McCain: The Myth of a Maverick

My buddy Matt Welch is one of the best writers working today, and I’m excited to get my hands on a copy of his new book. Since I haven’t yet, I’ll steal a quote from it from our mutual friend Amy Alkon’s blog:

The campaign finance crusade is where the modern McCain as we know him got his start. It combined all his best and worst character traits–noisy martyrdom for a hopeless cause, defiance in the face of hostile opposition, elitism, exaltation of the government at the expense of the individual, and a 12-Step sense of messianic fervor.

The upshot of Matt’s book: What you think you know about McCain is probably wrong. I love a good, old-fashioned debunking, and Matt’s writing is so fun that even reading about stupid old politics seems like time well spent.

Also, I cannot stand John McCain.

And it JUST SO HAPPENS that I stayed with Matt and his wife Emmanuelle in Los Angeles for a few nights while he was writing the book, mere feet from Matt’s office. I’m sure all the smartlinessence vibes I sent him made a substantial contribution to this book. Get your copy today!