McClatchy Newspapers

Has a presidential adviser ever before asked you to tell her where the economic crisis is hurting you personally? Has a future Cabinet member ever sought your ideas for improving health care?

Sen John McCain (R-AZ) broadcasts his affection for President Theodore Roosevelt (R), but his opposition to regulating the local telephone industry suggests that he may not share the former president's passion for busting huge corporate trusts. Unlike President Roosevelt, who railed against "malefactors of great wealth," McCain's positions frequently have echoed those of the giant regional Bell phone companies, now consolidated as AT&T, Verizon and Quest, the big survivors of the telecommunications wars of the last quarter-century.