How To Handle Conflict

When the scandal first broke, he went ballistic on reporters who questioned his wife's financial ties to Keating — calling them "liars" and "idiots." Predictably, the press coverage was merciless.

So McCain dialed back the anger and turned up the charm.

"I talked to the press constantly, ad infinitum, until their appetite for information from me was completely satisfied," he later wrote. "It is a public relations strategy that I have followed to this day."

-- Tim Dickinson, Make-Believe Maverick, Rolling Stone.