McCain: Myth of a Maverick

From the Washington Post:

Another two-fer, this book excoriates John McCain as a calculating flip-flopper and the media for mythologizing him as a straight shooter. Welch, assistant editor of the Los Angeles Times‘ editorial pages, compares McCain’s "ritual self-criticism" to Alcoholics Anonymous‘s 12-step program: First, he admits his flaws, then he sublimates them to a greater cause, and finally he takes that cause to the people. The book contains entertaining tales of equivocation aboard the Straight Talk Express, as when McCain was asked this year whether contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV and he answered: "You’ve stumped me. . . . Let me find out. . . . I have to find out what my position was." But in the end, this unflattering portrait turns out to be surprisingly flattering. As the author writes in his acknowledgments, "Rare indeed is the politician who sustains his or her interestingness after lengthy study."