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McCain's Temper
Sneaks Out Again
Or: Tweak Me Out To The Ball Game
5-9-8
 
 
(Image: Jeff Chiu - AP. May 4, 2008. Phoenix. washingtonpost.com)
 
 
Going back a few weeks, the topic of McCain's temper briefly grabbed the spotlight before being quickly shooed away.
 
I'm not saying that anger comes into play in this shot from Monday's WAPO Day In Photos. What I feel the photo does demonstrate, however, is an intensity or an emotional ferocity to the man -- his affective thermostat fixed in a range most Americans might want to think twice or three times about before trusting McCain with more than a bag of peanuts.
 
From the caption, we know that McCain is attending an Arizona - NY baseball game; that he's among fellow Arizona fans; and that he's standing beside the team CEO, Jeff Moorad. From the image, combined with previous observation, I draw at least two conclusions about McCain's wiring, one having to do with emotional intensity, the other having to do with reactivity and its effect on the ability to process and respond to more complex emotional situations.
 
If you compare McCain's reaction to every other fan in the photo (considering both the tonal and gestural response of the crowd, and in particular, the five, maybe six people we can clearly make out), it is exponentially more intense.
 
I can't say if the excitement of competition is what lights his fire, or what, but you can't find another emotional display here that is even close (except, perhaps in that arm, lower right, with the wrist watch). What it reflects -- echoed in interpersonal allusions in McCain's self-described history, as well as the oscillation in his patience on the campaign trail -- is the degree to which Mac is susceptible to intense emotional surges.
 
What is just as interesting, however, is what I describe as McCain's emotional reactivity. What I'm referring to is not just the intensity of the response but also its speed, and how much that, too, differs from the crowd's.
 
What I mean is, if you study the other people in the photo, what you encounter are emotional reactions that are more complex and nuanced. If you had to generalize, you could say they combine at least two different attributes, the first being approval and pleasure over what's happening on the field, but second, and the more prevalent one, a more open-ended curiosity, inquisitiveness and concern for what continues to unfold in front of them.
 
What scares me about McCain is not just the intensity of his emotions, but how their escalation is often based on snap- emotionally-based reactions to situations that are inherently more enduring and complicated.
 
Taking the picture as a modeling exercise, I'd feel a whole lot safer with a Commander-in-Chief more representative of the guy in the Hawaiian-looking shirt, the man in the red shirt, the lady in the turquoise and the white-haired guy to her right. What you get in that package is a candidate with more awareness in the moment; more feeling informed by thought; more sustained attention; greater inquisitiveness; and more recognition of a larger picture.
 
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