A Libertarian Critique of John McCain

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Reason Magazine Editor-In-Chief Matt Welch offers a libertarian's critique of Arizona Senator and Republican Presidential candidate John McCain.

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John McCain is one of the most familiar figures in American politics, a figure with great appeal to many. However, his concrete governing philosophy and actual track record have been left unexamined. Matt Welch's new book McCain: The Myth of a Maverick gives a flesh-and-bones political portrait of a man onto whom people project their own ideological fantasies. It is the first realistic assessment of what a John McCain presidency might look like.

Welch lays out the root cause of the senator's worldview: his personal transformation from underachieving youth to war hawk, in which he used the "higher power" of American nationalism to save his life and soul - Cato Institute

Matt Welch is editor in chief of Reason magazine.

From 2002 to 2006, Welch worked at Reason as an associate editor and media columnist. From 2002 to 2004, he also wrote a regular "Letter from California" column for Canada's National Post newspaper and contributed to the Online Journalism Review; WorkingForChange.com (for whom he covered Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential campaign); and the now-defunct Los Angeles tech/biz magazine Zone News.

Welch's work has appeared in The Washington Post, Columbia Journalism Review, Los Angeles Daily News, Orange County Register, LA Weekly, ESPN.com, Salon.com, Wired, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Daily Star of Beirut, and dozens of other publications.

Before 1998, Welch lived for eight years in Central Europe, where he co-founded the region's first post-communist English-language newspaper, Prognosis, worked as UPI's Slovakia correspondent and managed the Budapest Business Journal.

Channel: News & Politics
Uploaded: January 28, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Author: ForaTv

Length: 00:05:12
Rating: 4.68
Views: 7935

Tags: libertarians libertarianism small big government conservatives reagan gop republicans free speech ron paul foratv

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Video Comments:
johnnybandmember (September 30, 2008 at 12:18 am)
McCain's other bailout scam came to be known as the Keating Five Scandal.

McCain should have gone to prison for a long time for his part in it.

Charles Keating paid about $1.3 million to various U.S. Senators including Senator John McCain
to help him resist regulators intent on protecting the people whose money Keating was embezzling.

The regulators backed off to disastrous consequences.
McCain was fortunate to have enough clout to stay out of prison.
jshancock (October 2, 2008 at 9:36 pm)
actually McCain was proven innocent in the Keating Five Scandal. The Democrates who ran the investigation say he had nothing to do with the scandal. But go ahead and keep grasping at straws.
flamablesteve (November 25, 2008 at 1:46 am)
Not exactly.
He was reprimanded for his actions in the scandal, but they decided he just "didnt understand the situation", so they didnt do any consequential punishment.
Regardless, he was proven to have been involved with keating.
Elasaltaculos (September 28, 2008 at 3:34 pm)
aint that the truth. Semper Fi
Leatherbubba (September 25, 2008 at 8:25 am)
I pretty much have to vote for John McCain. I'd rather have George Bush 3 than Karl Marx 2.
RedLava78 (October 28, 2008 at 1:29 am)
I'd rather have George Bush 3 than karl Marx 2 as well but I'd also be a lot happier putting up with Karl Marx 2 for just 4 years so people really understand just how bad it is and then make a radical shift in ideology in 2012 and go with somone who actually believes in small government. I'm voting Bob Barr and yes I know he won't win but the long term effects outweigh what will happen if there is NO party running on a small government platform for a lot longer than 4 years.
gameshowguy2000 (September 17, 2008 at 1:42 am)
I'd rather have a Barr-Paul ticket..sure, they may have been Republicans (Paul still is Republican), but they're concerned about the direction of their party. The social issues have driven the party further and further to the radical right.
RedLava78 (October 28, 2008 at 1:25 am)
I agree with you but wouldn't call it the "radical right". I'd go with "the new big government right" or "neocon" for short. I'm hoping Barr gets a nice piece of the vote and they blame him for the republicans losing badly. Maybe just maybe (though I doubt it) the neocons will realize that they're not going to win if they want to be a pro-big government party.
gameshowguy2000 (October 28, 2008 at 4:50 pm)
And David Ruprecht (who himself is a Libertarian) has said that Libertarians support lower taxes and smaller government (and they're walking the walk, unlike the Republicans, who are only talking the talk; they claim they support lower taxes and smaller government, but fail to deliver).
gameshowguy2000 (September 17, 2008 at 1:39 am)
I checked Barr's site, he's leaving the Marriage and Abortion issues up to the state. He himself was a former Republican that was author of the DOMA, and now he's realized his party has gone in the wrong direction.