Matt Welch to discuss new novel about John McCain at free downtown event tonite

If spending $150 to help Hillary Clinton get out of debt isn’t your cup of tea, you should consider heading to the downtown library tonight to hear Reason magazine editor Matt Welch talk for free about his new biography, “Deconstructing McCain.”

7:30pm at the Central Library – reservations are encouraged. More details after the jump.

The synopsis:

John McCain is the most overexposed yet under-examined major figure in American politics. Dazzled by his biography, flattered by his attentions and unfazed by his failures, the national press corps has painted McCain as a preternatural straight talker, a politically unpredictable maverick whose heart is forever in the right place. As a partial result, voters are on the verge of choosing (or rejecting) a man who isn’t necessarily who they think he is. Matt Welch, editor in chief of Reason magazine and author of McCain: The Myth of a Maverick, argues instead that the Arizona senator’s interventionist politics, at home and abroad, actually flow from the same single source: He wants to restore your faith in the federal government, and in the “greater cause” of American exceptionalism. Anything that jeopardizes that faith or sows public cynicism is a legitimate target of federal attention. Unfortunately, it’s the individual citizen–especially those who don’t necessarily agree with McCain’s militaristic conception of citizenship–who usually ends up suffering the consequences.