In the story Kathryn linked to, McCain said ““One of the things I would do if I were President would be to sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, ‘Stop the b******t.’” Does this remind anyone of Perot? I’ve long thought that McCain is a saner version of Perot, and sees himself in the same way as a Napoleonic “man on a horse.” Apart from the substance of his views, the degree to which this kind of personality attracts public support is an indicator of the health of republican self-government. I’m not optimistic.