McCain is a lousy campaigner, has a massive ego that he cannot hide, and has a hair trigger temper.

In other words, McCain is the fighter jock and has most of the characteristics of your normal fighter pilot.

so whatever they do, the Democrats must not field a candidate who is seen by many (rightly or wrongly) to be less independent of thought, less principled or cut more of the establishment cloth from which American voters of both parties are demanding change. They mustn’t, in other words, choose Hillary.

Yeah, that's basically what I've been saying for the last year. Maybe the last four years.

The Democrat presidential selection process with its proportional representation offset by nearly 800 superdelegates lends itself peculiarly to selecting candidates who couldn't win the general election and convincing party regulars that he or she is the best of all possible candidates.

Therefore, whomever will “run against McCain” is still in for a bit of a bruising in the intramural leagues since it sounds like the primaries are shaping up to be quite even. The fight goes to the convention and the battle for superdelegates.

I read that and said “huh?”.

If you want to claim his greatest strength is the perception of his character I might be willing to go along.

But his actual character? That's laughable.

Occaisionally McCain has talked the talk, but when it comes to actually voting in the senate?

Not so much.