McCain: The Myth of a Maverick

New
Hardcover
2008
$17.97

John McCain is one of the most familiar, sympathetic, and overexposed figures in American politics, yet his concrete governing philosophy and actual track record have been left curiously unexamined. This is in no small part due to the dazzling distractions in his life story, but also because of his ingenious strategy of talking ad infinitum to anyone who was interested in listening. The more he has spouted, the fewer people have bothered trying to see through the fog. In McCain, journalist and pundit Matt Welch gives us what we've always wanted but can't find - a flesh-and-bones political portrait of a man onto whom people are forever projecting their own ideological fantasies. Welch provides the key for decoding McCain's allegedly 'maverick' actions, and the first realistic assessment of what a John McCain presidency may look like. McCain quickly lays out in overlapping detail the root cause of the senator's worldview: his personal transformation from spoiled, underachieving punk to war hawk coattail rider. As McCain wrenches himself inside-out in pursuit of the prize that eluded him in 2000, Matt Welch takes an investigative look behind the war hero, behind the maverick reformer, behind the man who could be president to reveal to Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike an unbiased picture of the 'straight talking' Maverick. It is time we knew the real McCain.

Synopsis

John McCain is one of the most familiar, sympathetic, and overexposed figures in American politics, yet his concrete governing philosophy and actual track record have been left curiously unexamined. This is in no small part due to the dazzling distractions in his life story, but also because of his ingenious strategy of talking ad infinitum to anyone who was interested in listening. The more he has spouted, the fewer people have bothered trying to see through the fog. In McCain, journalist and pundit Matt Welch gives us what we've always wanted but can't find - a flesh-and-bones political portrait of a man onto whom people are forever projecting their own ideological fantasies. Welch provides the key for decoding McCain's allegedly 'maverick' actions, and the first realistic assessment of what a John McCain presidency may look like. McCain quickly lays out in overlapping detail the root cause of the senator's worldview: his personal transformation from spoiled, underachieving punk to war hawk coattail rider. As McCain wrenches himself inside-out in pursuit of the prize that eluded him in 2000, Matt Welch takes an investigative look behind the war hero, behind the maverick reformer, behind the man who could be president to reveal to Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike an unbiased picture of the 'straight talking' Maverick. It is time we knew the real McCain.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 01 May 2008
ISBN 10: 0230603963
ISBN 13: 9780230603967

Media Reviews

'If the world doesn't know who Republican presidential nominee John McCain is as yet, it certainly will do whatever happens in the US elections on 4th November. Welch, editor of Reason Magazine, has produced a sober-minded biography that uncovers the 71-year-old Arizona senator's political life and the beliefs that could soon make him the most powerful man in the world.' -- The Big Issue 'How the journalistic elite got taken for a ride on the Straight Talk Express is one of the revelatory sagas of modern-day Washington. Matt Welch has the audacity to think that John McCain's views matter, not only his legends, and he smokes out McCain with gusto. You don't have to follow him every inch of the way into libertarian politics - as I do not - to be dazzled by the light he casts on a telling tragedy of American politics.' - Todd Gitlin, author of The Bulldozer and the Big Tent: Blind Republicans, Lame Democrats, and the Recovery of American Ideals 'John McCain's love affair with the news media is a decade old. But McCain makes clear that that love affair is over.' - Glenn Reynolds, author of An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths, and blogger at Instapundit Praise for Matt Welch's Op-Ed piece on John McCain in the Los Angeles Times, Do We Really Need Another T.R.? : 'I hope a lot of Americans read Matt Welch's definitive LAT editorial on the subject of McCain's political philosophy... [I]t should be a reputation-maker for Welch.' - Colby Cosh, columnist for Canada's National Post 'Congratulations to the LAT's Matt Welch for this morning's penetrating column on John McCain...Listen up, pundits. Matt Welch has sent you a signal. It won't kill you to look into the mind of the desert angel and see what he thinks.' -Todd Gitlin, author of The Intellectuals and the Flag 'The redoubtable Matt Welch does the unconscionable today: he writes an op-ed for the LA Times in which he examines John McCain's actual views on the issues...Hear hear...[McCain's] flip-flops get a lot of attention mainly because they're easy to find and satisfying to point out. Actually looking past his occasionally 'maverick' views is far more important.' - Kevin Drum, The Washington Monthly 'Matt Welch of the Los Angeles Times does a significant public service in exposing John McCain's intrusive, statist agenda.' - Doug Bandow, author of Foreign Follies: America's New Global Empire 'Kudos to Matt Welch for managing to reveal some truths about St. McCain without falling into the usual trap of trying to argue about where he actually fits on the imaginary political spectrum and instead just telling us what the dude thinks about things.' - Duncan Black, proprietor of the Eschaton (Atrios) blog '[A]n astute analysis.' - Joel Connolly, Seattle Post-Intelligencer 'Great op-ed by Matt Welch on what John McCain actually thinks about the world.' - Matthew Yglesias, The American Prospect 'Matt Welch, now with the Los Angeles Times, perspicaciously sizes up everyone's favorite politician - especially given that no one seems to actually care about his political beliefs - Sen. John McCain. [...] [R]ead the whole thing, before this whole 'McCain for President' thing goes too far.' - Brian Dohery, Reason

Author Bio

MATT WELCH is the Assistant Editorial Pages Editor of the Los Angeles Times. From 2002 to 2005 he was an Associate Editor at Reason Magazine, where he wrote a regular column and he was the American politics columnist for Canada's National Post from 2001 to 2004. His work has appeared in such politically diverse outlets as Salon.com, the American Spectator, AlterNet, the Orange County Register, and the Columbia Journalism Review. Welch also maintains a popular weblog at mattwelch.com. He lives in Los Angeles.