This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, January 9, 2008.

I'm Caleb Brown.

According to Matt Welch, the new editor of Reason magazine,

the difference between the approaches to political philosophy of Barry Goldwater and

John McCain is that Goldwater had one.

As Welch explains in his book, John McCain, the myth of a maverick, McCain is a pragmatic politician who embraces America's greatness

and wants to remove those obstacles that keep the rest of the world

from fully embracing America's greatness.

We spoke following his book forum yesterday.

You wrote a little over a year ago that McCain wants to restore your faith in U.S. government by any means

necessary even if that requires thousands of more military deaths, national

service for civilians, and federal micromanaging of innumerable private transactions, he'll kick down the doors

of boardroom and bedroom mixing Democrats nanny state regulations with the GOP's red meat paternalism

and a dangerous brew of government activism.

You talk about that a little bit?

That's pretty strong stuff there.

I blame my editor.

No, this is the John McCain that people would know if they actually looked at his governing record and especially his voluminous on the record comments, both in his books, in his speeches, and in his legislation.

He has consistently found things that he sees as obstacles to America's faith in itself,

which that is the one thing that he's trying to eradicate slash restore, he wants us to all feel the strong faith in the

righteousness this higher power of of American exceptionalism and so on any given day he might perceive another threat to that. So in 1999 and

2000 it was money was corrupting politics.

...