Ticket video chat: Matt Welch on 'McCain: Myth of a Maverick' -- II
This is Part II of The Ticket's first video chat series, an eight-part conversation with author Matt Welch on his new book, "John McCain: The Myth of a Maverick."
The book is not a biography but an exploration of the McCain persona, an intriguing combination of independence, military discipline and rebellion, with a strong whiff of bad boy. In this video episode Welch, a former L.A. Times writer, describes how he came to discover much about McCain through the serial confessions the senator makes about himself throughout his own books. And what that revealed about the Republican nominee's personal way of thinking.
Part I of this conversation with Welch can be seen by clicking here. Other parts will be published on The Ticket in coming days.
-- 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 don't have the knowledge of 12-Step programs that Matt Welch describes. My only experience of them is the 7 years of peace my late uncle earned through AA. The principles don't sound particularly bad to me. For his side, Obama reveals his stint as a bongmaster in Hawaiian high school. He is far less forthcoming on issues of his childhood religious experiences, later conversion to a "Christianity" of hatred similar to Mr. Farrakahn's "Black Muslim" faith and his friendships with unrepentant terrorists and convicted money-launderers. He also claims to want to "bring Republicans & Democrats together" but has a miserable record of doing so in the short time he has served in elective office. Perhaps before he starts bombing Pakistan (remember?) he needs to do a little more confessing. McCain should probably cease confessing. We get the point:he's self-effacing.
Posted by: Dr. Banks | June 19, 2008 at 11:39 PM
Machiavelli, the famous Italian philosopher that penned the treatise The Prince, was fond of advocating the maxim: “the ends justify the means”. In other words, as long as the end goal is worthy, then any means of achieving it is acceptable. I personally don’t believe that the ends justify the means. Going to war in order to achieve peace is like having sex in order to preserve virginity. When unethical, unconstitutional, or immoral methods are used in order to achieve a goal it blurs the distinction between right and wrong.
The threat of American fascism, which is what I believe the Bush administration is pushing us towards, is much more of a threat than terrorism. I am not afraid of terrorism, but I do believe that the Bush administration’s disastrous foreign policy is making the world a more dangerous place by creating more terrorists. McCain's foreign policy would be even more disastrous than Bush's.
Posted by: Jake in Salt Lake | June 25, 2008 at 09:29 AM