The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations

by John McCain

I was also on the receiving end of daily attacks from talk radio blowhards. They had some effect, but they aren’t as influential as they like their listeners to believe. They make quite a living from promoting polarization in the country, and scaring politicians who can only win races in gerrymandered districts. And when they’re in high dudgeon they can be amusing in an over-the-top, vaudevillian kind of way. They had been after me episodically for years, pounding my positions on campaign finance reform and immigration and other apostasies. I had learned to laugh it off. They could tie up our front-office phones for an hour or so by exhorting their listeners to give the traitor McCain a piece of their mind. But they had a negligible impact on my national popularity. In Florida, their antipathy toward me was frenzied. Even Mitt, the moderate former governor of Massachusetts, whom they would disparage four years later, was an acceptable alternative as long as I was in the race.

McCain on talk radio