McCain's Lead Dog Isn't Afraid to Bark, or Bite

Mark Salter has the honor of being John McCain’s “chief creator, shaper and enforcer,” the Wall Street Journal reports of a man who rides the press corps hard and thinks he knows Barack Obama’s soft spots. A McCain confidant of two decades, the goateed, chain-smoking Salter has co-written five books with the senator and is an often strident defender of his boss.

Salter, 53, says he’ll argue McCain's as much a “change candidate” as Obama is, will build distance with President Bush on Hurricane Katrina and climate change, and will slay Obama on trade and “empty optimism.” The Journal also gets inside Salter’s feuds with the media and with his rival’s aides—in which the adviser is described as “biting,” and his rapid-response tactics deemed “bizarre rants.” (More John McCain stories.)