Ticket video chat: Matt Welch on 'McCain: The Myth of a Maverick' -- III

This is Part III of The Ticket's new series of video chats with people in or around politics. We're talking with Matt Welch, a former Times writer whose previous Times work can be read here.

His new book is on Sen. John McCain, the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican Party. It's not a biography so much as an exploration of the independent persona we've all come to know.

Today, Welch describes how he discovered the inner McCain and his almost imperialistic views of American foreign policy, which grew from his family's long involvement in the Navy and his own world view, once it had taken many years to heal from the trauma of the Vietnam War and McCain's nearly six-year incarceration and torture.

Part I of our conversation is available here. Part II is available here. The other five remaining segments will appear on The Ticket in coming days.

--Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[Brian Randall]

I believe the goal of war is the murder or destruction of 'evil' to bring about longlasting freedom for the 'good' of your country or another. I find it hard to believe that John McCain doesn't think constantly about the moral struggle that war puts on a man's heart. Matt Welch makes him sound soulless and crazy by saying he is strangely intellectually incurious. He sounds like a guy in a fable who see a handful of hornets swarming about who then proceeds in a rage to fumigate his whole house with 100x the terminator power required, thus sufficating himself and all other inhabitants therein to death. He completes the job and brings about everlasting peace by, God willing, reuniting with a higher power but he is not around to enjoy it.

John McCain is a master politician. He has the humble servant poetry down pat. At least he is not telling us as some politicians do that he did not seek the office (aka Ron Paul or George Bush Sr. when he became CIA director). I support Ron Paul but all politicians crave attention, power and control even Libertarian ones who want the people to keep the government in check. I believe most politicans are miserable creatures. That is why government as it grows and grows becomes less and less inept.

Evil cannot be eradicated with evil rebranded as good. I believe in heaven (good) and hell (evil) but the concept of pure good and pure evil in this world is a fallacy. Man is basically good but he is constantly corrupted and conflicted. He has free will and does whatever he has to do to get by but he is mortal and as such has limited capabilities when it comes to controlling the collective mindset of those around him. A campaign based on fear and negativity will almost always trump one based on integrity and reason. The human condition is deprived and seeks a sense of identfication or belonging. It indentifies most with weakness. Tout yourself as the common man who forgets his lines and back it up with lots of fear, lies, stereotypes and propaganda and you will win most every time. Integrity isn't as interesting, memorable or believable. Subconsciously, the negativity seeps in. It always does.

I believe John McCain will be the next President of America, formerly known as the 'land of the free'. You can spy on anyone with power backed by force. Finding out what the other guys are planning shouldn't be too hard. He won't go negative but politics is dirty (just ask Karl Rove) and his supremely talented handlers will do whatever it takes to get him elected. Plus, Obama makes too many promises. No, we can't. We have no money.

[Andrew]

Just wanted to say I really love this feature! Please keep doing this on the Ticket. So far it seems far more effective than the New York Times' Bloggingheads, which often has two speakers interrupting each other and generally trading bad repartee.

Keep it up!

(O.K., Andrew nice name, btw We'll do just that. The other reactions seem to be positive as well. Thanks for visiting.)

[dave]

you'd think that anyone in their right mind would do everything they can to keep someone that irresponsible and unreliable, with such a grotesquely deluded mind, intellectually incapacitated, emotionally crippled and ethically crooked, as far as possible from the presidential office, and from posing as warlord and 'commander in chief'. mccain clearly does not understand or respect the constitution, and his obvious obsession to randomly and unscrupulously wage murderous, criminal, undeclared 'preemptive' 'wars' on pretty much anyone anywhere for pretty much any reason, alarmingly indicates that he is in dire want of psychological examination and therapy.