McCain, Temperment and Judges

George Will express some doubt about McCain’s reaction to the Paulson buyout scheme:

Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

Judicial appointments aren’t something we’ve heard a lot about in this campaign, but Will is exactly right: the next president is going to radically reshape the Supreme Court. In all the ways that I think a McCain administration could be a disaster for our country, his influence long after his time in office would rest on the appointments he would make. Will rightly decries McCain’s “boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes,” an incredibly dangerous combination in anyone, let along someone as important as the President of the United States.

A lot of the problems with George W. Bush have flowed from a very similar source. McCain, like Bush, has a rigid worldview that depicts himself, and those who follow him, as being morally pure, no matter what they actually do, and those who work against them as more than simply misguided on policy. Opponents aren’t merely misguided – their opposition is morally corrupt.

As long as McCain was in the senate, in a safe seat, it didn’t matter what kinds of random moralistic quests he undertook. Even if he was wrong (as he almost invariably was), his ability to actually affect change was severely limited. McCain seems wholly disinterested in the actually process of governing – despite his extremely long tenure in national government, his actual list of accomplishments is fairly paltry. Placing a man like this in the executive branch – especially a branch strengthened beyond all reason by Bush – is a scary thought.

Will is talking about how McCain’s worldview would affect the temperament judicial nominees, but you can see this tendency all over McCain’s campaign, especially this week with their was against the New York Times and Ben Smith personally. These are not people who are able or willing to deal with criticism, contradiction or even oversight. If you know in your heart of hearts that you’re right, throwing a few lies around to help out the greater good (or a few wars) isn’t that big a jump.

The whole thing just underscores how dramatically wrong the standard read on John McCain was, and just how much his personality and temperament make him unsuitable for the job that he’s trying so hard to get.