ASK ADAM CLYMER WHAT EFFECT IT WILL HAVE:

Will McCain's Temper Be a Liability?: McCain Works to Bury Hatchet With Those on Receiving End of His Temper (LIBBY QUAID, 2/17/08,
The Associated Press)

His irascibility fits with McCain's proud image as a straight talker willing to say what people don't want to hear.

Yet McCain's temper hinders his efforts to make peace with his critics and rally Republicans behind his candidacy for president. That could be a big problem, because his most persistent foes conservative radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson talk to tens of millions of people each day.

McCain and his advisers insist the acrimony is about matters of policy: "We have disagreements on specific issues from time to time," McCain recently said of his critics.

In fact, the disputes often are as much about style as they are about substance.

McCain's tone was certainly on Dobson's mind when he issued a stinging anti-endorsement on Super Tuesday. He mentioned various issues, but Dobson also said the senator "has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language."

Privately, some conservatives grouse that McCain can seem more convivial toward his liberal colleagues. Just last week, McCain had an animated conversation and shared a belly laugh with liberal Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, his partner on controversial immigration reforms, on the Senate floor.

And then there is his choice of words not just the expletives, but also the use of dismissive phrases such as "agents of intolerance" to describe televangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell during the 2000 presidential campaign.

Yet McCain reconciled with Falwell before his death in 2007 and has done so with many others.

His temperament is likely to make him a bad president, but cursing out fellow pols will only help him with the electorate.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 17, 2008 9:04 AM