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McCain's "temper" is probably PTSD, and that should be a valid campaign issue

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rox63 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 09:36 AM
Original message
McCain's "temper" is probably PTSD, and that should be a valid campaign issue
Can someone with untreated PTSD serve as President? Can he be trusted to act wisely and patiently with both our allies and adversaries, and not fly off the handle? Should he have access to nuclear weapons when he has a "nuclear" temper?

While I believe McCain's military service and time as POW should be off-limits as a campaign issue, I think the resulting psychiatric problems make him unfit to be president.

What do you think? Please discuss...
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zanne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 09:38 AM
Response to Original message
1. Bush supporters tried that in 2000...
People were just outraged. And they had their asses handed to them.
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rox63 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 09:41 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. But I think it is a valid issue
If he has a serious psychiatric problem, wouldn't that impair his ability to be president?
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blondeatlast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 09:44 AM
Response to Reply #2
5. We can't focus on any perceived illness, though, that would backfire.
The focus needs to be on the fact that he does have a temper, that he shows poor judgment, etc--but the PTSD first isn't an official diagnosis and second will again focus on his experience in Viet Nam--that will backfire badly..

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leftofcool Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 10:38 AM
Response to Reply #2
9. Only if you want it to backfire on ya
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blondeatlast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 09:41 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. Exactly. It was a Rovian tactic that worked but the public HATED the Bushies for doing it.
Weird how that works but that's how it came down.
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JVS Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 09:43 AM
Response to Original message
4. I think it's better to just dismiss it as an ill-tempered nature.
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nc4bo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 09:52 AM
Response to Original message
6. i agree with you 100% but it's no go - too bad actually.
but since they never allow ANY one access to his psychiatric/psychological records (past or present), it's a big no-go and we'll never know.

Hopefully we'll never get to find out, eh?
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momster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 09:53 AM
Response to Original message
7. He was mean before 'Nam
and mean during his service and mean in the Senate. They called him McNasty in high school for goodness' sake. He's just a small-minded, short-tempered, all together unpleasant person and the more he tries to be concilatory, the more arrogant he appears. It's got nothing to do with PTSD.
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Barack_America Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 09:56 AM
Response to Original message
8. Or it could just be a temper. Still a valid campaign issue.
By all accounts, he wasn't exactly a sweetheart before he was a POW.
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onenote Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 10:46 AM
Response to Original message
10. why is it so obviously PTSD?
LBJ had a famous temper. Was that PTSD too?
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Occam Bandage Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 10:48 AM
Response to Original message
11. Why drag PTSD into his anger issues? Can't a guy just be angry?
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niyad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 11:47 AM
Response to Original message
12. why should mccain's military service be off-limits as a campaign issue--no other
candidate's service, or lack thereof, ever has been. why should his time be sacrasanct?
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LeftyMom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 11:52 AM
Response to Original message
13. Why does he need to be mentally ill instead of a garden variety asshole?
:shrug:
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blondeatlast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 11:56 AM
Response to Reply #13
15. Exactly; and everyone can relate, we all know people like that.
Yours is the best approach; his anger is an issue to be certain but we need to be practical in how we approach it.
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cbayer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 11:55 AM
Response to Original message
14. I think it is unwise to make psychiatric diagnoses
if you are not a mental health professional and unethical to make them if you are but have never examined the person in question.
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Overseas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 11:57 AM
Response to Original message
16. PTSD garners more sympathy-- an affliction obtained due to serving in the military
Edited on Mon Jun-30-08 11:57 AM by Overseas
I don't think his anger is the mysteriously turbulent middle of the night terrors of PTSD. His anger seems more like angry rich guy stuff -- when son and grandson of Admirals and husband of heiress John Sidney McCain III doesn't get his way.
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TBF Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jun-30-08 12:12 PM
Response to Original message
17. His temper should be a campaign issue; how he got the temper is up to the experts.
Obama would be crucified for making a mental health diagnosis - this is a bad idea. But question his temper in general, yes I'm with you on that. Hopefully Obama will find a way to set him off during the debates. If done carefully that could be big fun.
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