The Real McCain [Hardcover]

Cliff Schecter (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Polipoint Press (September 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097782537X
• ISBN-13: 978-0977825370
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,034,165 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

186 of 207 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Straight Account of the Man Who Would Do or Say Anything to Occupy the White House, April 8, 2008

By 

Jay (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn't (Paperback)

Cliff Schecter successfully paints the real picture of the man behind the funny, happy-go-lucky public persona we've seen several times on the John Stewart Show and the campaign trail. Through solid reporting and fact-checking, the Real McCain uncovers the presidential candidate from the accounts of those in the media and political arena who know McCain best: as the often irascible, irritable and utterly unpredictable character who wants to occupy the Oval Office, as dangerous as that might seem. An excellent read especially for independents or anyone entertaining the idea of voting for McCain.

152 of 172 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for this year's voters, of any affiliation, April 15, 2008

By 

L Goodman-Malamuth "Leslie Goodman-Malamuth" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn't (Paperback)

Cliff Schecter has done a masterful job of summing up the many puzzling flipflops and changes that John McCain has continued to undergo since his first race for the presidency was aborted by BushCo/Karl Rove during the South Carolina primary in 2000. Terse, densely packed with facts, footnoted to a fare-thee-well, and not without touches of grim humor, the author offers the most important information about the man who would be America's oldest president (he'll turn 72 in August) if he successfully continues to dodge and weave when voicing (or not) opinions on issues crucial to America. In his efforts to be all things to all people, "when it comes to the tough votes," says Schecter, McCain has opted out, missing "a whopping 261 of 468 votes, or almost 56 percent, by March 2008." (The only Senator to miss more votes was Tim Johnson, recovering from a serious brain hemorrhage.) All candidates miss votes, but the author notes, "McCain the maverick ... betrays a calculated strategy: namely, to avoid going on the record when doing so would be politically risky."

Perhaps the most incredible--yet best explained--parts of this book depict McCain's shameful truckling both to the religious right and to the very man who once smeared him--George W. Bush. ("It's awfully hard to say no to the President," admitted McCain in 2006, when he said his loyalty to GWB was so "profound" that he wouldn't rule out leaving his Senate seat to become Secretary of Defense if and when Donald Rumsfeld were to leave.)

Schechter mentions briefly a number of McCain's obvious personal weaknesses, including his dissolute youth and poor academic record (he graduated sixth from the bottom of his class of nearly 900 students at the Naval Academy), his divorce, and his speedy remarriage to a wealthy younger woman, a beer heiress whom he courted while still married, and has helped bankroll his career ever since. Where such flaws as McCain's volcanic temper are concerned, Schechter ties them to specific incidents, which are legion. In addition, he points out McCain's reciprocated love affair with powerful members of the Beltway media elite, which is not shared by journalists in his adoptive home state of Arizona. Frightening evidence is provided of McCain's ignorance of numerous issues, such as the economy, public health, and the advisability of maintaining and even expanding the war in Iraq.

While this author acknowledges and praises McCain's service in Vietnam, he stresses that what's most crucial to prospective voters is what McCain the man has done since shedding his uniform. "The Real McCain" provides the most important 150 pages that prospective voters of any political affiliation should read before the November election.

263 of 303 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Portrait of John W. McCain, April 8, 2008

By 

J S (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Real McCain: Why Conservatives Don't Trust Him and Why Independents Shouldn't (Paperback)

Cliff Schecter's book on John McCain reminds us who this man really is: a panderer who flip-flops and says whatever he thinks he needs to say to climb to the next rung on the political ladder; an extremist supporter of Bush's Iraq policy, who says he would like the US to occupy Iraq for the next 100 years; someone who has dished out so many free martinis and cocktail weenies to the DC media that he calls the media "my base"; a man who defended his immigration policy by claiming absurdly that American citizens would never pick lettuce for $50 an hour -- "You can't do it, my friends" was his response to the many hard-working American wage slaves who tried to take this multi-millionaire up on his offer to pick lettuce for nearly 10 TIMES the current US minimum wage of $5.85 per hour.

Racist when he needs to be, pseudo-centrist when he thinks it will suit him, unfaithful to his disabled first wife who he then left to marry his girlfriend, a pill-popping multi-millionaire brewing heiress: John McCain can be a lot of things. But Schecter reminds us who he really is: incompetent, aggressive, pandering, old, and hopelessly out-of-touch.