In an article about Mark Salter, a man who has served John McCain in some capacity for 19 years and is considered his strongest loyalist, the Washington Post notes that Salter almost quit the McCain campaign in the dark days of summer 2007, but didn’t because of a strong talking-to from the candidate himself.
“Listen,” McCain finally said. “I’m dead man walking. I know it. I’m dead man walking. I’m going to lose this campaign [for the nomination]. . . . But I’m going to get up and work hard every day until it’s over. Every day. That’s what I’m going to do. So tell me something: Why are you acting like such a [wimp]?”
Hmmm, what do you think [wimp] replaces in that sentence?