Will Tonight Be McCain's Last Emotional Straw?

Years ago I spent a fall season raising what's come to be known as filthy PAC money for a Democratic Congressional candidate whose campaign manager hid the true, internal polling numbers from him, since the candidate was a locally popular but blue -- pale blue -- man in one of the reddest districts in America.

Which is to say he consistently trailed by several points, which naturally depressed him but also made him visibly morose. And a morose candidate is not the ideal candidate to have on the stump.

So the manager simply started lying to his boss, telling him everything was just fine, the numbers looked good, etc., etc. It helped (but not quite enough).

It was an act of tactical mercy on the campaign manager's part, and perhaps it's time for Steve Schmidt and Rick Davis to follow that lead. Because John McCain now looks so desperately pathetic, one almost feels sorry for him.

There's no question about it: He's been studying the downward internals, which have caused him to withdraw into a most unappealing state of brooding crankiness -- and it shows. Boy, does it show.

Something has got to be coming to an emotional head, I'd say. In fact I'll predict, with absolutely no psychiatric training whatsoever, that our Republican Rambo will soon make our day in a rather explosive way, if I may mix cinematic metaphors.

Simply put, this guy is about to blow.

Sometimes the symptoms are palpable, such as his bizarre demonstration of inexcusable testiness with the Des Moines Register's editorial board yesterday (video here, if you've the time and stomach). And sometimes they're more subtle, such as after last night's historic "bailout" vote. Reports the New York Times this morning: "The political tension was clear as Senator Barack Obama walked to the Republican side of the aisle to greet Senator John McCain, who offered a chilly look…."

A chilly look? McCain should have been delighted that the damn thing was finally behind him and he can now go about twisting its true intent and demagoguing the bejesus out of it. (Indeed, prior to the vote, while McCain was running around in support of the bill he also had the Republican National Committee running a television ad attacking Obama's support of it. Yes, honor. Always honor.)

For some unfathomable reason, McCain had already decided to launch into an uncharacteristically rational, bipartisan mode and speak out and vote for the bill, which shows you just how discombobulated the strategic mindset has become around the campfire at the old McCain ranch. What in hell were they thinking?

The "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008" could have been, from the get-go, McCain's Emergency Political Stabilization Act. He could have been turning all those ideologically rigid or reality-defying, low-information voters into high-yield support, all along.

But the poor man is so depressed and angry -- this calamitous economy has his polling numbers plunging like the Dow -- he's just not thinking straight, if he's thinking at all. And, as I said, it shows.

Things have got so bad, reports the Politico, that "leading Republican activists around the country [are] worrying about his prospects and urging his campaign to become much more aggressive against Barack Obama." The panic is spreading, and these "leading activists" no longer mind saying so publicly.

What's more, they've abundant, quite legitimate and nearly incomprehensible cause for concern. Something just ain't clickin' at the McCain camp.

Remember that Des Moines Register interview I mentioned? Well, there sat McCain, with only a month to go, in state where Obama has held a double-digit lead for weeks. One would think this is early 2007, not Sept-Oct, 2008. Hence the Politico asked one "veteran Republican" why McCain was even in Iowa. "Because he’s running a senseless, non-strategic campaign," was the answer. "Why else would he come here?"

You got me. But I do know (strike that -- strongly suspect) that McCain is showing every emotional sign that he's about to crack, big time. The steady nerve of his Navy-pilot youth is gone, it's shot, and the loss is affecting his behavior.

I recall once reading the humorous insights of a WWII fighter pilot who later became a Madison Avenue adman. The pressure on him was unbearable, and, like McCain, it showed. His daughter finally asked him, "Daddy, how could you have battled all those deadly Germans in the unforgiving air with such steely calm and resolve, and now crack under this?" His answer: "Because those Messerschmidt pilots weren't trying to steal my accounts."

Or an election that McCain seems to believe he's entitled to win?

For some of us, age and experience have a way of reconcentrating the mind on critical matters at critical junctures. But McCain just doesn't seem capable of that. If anything, his experience -- or experiences -- seems to be unnerving him. He flusters. He complains. He … panics.

That's odd for an old pilot. Adversity seems to be weakening him rather than making him more calmly determined. At the very least it's unraveling him emotionally. And tonight's certain debacle -- my popcorn is purchased, how about yours? -- may finally cause him to blow.