It's called "McCain Wants You." Here is the lead paragraph:

Behind any successful politician lies a usable contradiction, and John McCain's is this: We love him (and occasionally hate him) for his stubborn individualism, yet his politics are best understood as a decade-long attack on the individual.

Today I review Free Ride: John McCain and the Media, by Media Matters guys David "Blinded by the Right" Brock and Paul "Being Right Is Not Enough: What Progressives Must Learn from Conservative Success" Waldman. Opening graf:

For those of us who have been writing critically about John McCain over the years, keeping tabs on the 2008 presidential campaign through the media is a bit like getting your war news via Saddam Hussein's old information minister: The street names may be right, but the big picture looks funny.

This paragraph of Alan Bock's kind review of my book jumped out at me:

It is hardly uncommon for a man of personal charm also to be personally pugnacious, and McCain's temper is legendary. We at the [Orang County] Register experienced it in an editorial board meeting some years ago when the senator blew his stack over some issue so minor we have forgotten what it was. Matt Welch illustrates with a number of examples that McCain is most likely to explode when a criticism can be taken as a personal affront (which he does more readily than most) and, most significantly, contains a strong element of truth. He also shows that from an early age McCain was frequently looking for a fight, eager to show he was a tough guy.

That's at least the third testimonial I've seen from ed board members who recall McCain just going apeshit on them for no good reason at all (usually involving a perceived slight on his or his family's honor). Interestingly, all three were from ed boards politically right of the journalistic center.

Here's my open letter to the nation's ed boards from January.

Yes, this website needs some serious updating. Let's start by linking to some of the television appearances I've made lately.

This is a picture of me taken by the funny and talented New York photographer Robin Holland on Friday, just after I taped the Bill Moyers Journal, which aired later that day. Video here, transcript here, mini-profile of me here.

Here's five minutes of me yakking about the New York Times' lousy attempt at scandal-mongering, which nonetheless brought up an interesting (if not very new) point about McCain's figuratively steamy relationship with lobbyists. Note the sweet Reason.tv robot-dance bumper music.

Here's me (in bits) having a bad hair day on Al-Jazeera (in the 3-4 minute area), which certainly was an interesting experience:

Here's me on Bloggingheads with the charming moral philosopher Will Wilkinson, talking for a full hour:

Here's me on Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, in three parts! Transcript here.

This is a condensed version of an hour-plus book forum I did at the behest of the nice folks at Cato; unfortunately I didn't give them my best performance. Full video (including a comical trash-Welch performance by political hack Lance Tarrance, Jr.) available at fora TV; here's a snippet:

This website is going to get its groove back over the next couple of weeks, and then be a Force of Nature. Things sure have changed since Oct. 16, 2007....