So John McCain is the presumptive Republican nominee, and if the Democrats keep squabbling their way toward self-destruction over race and gender (how deliciously ironic!), he may well be our next president, even in a year that doesn't look good for Republicans as a party. So what kind of president is he likely to be if elected?

According to Matt Welch, now back at Reason magazine as editor after a stint on the L.A. Times editorial page, he is likely to be the most instinctively bellicose and militaristic president since Teddy Roosevelt, as well as an advocate of increased government power and regulation domestically. Given that most of the media, taken some years ago by Sen. McCain's considerable personal charm on the self-aggrandizingly-named Straight Talk Express and his personal story, have delved hardly at all into his policy preferences, Welch's book, "McCain: The Myth of a Maverick," would be salutary reading for those curious about what this country would be letting itself in for with John McCain as president.

McCain's deviations from Republican orthodoxy are well-known. He was a co-author of the notorious McCain-Feingold campaign finance restrictionist bill that bars political speech by independent groups too close to an election, a provision whose "actual purpose," as columnist George Will put it, "is to protect politicians from speech that annoys them." He has supported (as has President Bush) the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill that provides a path to citizenship for illegal aliens, something most Republicans oppose. He opposed President Bush's tax cuts before he supported them.

McCain has flip-flopped on ethanol subsidies, on constitutional amendments to ban abortion and gay marriage, and supports drastic action on global warming. He famously trashed preachers like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as "agents of intolerance" in 2000 but has spent much of the past year trying to convince the religious right he is really with them.

The thread running through Sen. McCain's emerging political positions is a love for national glory, usually expressed through military endeavors. As the son and grandson of Navy admirals who believed strongly in the use of sea power to project American influence, he comes by it honestly. He disdains "merely material" success, lecturing us that we must serve a "cause greater than ourselves" (a phrase that only began to appear in his speeches as he found himself in the late 1990s). But the "cause greater" is always nationalism as defined by the government, not devotion to helping the poor or seeking religious enlightenment or - perish the thought! - expanding individual liberty. He sees mere individualism as puny and selfish.

The restrictions McCain would place on ordinary economic activity, lobbying or donating to political candidates are aimed at restoring confidence in ... government, of course, a curious goal in a country whose founders and Constitution expressed the necessity of constant skepticism toward government.

It is hardly uncommon for a man of personal charm also to be personally pugnacious, and McCain's temper is legendary. We 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 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.

It was not difficult for Welch to find veteran Republican operatives in Arizona willing to criticize McCain for his combative temper, his unnecessary denigration of aides and volunteers, and his disdain for many ordinary folks. Perhaps the fact that he grew up near the nation's capital and spent most of his life there or overseas, and entered Arizona politics largely by marrying an Arizona heiress, accounts for many Arizona Republicans' ambivalent attitude toward him.

It becomes clear also that Barry Goldwater disliked and disagreed with him, largely on the importance of individual liberty.

McCain has admirable qualities, including personal charm, personal courage and perseverance that contributed to his unexpected (by most pundits) political success this year. As president, however, he would likely be dangerous to the country and to its citizens' freedoms.