Edwin E. Smith writes…
While I wouldn't base my vote on who is funnier, I think you can draw some conclusions about a person from their sense of humor. The comparison to picking a cute doctor versus a competent one is not entirely applicable. For one thing a sense of humor (in my opinion) is a sign of intelligence. I'm sure there are geniuses and savants with little or no sense of humor, but within the normal scope of human intelligence, my funniest friends are invariably the ones with the sharper sense of humor as well. And the second thing I think makes a sense of humor relevant is if McCain thinks "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" is howlingly funny, to me that is a pretty good indication he is out to lunch.
Kennedy was fairly amusing, Nixon not so much, and I do think that what we laugh at says a lot about us as people.
Well, I've spent much of my life around some very funny people, including a number of comedians who are usually described with the adjective, "legendary." I disagree that a sense of humor is a sign of intelligence…or at least that it's usually a sign of intelligence. Even then, there are all kinds of intelligence. It's possible to be utterly brilliant at playing the clarinet but unable to balance your checkbook. It's possible to be very, very smart at math and very, very stupid about people.
I would also suggest that what passes for a sense of humor in a politician is often the skill of a good joke-writer on the payroll. An office-seeker doesn't have to be funny too often to get the reputation we're talking about here. It can be attained with a few good lines in speeches (scripted by others) and a few softball talk show interviews where the host obligingly sets up planned punch lines or the politician's writers predict accurately what will be asked.
Actually, I think McCain has been pretty funny on some shows, and a lot of it has seemed spontaneous to me. I don't think that makes him more or less qualified for high office. Jokes like the one you cite, however, demonstrate a serious lack of basic judgment. One of the most important things to understand about comedy is that it's often a function of time and place and of who says it. The "bomb Iran" lyric was kinda funny when The Capitol Steps did it years ago. It's just not that funny coming from a guy who might someday be in a position to actually bomb Iran or to influence the decision to do that. It was also scary that he seems to have just blurted it out on a whim without thinking. In the days to come, we're going to hear more about McCain's temper and impulsiveness.
Really, I can think of plenty of people I've encountered who were very funny and maybe even pretty smart about some things. They might even share enough of your life style and opinions that you'd think, "Hey, he's one of us." But if you put them behind the desk in the Oval Office, it would literally mean the end of civilization. They'd have us in a nuclear war faster than you could tell a knock-knock joke.