Centerfield

the blunderbuss denial

Mickey Kaus has noticed the same embarrassing and weak debate technique that John McCain repeatedly uses when he's been pinned down on facts that are not to his liking:

It doesn't look to me like John McCain was "unhinged" or "irate" or losing his "cool" in his recent videotaped airplane confrontation with the NYT's Elisabeth Bumiller. He was simply employing the debating tactic he often uses when confronted with a question he can't answer safely--which is to bully and intimidate and interrupt the questioner, using up all the available conversational space until the "questioning" moves on. (To get a word in edgwise, whoever is confronting him would have to be ready to engage in an undignified shouting match, which most are unwilling to do.) McCain used the same technique in the Republican debates when confronted with questions he didn't want to answer on immigration.

Because this is intentional, strategic behavior it isn't a sign McCain is unstable or uncontrolled or overemotional or irrational. But it's a sign that, no less than Obama, he may have been underprepared for the fall campaign by his charmed life as a national press favorite. McCain's bullying evasion is the second campaign tic--the first is his habit of reflexive, righteous blunderbuss denials**--that he's apparently been able to get away with over the years. Neither is likely to hold up over a multi-month presidential race. And the bullying, unlike the righteous denial, doesn't even temporarily make McCain look good.

The blunderbuss denial, ROTFL That's perfect. He did the blunderbuss when he got caught misleading folks about Romney's Iraq policy during one of the debates. He needs to come up with a better way to handle these moments.

Because he's only weeks away from a "let's do the blunderbuss" clip on youtube, showing McCain's greatest hits where he bullies his way through legitimate questions he is unwilling to answer.