As Cliff's book, The Real McCain, amply demonstrates, the reality of John McCain's person and career is somewhat different from the carefully constructed persona that has been presented through the media for the last fifteen years or so. The question of the moment is whether now, with only two months until election day, there is a change afoot in the long love affair that is John McCain's relationship with the press.

It appears that the McCain campaign is falling back on that old Republican standby, whining about the media. McCain's campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, is blasting the press for asking tough questions about McCain's running mate, whom virtually no one had heard of just a week ago. When Campbell Brown of CNN grilled a McCain spokesperson about Sarah Palin's qualifications, the McCain campaign responded by canceling an interview McCain had scheduled with Larry King, no doubt with flared nostrils and a loud "Harumph!" As a parent of small children, I am well familiar with this kind of behavior.

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Hi TPM Cafers,

Thanks for having me here for the balance of the week and joining in what I hope will be a lively discussion on Senator John McCain. For some quick background, my book, The Real McCain, was released May 1, 2008. Due to some initial buzz it became a political and non-fiction best seller at Amazon. Which of course made my mom proud and shocked guidance counselors who have consistently written me off--with good cause--during each of my too many stops through academia.

After researching the man and writing the book over about 15 months' time, I came to a few main conclusions, all of which I think are evident in his recent pick of Sarah Palin to be his VP. First, he most certainly lacks the temperament to be President of these United States.

McCain, in both his personal and political life, has shown the kind of explosive anger, impulsiveness and Divine Right Of Kings type of certainty in his own beliefs (until, as with the cases of offshore drilling, abortion rights, foreign entanglements, tax cuts, balanced budgets, Creationism in science class, he changes them on a whim) that should very simply disqualify him from being the leader of the free world. My book quotes scores of Republicans on this subject, not even needing to dig very deep into what Democrats think of him.

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In the midst of the convention circus, TPMCafe slows down for a second to talk books. Cliff Schecter joins us this week for a discussion on his latest, The Real McCain. His first post will be up shortly.