As some of you know, I was not pleased with myself and decided to put my last post into mothballs.
Update (Sunday, October 12, 2008, 11:45 pm) – I promised to return and explain why. Ahem. Well here I am, and here goes.
I started my previous post with this:
No matter how hard he tries, Senator McCain can’t seem to disguise his contempt for archrival and nemesis, Barack HUSSEIN Obama. What is going on here? Is bizarre politicking a product of McCain’s handlers or a product of the candidate himself?
When the candidate says, “I approve this message,” this statement should not necessarily be taken at face value. Candidates take advice from handlers who craft messages, but candidates may not like what they approve. According to published accounts, operatives of Karl Rove have been managing McCain's campaign. What we perceive as bizarre politicking may not necessarily be the work of the candidate. It may be the work of handlers, or maybe a conflict between handlers and candidate. Since we cannot know for sure, my previous post started with a unwarranted assumption.
My second mistake is the false attribution of motive, namely McCain’s inability to make eye contact with his opponent during the first debate. I surmised anger and rage were motives. Here is what a recent visitor to our shores, Straight Talk on McCain, says (please refer to the comment section below):
Watching these videos, you start to get the feeling that even McCain might be starting to wonder, “What kind of monster have I created?” I wonder if McCain, when he is alone and being reflective, asks himself, “Are these people really supporting me because I have good policies, or because they’re racists, bigots, terrified because I have made them terrified because of what I’ve allowed to be said about Obama on my behalf, etc.” I wonder if deep down McCain isn’t just a bit saddened by what his supporters are doing and saying.
This too is a plausible explanation. Now, here comes the hard part: I leaped from an unwarranted assumption to a false attribution of motive to a definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) citing the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV) of the American Psychological Association. What followed were video clips and quotes to support this idea. In other words, a series of missteps. But the worst is this:
Let’s say a friend knocks on your door, saying: “I’m so uptight today, I can’t stand it.” So you retrieve a prescription bottle from your medicine cabinet, and say to your friend: “Here, take a Valium.” It is downright unethical and illegal to share prescription meds. In other words, don’t play doctor.
Similarly, don’t dabble in pop psychology. A differential diagnosis should only be determined by a trained, qualified, and licensed practitioner … and only after a face-to-face intake interview. Mistake number three.
By itself, narcissism is not a psychological disorder. All of us are narcissists to a degree ... it helps us maintain a healthy sense of self. Excessive, unrealistic narcissism becomes a disorder when it leads to impairment. Certainly, politicians must have a higher degree of narcissism to run for public office, and perhaps that is why we loathe them.
My last post was based on invalid constructs. I don’t blame myself for feeling outrage at the ugly turns of this campaign, but I do blame myself for having a blogger’s temper tantrum and allowing myself to lower standards.
Having made my peace, there is a sunken wreck somewhere in my neighborhood. Your humbled 8pus wants to go there and hide for awhile. I’ll come out later.
McCain seemed genuinely taken aback by some of the ignoramuses in his midst. It's good that he at least made an attempt to shut them up, but then he went and attacked John Lewis over what I thought was a perfectly apt description of what he and Palin have been up to. I suspect that he's made this tack towards moderation because he realizes Obama is going to say something unanswerable to him this Wednesday about all the trash he and Sarah P. have been talking. Might as well mince your words, I guess--makes them easier to swallow later on. But still, credit should be given where some is due.
ReplyDeleteWatching these videos, you start to get the feeling that even McCain might be starting to wonder, “What kind of monster have I created?” I wonder if McCain, when he is alone and being reflective, asks himself, “Are these people really supporting me because I have good policies, or because they’re racists, bigots, terrified because I have made them terrified because of what I’ve allowed to be said about Obama on my behalf, etc.” I wonder if deep down McCain isn’t just a bit saddened by what his supporters are doing and saying. http://straighttalkonmccain.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteBlogging Dino, I read about that attack on Lewis at the Huffington post, and I can't quite fathom the inconsistencies coming from his campaign. One theory posits that moderate Republicans are alarmed over the polarizing affect of his campaign.
ReplyDeleteLike the Smeagle character having an argument between self and soul, we keep hearing separate and distinct voices. Do you think McCain will try to bite Obama's ring finger next?
(o)ct(o)pus and straight talk,
ReplyDeleteYes, there may be an internal conflict -- I don't believe McCain is a racist and I don't think he's actually comfortable lying all the time. But he has been encouraging racists and lying through his teeth throughout the campaign. From someone like McCain, one expects courage and strength. What's depressing is that we aren't seeing it: he is allowing himself to be shape-shifted and shoved around by pollsters and advised by people so low they would get whiplash if they looked up to play handball on the curb. That's weak. He's doing it, I suppose, because this is the only chance he's ever going to get, given his age and health profile. And perhaps because he doesn't want to have to say to his Republican colleagues on Nov. 5, "I decided not to do everything I could to win because my personal honor was more important to me than saving your sorry hindquarters." One could, I suppose, view this abandonment of personal honor as a peculiar, perverse kind of strength: i.e. the strength to jettison or deprioritize everything that matters to you in the service of a larger cause. (Virgil's Aeneas, after all, abandons the Carthaginian Qeen Dido, whom he loves but who stands in his way as the founder of what will someday become "Rome." Dido is still not talking to him when he comes across her shade in the underworld. That's gotta hurt!) But victory without honor, and for no reason save victory, is hollow. McCain surely knows that. I will go back to thinking of him more kindly after Nov. 4, but for now I'm annoyed with what he is doing.
Finally, on assumptions about McCain not making eye contact and all that, I think it's pretty straightforward: McCain is an old military man; his i.d. is built around "strength and honor," as the Romans would say. Barack never served in the military; he's a young man who hasn't even been in the Senate very long, and here he is being accorded the nomination for president. I'm guessing McCain finds this whippersnapper just a wee bit contemptible and wonders how the hell the "Dummycrap Party" could possibly put such a child on the same stage as he occupies. Fundamentally, I just don't think McCain considers Obama a MAN. That's understandable given his background and age, but also, if it's the case, sort of an insult to millions of people who support Barack. We obviously see something in the candidate that McCain does not.