Two quotes. One:
“[George W. Bush] doesn’t second-guess himself,” Jim Francis, a longtime friend from Texas, told me. “I second-guess myself all the time Maybe I shouldn’t have done this or that.’ He just doesn’t have that in him. I have never seen him do that. I think it gives him a comfort level in that office that others have not had.”
The selection [of Palin] was the culmination of a five-month process, described by Mr. McCain’s inner circle and outside advisers in interviews this past weekend, and offers a glimpse into how Mr. McCain might make high-stakes decisions as president.
At the very least, the process reflects Mr. McCain’s history of making fast, instinctive and sometimes risky decisions. “I make them as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can,” Mr. McCain wrote, with his top adviser Mark Salter, in his 2002 book, “Worth the Fighting For.” “Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint.”