In 1993, the Boston Globe reported that McCain "came across the Senate floor and, while mocking Ted Kennedy, told him to 'shut up,' according to observers in the chamber. "A stunned Kennedy returned the comment, telling McCain to 'shut up' and 'act like a senator.'"
Dan Schnur says he thinks the temper issue has faded: "He's had six years of practice. In 1999 the attention crashed down on us like a ton of bricks. It came out of nowhere, and there was no preparation for it. He's had that level of attention now for seven years, which makes me suspect that his temperament isn't going to be nearly as much of an issue this time as last. "But there's a flip side to that," Schnur adds. "He traveled on that bus for months with four or five reporters, and one of the nice things about starting slow is you get to try out your act Off Broadway. There's no Off Broadway over the next two years. It's all spotlight. An offhand remark in 1999 vanishes without a trace. In 2007 it's on cable television for three weeks."
If JFK could keep his marital affairs from harming his job, then McCain can probably find a way to keep his anger from harming the job. He tells people that he is going to blow off steam, and make a decision latter (however is their evidence that McCain sees his anger as a problem? No, he says he is just passionate).
From what I can tell, McCain's temper is not so much worse than that of many other politicians I have known, from Rudy Giuliani to Bill Clinton.
He no longer calls reporters "liars" and "idiots," as he once did, when he was starting out in politics in Arizona.
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