John McCain admits that he struggles "to keep that emotional range as narrow as possible," meaning he tries to keep his famous temper under control, at least in public. That may require some additional effort these days, for my well-earned cynicism tells me that his Republican presidential pal is now either playing favorites or is trying to torpedo any Republican successor. To wit ...
Not even Herbert Hoover was as openly pessimistic about the economy as George Bush was yesterday, who conceded to a group of fellow plutocrats that "jobs are growing at a slower pace," that he just noticed we face "economic challenges," that "recent economic indicators have become increasingly mixed," and that "many Americans are anxious about" the snowballing mess.
The assembled plutocrats already knew this, of course, as did those many angst-ridden Americans, but for a sitting president to publicly cast doom in a transitional election year on an economy he helped create is, in my memory, unprecedented. Hence the cynicism: The little creep must be up to something of skulduggery dimensions. Simple honesty and transparency are beyond his grasp.
Which directs our attention to possible scenario #1 -- that Bush is playing favorites, and that his favorite is Mitt Romney.
Pop already hosted Mitt for his "Faith in America" speech that reframed the Founders' insights on freedom and religion, so there seems to already exist some familial affection for the religious scholar and abominable historian as would-be president.
But talk of a tanking economy provides a more pragmatic and politically oriented basis for Pop's son to suddenly play favorites, however subtly. And lo and behold, the talk just happened to arrive virtually on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, in which Mitt is widely forecast to bomb out.
Any redirection of Republicans and independents' attention away from national security and terrorism -- McCain's twin towers of public acclaim -- and toward the nation's troubled economic machinery can only benefit Mitt, that grizzled business executive without any foreign policy portfolio. Any pol who can turn a city's Olympics around! -- well, now there's a cool-headed man for a bumbling economy of trillions.
Time magazine's David Von Drehle has remarked on the perplexity of Mitt's failed mission among Republican voters; that the enthusiastic supply-sider has "Filled up the dish, put it on the floor, and the dog just won't eat it." But perhaps if the chief supply-sider himself starts ringing the bells of alarm, those voters will soon find it's a necessary case of bon appétit.
That, anyway, is my theory #1 behind yesterday's bizarre confession of a dangerous mind.
The other is one I've suggested before: that the very last person George W. Bush wants to see in the White House come 2009 is one with an "R" before his name.
Such a partisan ascension would provide ideological and policy continuity, and that is scarcely in Bush's legacy interests when the walls of Baghdad start tumbling down, as, in time, they surely will. A reasonable argument can be made that the president would much prefer that a Democrat ride into office and start antagonistically tampering with the Middle East paradise that Bush will later claim he left intact. Oh, if only those irresponsible Dems had left well enough alone.
And what better way to boost that Democrat's electoral prospects than to suggest doom for the economy, which already, according to polls, overshadows the electorate's concerns about Iraq?
Either way -- whether Bush is pimping for Mitt, or, alternatively, greasing the skids for Democrats -- the president's Cassandra speech of yesterday seemed suspiciously timed. And both propositions seemed to be aimed with some hostility right at McCain.
Nevertheless, for the next 12 hours McCain's bigger headache is no Republican. It's Barack Obama and his independent appeal, which could siphon off the Arizonan's poll-indicated margin of victory in New Hampshire.
But I'd wager that McCain momentarily was left fuming anyway, struggling to keep a lid on his temper. For it no longer appears that his pal George is quite as independent as are those deciding John's future today.