McCain getting "testy" over Social Security tax increase flip-flop

Bloomberg:

Getting Testy

The tax-benefit dilemma has not only thrown McCain into rhetorical contortions, it's also caused him to get testy when pressed to explain.

During a campaign bus ride last week in Missouri, a reporter said his July 27 comment presumably meant McCain wasn't ruling out raising taxes.

``That's presuming wrong,'' McCain said in cutting him off, according to the Washington Post.

Still, he has a history of being open to new Social Security taxes.

In a ``Meet the Press'' interview in 2005, McCain unequivocally endorsed the idea of levying such taxes on high- income earners, saying he could support that ``as part of a compromise.''

There are a number of problems here for McCain. First, the story is far from over - the media keeps revisiting McCain's flip flop partly because McCain himself hasn't put the controversy to rest - would he or would he not consider raising taxes to fix Social Security? Second, there's the issue of McCain's temper. McCain has a notoriously bad temper, leading some GOP senators to suggest that he'd be a bad president. Every time McCain loses his temper, and every time a reporter notes it, that only helps Obama.