As Barack Obama gets the attention of the world - and the media - John McCain is utterly freaking out. First Read puts it as gently as possible:

Problematic body language: Sometimes body language can tell you a lot. And the body language coming from the McCain campaign -- as Obama continues his overseas trip -- doesn’t look too pretty right now. Let us count the ways:  It has aired its first two negative TV ads of general election, one of which (on energy) was panned by virtually every media outlet for being factually incorrect. It later sent the press on what appears to be a wild goose VP chase, when it leaked to Bob Novak that a veep decision could be coming this week (and now even Novak admits that he might have been used). Next came the McCain Web video blasting the media’s attention on Obama, as well as those luggage tags calling the reporters who have followed McCain for much of this election the “JV Squad” while others are covering Obama overseas; the other side of the luggage tag was in French with a beret-wearing guy pouring wine. (Side thought: Why does McCain think belittling his own press corps is a good idea? But we digress…) And then yesterday came McCain’s line that “Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign” -- language that spurred veteran journalist Joe Klein to wonder whether McCain “has the right temperament for the presidency.” McCain told CBS’s Katie Couric last night, “I relish [being] the underdog.” Did the McCain campaign push the candidate into this mode because they are obsessing SO MUCH over winning and losing daily news cycles? What happened to the happy warrior?

McCain is only truly "happy" when the media is showering him with adulation - otherwise his "happiness" turns to rage.

It's the same with his wives - just ask wife #2, Cindy:

Three reporters from Arizona, on the condition of anonymity, also let me in on another incident involving McCain's intemperateness. In his 1992 Senate bid, McCain was joined on the campaign trail by his wife, Cindy, as well as campaign aide Doug Cole and consultant Wes Gullett. At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt." McCain's excuse was that it had been a long day. If elected president of the United States, McCain would have many long days.

John McCain not only expects adulation, he demands it. And if he doesn't get the adulation he demands, he gets angry - explosively angry.

Isn't that just the guy we want to have with his finger on all of our nuclear bombs?

Update 1: After Nouri al Maliki nuked campaign issue #1 for McCain - the need to keep U.S. troops in Iraq forever - McCain quickly embraced a brand new issue #1 - that he was "Right on The Surge."

Of course his claim includes a Big Fat Lie that "The Surge" produced the "Anbar Awakening," which actually started in September 2006, 4 months before Bush announced "The Surge" in January 2007.

But if McCain's whole campaign is now based on a claim of tactical brilliance, that claim of "brilliance" was nuked by his tactic of goading Obama into visiting Iraq, which morphed into Obama's massively successful World Tour.

It's now crystal clear that a McCain presidency would be exactly like Bush's in every way - including the dismal fact that everything he touches will turn to shit.