John McCain appears to be a high-stakes gambler

Josh Marshall asks - is John McCain a compulsive high-stakes gambler? Consider his recent choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, his effort to position himself to "save" New Orleans if Gustav devastates it, and his decision to effectively redesign and restart the Republican convention over this weekend - all are high stakes gambles based on limited information.

Josh presents the events, sees a potential pattern, and summarizes like this:

in each of these cases you do have a pattern of high stakes gambles, with limited information available to make a reasoned decision and a pattern developing of an erratic style of leadership lurching from one crisis to the next.

"Erratic" is a good word for it. And McCain does appear to have a life-long pattern of compulsive high-stakes decision-making.

So if he is President, he would always need someone advising him to slow down and not start a war, which he would resent. Then he would make the decision in secret, as he did with the Sarah Palin decision, and spring it on everyone.

That's not someone we want as President.