up for this. He personalizes conflict..."
Althouse —
... he's made it the foundation of his rhetoric. He uses it to reinforce his credibility and to add weight to all his opinions. It's not surprising that when he came to face Obama in person that he thought he could make the other man doubt himself. Who am I to stand next to this man? Or -- whatever he could make Obama think -- at least he could make us see him as the greater man, but he risked the kind of criticism Robinson and Matthews dished out. Josh Marshall quotes a reader: As a psychotherapist and someone who treats ...
The Anger Of McCain
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
Josh Marshall has a definitive post.
Look away, John McCain
The Monkey Cage —
... Or perhaps it was a signal of McCain’s contempt for Obama, and/or a manifestation of some deep-seated tendency on McCain’s part to demonize his opponents? That possibility was raised by Chris Matthews and Eugene Robinson in their post-mortem discussion of the debate, here. ...
McCain's anger and fear dominated the debates
culturekitchen - fresh dissent served daily —
... " in McCain. I don't think though that it wasn't just contempt that moved McCain to never make eye contact with Obama. I truly believe McCain couldn't look at Obama because he was afraid of losing it. To the point that at one point his face looked disjointed, like an an ugly mask. Josh Marshall has more to say about that. ...
Surly, Rude, Condescending, and Hostile: Just What We Want in a President
Comments from Left Field —
... of the two candidates’ greeting at the start of the debate.
As Ian points out, this is a single moment frozen in time — and if it had been the only such moment, no one would be commenting on it now. But it wasn’t. McCain continued to do this — or not do it, depending on how you look at it — for the entire 90-minute debate. Why?
Chris Matthews asks Eugene Robinson that question in this video (via Talking Points Memo):
Click here to view the embedded video. ...
Post-Debate Postmortem
A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days —
... the only substantive matters that occupy the attention of Andrew Sullivan revolve around the parentage of Trig Palin--an issue that has become Moby Dick to Sullivan's Ahabesque reputation), it's a telling expression of weakness. Equally laughable is Sullivan's clinical diagnosis that McCain's supposed aversion to eye contact with Obama "is, in fact, a sign of insecurity." All we need to do is to get Sullivan into Vienna and he can be a latter day Freud, apparently. Note as well that Josh Marshall is in on the psychoanalyzing act as well , featuring comments from one person who ...
Post-Debate Postmortem
RedState: Conservative News and Community —
... the
only substantive matters that occupy the attention of Andrew
Sullivan revolve around the parentage of Trig Palin--an issue that
has become Moby Dick to Sullivan's Ahabesque reputation), it's a
telling expression of weakness. Equally laughable is Sullivan's
clinical diagnosis that McCain's supposed aversion to eye contact
with Obama "is, in fact, a sign of insecurity." All we need to do
is to get Sullivan into Vienna and he can be a latter day Freud,
apparently. Note as well that Josh Marshall is
in on the psychoanalyzing act as well, featuring comments from
one person who ...
Two Days Later, Obama Won the Debate Even More
Comments from Left Field —
... Second was McCain’s attitude. Whether it was contempt or condescension or some sort of fear or inability to — in the most literal sense — face Obama, it made McCain look small and angry. I apologize that I can’t link to them because I don’t remember who wrote it. But as someone wrote after the debate, for that kind of attitude to have ‘worked’ for McCain, Obama needed to come off as completely ignorant and unprepared. And I don’t think even his harshest critics believe that is what ...
How McCain’s “my fellow prisoners” comment might explain a lot
This Modern World —
... as late as the 2000 campaign: “I hate the gooks,” McCain said to reporters on his campaign bus. “I will hate them as long as I live.” In that light, let’s consider McCain’s inexplicably intense dislike of Obama, which goes way beyond mere rivalry or policy disagreement — McCain can barely stand to even ...
