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

Comments

[Dr. Banks]

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.

[Jake in Salt Lake]

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.