Ticket video chat: Matt Welch on 'McCain: Myth of a Maverick' -- IV
In this episode, Part IV of our conversation with former Times writer Matt Welch on his new book on Sen. John McCain, we asked Matt what was the biggest surprise he came across in the course of his lengthy book research on the presumptive Republican nominee for president.
Hint: His answer had something to do with McCain's Vietnam War experiences or, rather, getting past them and helping some countrymen do the same.
Part I of our video chat is available here. Part II is available here. And Part III is available here. To read some of Matt's previous written work for The Times, click here.
The remaining four videotaped episodes of our Welch conversation will be published in coming days exclusively here on The Ticket.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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I will not vote McBama. I will not vote McBama. I will not vote McBama. I will not vote McBama. I will not vote McBama. I will not vote McBama. GOD HELP AMERICA.
Posted by: budswisr | June 22, 2008 at 08:14 AM
A country with a leader who swears to uphold the US Constitution but later tells us that it is a G*ddamned piece of paper is clearly not a leader. And since he is not a leader who keeps his word by taking his oath of office seriously, it is pretty preposterous how he keeps citing "executive" privilege as his dictatorial right. i submit that the "salvation army" is getting kookier every day in 'the land of the free'.
John McCain supports George Bush's major expansionist policies. I will never believe we can remake the world for freedom by playing supercop. Even if we perfect people's genes, purify our food supply and government can somehow perfect people's morals, depravity will still exist in the world. Freedom and force are antitheticals and force is as deleterious and uncontrollable as a law run amok. When government becomes a closed society, freedom and democracy die. Freedom doesn't need extra monitoring, force does. Always. So says i.
Posted by: Brian Randall | June 23, 2008 at 06:41 PM