“‘Could I mention, Steve, that I kept hearing during the campaign the stuff about McCain being weak on economics. They obsessed about this in the media. They never said Obama is weak on economics. I came to Washington as a Reaganite limited government tax cutter.’ He’s right about the media treatment. Neither candidate had a strong command of economics—certainly not Mr. Obama, as events have shown…

‘I remember being on the phone with President Bush, Vice President Cheney, the Treasury secretary and [Fed Chairman Ben] Bernanke. They assure me the world financial system is going to collapse if I don’t vote for the bill. So I do the impetuous and rash thing by saying, look, I have got to go back to Washington and see how I can help. And by the way, so did Obama—but it was McCain that was the impetuous one. Obama came back to Washington.’ Mr. McCain grumbles, ‘He was at the White House with me. But he wasn’t impetuous.’ This is the only time in our interview he shows any bitterness about the campaign…

‘Let’s face it,’ he says, ‘she galvanized our base in a way that I couldn’t. Everywhere she went she drew enormous and enthusiastic crowds like a rock star.’ He says his only regret in selecting the Alaska governor was that no one on the campaign predicted the ferocity of the assaults against her. ‘To the liberal left, particularly the feminists, she is their worst nightmare.'”