No More Mr. Nice Guy!

The Mark of McCain

There's a very good chance that John McCain will be the next president of the United States, so it behooves us all to see what's behind the carefully cultivated "maverick" image. Matt Welch's McCain: The Myth of a Maverick is an excellent place to start.

Journalists love McCain because he gives them access, and seems almost always willing to be interviewed. This superficial openness with the media fuels the "straight talk" narrative while concealing McCain's actual positions, which have received less scrutiny than any other candidate except Edwards. It's a sad commentary on how low US journalism has fallen. Journos are so pathetically eager for access that they wag their little puppydog tails and wet themselves if an august figure like McCain condescends to sit down with them, and they never notice that he isn't actually saying anything of substance.

Looking at McCain's career, he has always been a carpetbagger and an opportunist. He's ridden on Barry Goldwater's coat-tails, bounced back from the Keating Five scandal by making a big show of supporting campaign finance reform while ignoring his own legislation when it suited him, and generally stepped on a lot of toes in his dash up the career ladder. His foul temper and disdain for "the little people" in his state are both legendary. The GOP establishment in Arizona hates his guts, and it isn't entirely because of any putative maverick tendencies.

McCain has been a prolific author (assuming his books aren't ghost-written), though his writings tend to be paeans to macho American exceptionalism and shed little and contradictory light on his policies. Welch makes the interesting point that the books, and McCain's speeches, are steeped in the language of twelve-step programs. Admit your faults, acknowledge that you are helpless without a higher power, resolve to serve a greater cause - those are the themes McCain hammers home again and again. The "greater cause" seems to consist of the US projecting its power around the world, staying in Iraq a million years, and what not - in other words, precisely the neonazi-con agenda continued into perpetuity. And do we really need another dry drunk in the Oval Office?

I've heard some Democratic voters say that if Hillary is the nominee, they will vote for McCain. Anyone taking such a drastic step would be well advised to read Welch's book first.