I met John Mccain four years ago, while writing a book about the last presidential campaign. Our relationship began along the usual journalistic lines, but it soon grew into a genuine friendship. Friendship with a politician is corrupting for a journalist, of course. The obligations of friendship are forever colliding with the truth. But there are also advantages, even literary ones, to being a fallen journalist. For one, the view is better. While the uncorrupted journalist tends to witness only the most self-conscious moments in the lives of the politicians he writes about, a friend can get right in close.
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