Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and diehard conservative George Will used to be one of John McCain’s biggest fans – but the times have changed, and Will has had enough.

A week ago, the Princeton alumnus was defending the Republican presidential hopeful against critics who felt he was going “too far” with his Barack Obama attack advertisements, but this week, he’s joining the anti-McCain camp and questioning the self-proclaimed maverick’s readiness to lead.

In a column published in The Washington Post entitled “McCain Loses His Head,” Will writes:

Under the pressure of the financial crisis, one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama.

 

[…] But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

 

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

A rhetorical question – to be sure, but Will appears certain that the answer is a resounding ‘no’.

And so, with November drawing near, McCain’s once-staunch supporters appear to be exiting his camp in droves.

Will this mass exodus cost him the election? [Hint: Yes.]