At the height of vice presidential speculation, we rushed the staff cabin of the plane, frustrated that no one was around to address the rumors.
"What do you want, you little jerks?" McCain said, using his former term of affection, before turning away.
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On a recent Sunday during a brief stop at a Virginia phone bank, I got unusually close to McCain in the line of people waiting to shake his hand.
Tape recorder out and within a foot of him, I asked if he could talk about his new economic plan, which he was to unveil that week. The man who once asked me about my wedding date returned my gaze with a stare, shook the hand of the strangers to the right and left of me and continued out the door.
I remembered Graham's explanation in January about why McCain spent so much time with reporters. He said that McCain felt too many politicians had become like a guy in a toothpaste commercial -- you knew what he was selling but not what was behind the smile.
What McCain didn't like about other campaigns and wanted to change, Graham continued, was that "nobody gets behind the curtain."
Whether it was McCain's fault or ours, the curtain had been drawn tight.
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maeve.reston@latimes.com
