John McCain Walks on Water

Esquire, May, 1998 by Charles P. Pierce

The desert ends in the mountains and the mountains look like broken things. It is said that the Dutchman once found gold here. Every few weeks, he would ride down into town, dazzling the locals with nuggets by the fistful. Then the Dutchman died without leaving heirs or maps. A century later, people still make their way up from the desert through the ancient, storm-cut stones in search of the Dutchman s lost treasure They wind their way through the narrow paths to the high places, pausing to gulp the thinning air, gazing up at the shattered peaks like wandering biblical penitents searching for an invisible God. They have faith in lost fortune, following dusty hope up from the desert and into these mountains that cut the sky like old bones reset in haste.

"So," John McCain...