John McCain in Iowa: "Irritable," "sarcastic"
(UPDATE BELOW)
The Ticket already has expressed its wonderment about John McCain's excursion this week to Iowa -- a state that isn't all that critical to his White House hopes to begin with and where the Barack Obama tilt seems fairly pronounced.
We assumed McCain and his handlers had their reasons, and more than likely they were very good ones. Still, in the wake of the attention that a McCain Q & A at the Des Moines Register is getting, we can't help but wonder if he now rues his stop in the proverbial heartland.
Mike Glover, the longtime Iowa-based correspondent for the Associated Press, filed this take on the session:
Republican presidential candidate John McCain, once renowned for his jocular sessions with journalists, appeared irritable and at times sarcastic in an interview in which he defended running mate Sarah Palin's experience and campaign ads critical of rival Barack Obama.
And, of course, a "greatest hits" version of the interview quickly surfaced on YouTube:
The entire encounter, a little less than an hour in length, can be viewed here, courtesy of the Iowa newspaper.
(UPDATE: Mike Murphy, one-time ace Republican political operative who now blogs for Time magazine, related today that The Ticket was not alone in its quizzical reaction to McCain's mere presence in Iowa. Check out his posting here.)
-- Don Frederick
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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JohnnyM doesn't like it when he doesn't get softball questions like on Faux Newz.
Posted by: Joe Momma | October 01, 2008 at 01:09 PM
He would not be a good president. At one time I thought he would, but he doesn't have the emotional control of a true leader.
Posted by: Jon K. | October 01, 2008 at 01:23 PM
Is the grumpy old man losing his bearings?
Posted by: beevee | October 01, 2008 at 01:31 PM
McCain calmly answers hostile questions from obviously biased reporters. This just makes me like McCain more.
Posted by: Kevin | October 01, 2008 at 01:42 PM
Wow, who's the grumpy man in the morning?
I guess even presidential candidates are entitled to have bad days, but I think the sarcasm was taking it too far; at least smile when you are going to be snotty!
Posted by: China | October 01, 2008 at 06:39 PM
At the beginning of this interview, in regards to the failed bailout legislation, John McCain says, "If I were a dictator as I've always aspired to be, I would write it differently."
WHAAAAT!? Is this guy completely off his rocker? We just went through this with Bush. NOT AGAIN!!! NOOOO!!!
Posted by: Andrew | October 01, 2008 at 06:44 PM