For those wanting a peek into the inner workings of the McCain bid for the presidency, Jason Zengerle of The New Republic picks the totally unnerving analogy of a campaign dealing with its own unresolved ‘daddy issues’:

Indeed, it’s precisely the passion McCain’s advisers feel for him that causes them to fight with one another. Less a politician captaining a team of rivals than a patriarch presiding over a brood of squabbling children vying for Daddy’s affection, McCain has built a political family that has served him well enough to carry him to the threshold of the White House. But now, as that family tries to carry McCain over that threshold, the animosities within McCainland continue to persist. And, as much as ever, they have the potential to violently erupt.

And as long as we’re exploring the wild twists and turns that make up the psychology of McCain and his campaign, here’s an unrelated moment from a casino craps table, courtesy of Connie Bruck’s fantastic piece on McCain for The New Yorker:

McCain is an avid gambler. Wes Gullett, a close friend who worked for McCain for years, told me that they used to play craps in Las Vegas in fourteen-hour stints, standing at the tables from 10 a.m. to midnight. “Craps is addictive,” McCain remarked, and he headed for the fifteen-dollar-minimum-bet tables. At the most obvious level, the game is incredibly simple—players rotate turns throwing the dice, and you either win or lose depending on what number comes up. But McCain’s betting formula makes it much more complicated. “Uh-oh!” he cried, as a player accidentally threw the dice off the table. “This is a very, very superstitious game,” he said. When his turn came to throw the dice, he picked them up and blew on them first. He had placed chips on the number 5, so (envisioning a combination of 2 and 3) he called, “Michael Jordan! Michael Jordan!”

No matter what happens in November, we are in for a seriously interesting four years.