McCain on the stump.

Not a pretty picture.

CONCORD, N.H. -- When Jean Diamond asked Sen. John McCain a polite but tough question about federal spending last weekend, McCain turned churlish.

"I'm not getting anything I really need and my grandchildren are getting saddled with $9 trillion in debt," said Diamond, a Keene retiree. "Why should I vote Republican?"

Because, McCain replied, Democrats have also voted to increase federal spending.

"Maybe," the Arizona Republican suggested, "you should vote for the vegetarians."...

...What may have been seen as feistiness and a penchant for sardonic humor six years ago when he vaulted into national political prominence, is now sometimes regarded as a tendency to be testy and arrogant. Some Democrats who once found him so refreshing are now charging him with blind loyalty to the GOP. Republican conservatives, long suspicious of McCain's maverick tendencies, are demanding proof he's loyal to their pet causes.

I don't intend to let up on him, but it is possible that McCain's own uncontrollable temper will turn out to be the worst enemy of his political ambition.