Could the World Survive John McCain's Temper?

If he swears at his own Republcan Senate colleagues, could he make a cautious and reasoned decision about dropping nuclear bombs on Iran?

Today, the Washington Post explores the question of whether it would be dangerous to elect John McCain president because of his explosive and sometimes uncontrollable temper.

[O]ver the years, no one has written more intimately about McCain's outbursts than McCain himself. "My temper has often been both a matter of public speculation and personal concern," he wrote in a 2002 memoir. "I have a temper, to state the obvious, which I have tried to control with varying degrees of success because it does not always serve my interest or the public's."

That temper has followed him throughout his life, McCain acknowledges. He recalls in his writings how, as a toddler, he sometimes held his breath and fainted during moments of fury. As the son of a naval officer who was on his way to becoming a four-star admiral, McCain found himself frequently uprooted and enrolled in new schools, where, as an underappreciated outsider, he developed "a little bit of a chip on my shoulder," as he recalled this month.

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"As a young man, I would respond aggressively and sometimes irresponsibly to anyone who I perceived to have questioned my sense of honor and self-respect. Those responses often got me in a fair amount of trouble earlier in life." McCain: A Question of Temperament

Whoaooooooooo now! Should a nuclear super-power elect a hot head who can't control his temper and who overreacts and personalizes slights?

Former senator Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican, expresses worries about McCain: "His temper would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind, it should disqualify him." McCain: A Question of Temperament

The Washington Post retells one of many documented accounts of John McCain getting into fist fights, or nearly so, with lawmakers of his own party, who mostly vote like he does in the U.S. Congress.

John McCain cupped a fist and began pumping it, up and down, along the side of his body. It was a gesture familiar to a participant in the closed-door meeting of the Senate committee who hoped that it merely signaled, as it sometimes had in the past, McCain's mounting frustration with one of his colleagues.

But when McCain leaned toward Charles E. Grassley and slowly said, "My friend . . ." it seemed clear that ugliness was looming: While the plural "my friends" was usually a warm salutation from McCain, "my friend" was often a prelude to his most caustic attacks. Grassley, an Iowa Republican with a reputation as an unwavering legislator, calmly held his ground. McCain became angrier, his fist pumping even faster.

It was early 1992, and the occasion was an informal gathering of a select committee investigating lingering issues about Vietnam War prisoners and those missing in action, most notably whether any American servicemen were still being held by the Vietnamese. It is unclear precisely what issue set off McCain that day. But at some point, he mocked Grassley to his face and used a profanity to describe him. Grassley stood and, according to two participants at the meeting, told McCain, "I don't have to take this. I think you should apologize."

In the video above, we have reports of John McCain calling a Republican Senate colleague "chickenshit" and saying, "Fuck you! I know more about [immigration reform] than anyone else in this room. This type of speech toward elected officials used to decorum has led to more than one fist-fight or near fist fight in the US Senate. So, what would it lead to between John McCain's country and countries like Venezuela, Cuba, Iran and even France? Can we really afford the civilian death toll of World War III?