Let McCain Be McCain

In this week’s lackluster debate something seemed to be holding John McCain back. This was supposed to be the debate where McCain finally took the gloves off, but he seemed uncharacteristically restrained as if he was trying with all of his willpower to keep the real McCain bottled up inside. Many conservatives were disappointed that McCain didn’t call his opponent a “terrorist” or threaten to kill him as some of his supporters at rallies have done. I know I wasn’t alone in thinking that McCain just wasn’t mean or angry enough during the debates. So with one more debate and less than a month to go before the election, it’s time his handlers let McCain be McCain. It may be the only chance we have to keep That One from winning the election.

You would think the McCain campaign had already learned its lesson when it excessively coached Sarah Palin. Trying to get her to read newspapers and study the issues of the day was a disaster. Americans saw right through their attempts to make her seem like someone she was not. But once she was free to be herself and no longer constrained by the idea that she actually had to answer questions posed to her, Palin was able to wink herself into the hearts of the American people. Americans love the unleashed Palin and I'm sure they would love an unhinged McCain, too.

But the McCain that his colleagues have grown to know and love is not the man who showed up at the last two debates. Sure, there were flashes of the real McCain in the first debate when he refused to look at his opponent (which David Broder thought was very manly), and in the second debate when he referred to Obama as “That One” and refused to shake his hand. But these refreshing moments of candor just made his supporters wonder where the real McCain had been stashed away the rest of the time.

Where was the McCain who had a “spirited exchange” (as McCain’s spokesman called it) with Sen. John Cornyn about the immigration bill and said to him, "F--- you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room." Where was the John McCain who called a questioner “you little jerk” and responded to questions of the Des Moines Register editorial board with sarcasm and contempt? Where was the John McCain who delighted audiences and the press with jokes about Chelsea Clinton’s looks and women who enjoy rape and sang “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”? Where was the John McCain who angrily poked Sen. Tim Wirth in the chest and shoved the wife of an MIA? This John McCain has himself been missing in action at the debates.

Many pundits are saying that McCain needs a game changer. If McCain had poked Obama in the chest or slapped Tom Brokaw or called one of the questioners a “little jerk,” it certainly would have changed the election. McCain can’t afford to miss another opportunity to shake things up.

Back in September pollster Peter Hart said, "John McCain has become the Howard Beale of this election," referring to the “mad prophet of the airwaves” played by Peter Finch in the movie Network. When Hart compared McCain to Beale, I don’t think he was referring to the fact that Beale threatened to commit suicide live on the air (although, admittedly, a lot of people would tune in to the next debate to watch McCain self-destruct), but to the way Beale channeled Americans' anger with passionate rants about “bull----” and the moment he urged Americans to go to their windows and shout, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." Imagine if in the next debate John McCain told Americans (or "my fellow prisoners" as he likes to call us) to go to our windows and scream at the tops of our lungs. The election would be over.

Americans don’t want a President like Obama who is calm and cool in a crisis and never seems to break a sweat. They want a President who is as angry as they are, someone who will lash out unpredictably at our enemies. They want a President who thinks with his gut instead of his brain. They want a man who will pick up the phone at 3 a.m. and tell the person on the other end what he can do with himself before slamming the receiver down. Do you think anyone will dare to mess with America when a man like John McCain has his finger on the button?

If only Americans could see the real John McCain, instead of the one who calls everyone “my friends” when he doesn’t really mean it and hides his contempt behind a smile of gritted teeth. And let’s see how calm Obama is when McCain gets in his face and shoves him off his stool. So in the next debate let McCain be McCain and let the chips fall where they may. At this point it may be his only chance to win.

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