In 2000, Rolling Stone ran an essay by David Foster Wallace, in which the author rode on John McCain’s Straight Talk Express for a few weeks. Wallace, of course, is one of the smartest human beings on earth—I generally prefer his essays to his fiction, incidentally—and the essay is pretty great. Wallace kind of falls under McCain’s spell, though not so much that he’d actually vote for him.

Back Bay Books is repackaging the essay, which can also be found in Wallace’s last book of essays, Consider the Lobster, as a standalone, $10 book called McCain’s Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express with John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters, Thinking About Hope. I would suggest buying Consider the Lobster instead, because for four bucks more, you get about six extra essays, including the title essay which considers whether lobsters actually feel pain when you boil them.

Thing is, and hopefully the foreword to the book will acknowledge this, 2000 John McCain and 2008 John McCain are entirely different beasts. The Wall Street Journal talked with Wallace about this last week:

The essay quite specifically concerns a couple weeks in February, 2000, and the situation of both McCain [and] national politics in those couple weeks. It is heavily context-dependent. And that context now seems a long, long, long time ago. McCain himself has obviously changed; his flipperoos and weaselings on Roe v. Wade, campaign finance, the toxicity of lobbyists, Iraq timetables, etc. are just some of what make him a less interesting, more depressing political figure now—for me, at least. It’s all understandable, of course—he’s the GOP nominee now, not an insurgent maverick. Understandable, but depressing.

I (heart) David Foster Wallace.

(UPDATE: I forgot to say “via Galleycat.” Sorry Galleycat.)