Here's an idea! Let's look at McCain's flip-flops
There's so much noise being made about the opposing candidate's changing positions that the noisemakers fail to realize that candidate McCain long ago cornered the market on changing positions.
Read all about it:
Crooks and Liars » McCain Sets a New Record: 10 Flip-Flops in Two Weeks
The link connects to the sources themselves. The vast majority of McCain's flip-flopping has been documented on You Tube, interestingly enough.
McCain sets a new flip-flop record: 10 flip-flops in two weeks
In his eternal quest for the Republican presidential nomination, the supposed maverick John McCain has repeatedly reversed long-held positions and compromised purportedly core principles. From the Bush tax cuts, the religious right and immigration reform to overturning Roe v. Wade, proclaiming Samuel Alito a model Supreme Court Justice and bashing France (just to name a few), McCain changed sides as changing political conditions dictated.
But over the past two weeks, McCain??s rapid fire, acrobatic flip-flops have produced whiplash, at least for voters. 10 times since the beginning of June, McCain has retreated from, upended or just forgotten positions he once claimed as his own. On Social Security, balancing the budget, defense spending, domestic surveillance and a host of other issues so far this month, McCain??s ??Straight Talk Express? did a U-turn on the road to the White House.
1. Social Security Privatization. John McCain has apparently learned the lesson that the more President Bush spoke about his Social Security privatization scheme, the less popular it became. On Friday, Mr. Straight Talk proclaimed at a New Hampshire event, ??I??m not for, quote, privatizing Social Security. I never have been. I never will be.? Sadly, McCain and his advisers like ousted HP CEO Carly Fiorina are on record declaring fidelity to the idea of diverting Social Security dollars into private accounts. On November 18, 2004, for example, McCain announced, ??Without privatization, I don??t see how you can possibly, over time, make sure that young Americans are able to receive Social Security benefits.? And in March 2003, McCain backed his President, declaring, ??As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it - along the lines that President Bush proposed.? As they say, let??s go to the videotape.
2. Raising - and Slashing - Defense Spending. As Steve Benen noted Friday, John McCain was also for boosting American defense spending before he was against it. In the November 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs, McCain argued ??we can also afford to spend more on national defense, which currently consumes less than four cents of every dollar that our economy generates - far less than what we spent during the Cold War.? But facing the $2 trillion budgetary hole the McCain tax plan is forecast to produce (a sea of red ink even the Wall Street Journal noticed), Team McCain changed its tune. As Forbes scoffed in amazement:
??McCain??s top economic adviser, Doug Holtz-Eakin, blithely supposes that cuts in defense spending could make up for reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% and the subsequent shrinkage in federal revenues. Get that? The national security candidate wants to cut spending on our national security. Wait until the generals and the admirals hear that.?
3. First Term Balanced Budget Pledge. With its on-again/off-again/on-again promise to balance the budget by January 2013, the McCain campaign executed that rarest of political maneuvers, the 360. During a February 15th rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin, ??McCain promised he??d offer a balanced budget by the end of his first term.? But just days later, McCain??s senior economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin announced a deficit-ending target of 2017. In mid-April, Holtz-Eakin proclaimed, ??I would like the next president not to talk about deficit reduction.? McCain, too, signaled the retreat from his first-term balance budget commitment, explaining to Chris Matthews on April 15th that ??economic conditions are reversed.?
Apparently economic conditions have improved dramatically since then. On June 6, Holtz-Eakin squared the circle, announcing, ??That plan, when appropriately phased in, as it has always been intended to be, will bring the budget to balance by the end of his first term.?
4. The Media??s Treatment of Hillary Clinton. No doubt, John McCain suffers from recurring bouts of selective amnesia. And some episodes take only days to manifest themselves. During his disastrous ??green screen? speech on June 3, McCain reached out to Hillary Clinton??s supporters by proclaiming, ??The media often overlooked how compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than she sometimes received.? But by June 7, McCain denied to Newsweek that his media critique never passed his lips, ??I did not??that was in prepared remarks, and I did not??I??m not in the business of commenting on the press and their coverage or not coverage.?
5. The Estate Tax. Just days before his contortionist act on Social Security, John McCain reversed course on the estate tax as well. On June 8, 2006, McCain on the Senate floor expressed his agreement with Teddy Roosevelt that ??most great civilized countries have an income tax and an inheritance tax? and ??in my judgment both should be part of our system of federal taxation.? But after years of battling Republican colleagues dead-set on dismantling the so-called ??death tax? and instead promoting a $5 million trigger, on Tuesday John McCain sounded the retreat. Now, he insists, ??the estate tax is one of the most unfair tax laws on the books.?
6. FISA, Domestic Surveillance and Telecom Immunity. When it comes to the Bush administration??s program of domestic spying on Americans, McCain has performed similar logical gymnastics. On December 20, 2007, McCain suggested to the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Charles Savage that President Bush had clearly crossed the line. As Wired??s Ryan Singel noted:
??I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is,? McCain said. The Globe??s Charlie Savage pushed further, asking , ??So is that a no, in other words, federal statute trumps inherent power in that case, warrantless surveillance?? To which McCain answered, ??I don??t think the president has the right to disobey any law.?
But on June 2, McCain adviser Holtz-Eakin put that notion to rest, telling the National Review:
??[N]either the Administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the ACLU and the trial lawyers, understand were Constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001.?
Pressed to explain the glaring inconsistencies, John McCain on June 6 played dumb, deciding that cowardice is the better part of valor. As the New York Times reported, McCain now believes the legality of Bush??s regime of NSA domestic surveillance is unclear and, in any event, is old news:
??It??s ambiguous as to whether the president acted within his authority or not,? he said, saying courts had ruled different ways on the matter. ??I??m not interested in going back. I??m interested in addressing the challenge we face to day of trying to do everything we can to counter organizations and individuals that want to destroy this country. So there??s ambiguity about it. Let??s move forward.?
As for immunity for the telecommunications firms cooperating with the White House in what before August 2007 was doubtless illegal surveillance, there too McCain??s position has evolved. On May 23, campaign surrogate Chuck Fish announced that McCain would not back retroactive immunity ??unless there were revealing Congressional hearings and heartfelt repentance from those telephone and Internet companies.? Subsequently, the McCain campaign swiftly backtracked, claiming its man supports immunity unconditionally.
7. Restoring the Everglades. On June 5, John McCain traveled to the Everglades to win over Floridians and environmentally-minded voters. There he proclaimed, ??I am in favor of doing whatever??s necessary to save the Everglades.? Sadly, as ThinkProgress documented, McCain not only opposed $2 billion in funding for the restoration of the Everglades national park, he backed President Bush??s veto of the legislation in 2007. ??I believe,? he said, ??that we should be passing a bill that will authorize legitimate, needed projects without sacrificing fiscal responsibility.?
8. Divestment from South Africa. During his June 2 speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), John McCain called for the international community to target Iran for the kind of worldwide sanctions regime applied to apartheid-era South Africa. Unfortunately, McCain??s lobbyist-advisers Charlie Black and Rick Davis each represented firms doing business with Tehran. Even more unfortunate, John McCain was frequently not among those offering ??moral clarity and conviction? in backing ??a divestment campaign against South Africa, helping to rid that nation of the evil of apartheid.? As ThinkProgress detailed:
Despite voting to override President Reagan??s veto of a bill imposing economic sanctions against South Africa in 1986, McCain voted against sanctions on at least six other occasions.
9. Fighting Job Losses in Michigan. During the run-up to the Michigan primary, John McCain cautioned workers there in January that he didn??t want to raise ??false hopes that somehow we can bring back lost jobs,? adding that it? wasn??t government??s job to protect buggy factories and haberdashers when cars replaced carriages and men stopped wearing hats.? But after getting trounced in Michigan by Mitt Romney and watching the economy deteriorate further, McCain has had a change of heart. As Bloomberg noted on June 5:
Nowadays, the party??s presumptive nominee is singing a different tune, striking a populist pose and saying ??new jobs are coming?? ?Over the past few months, however, McCain has taken a lesson from Romney, acknowledging recently that ??Americans are hurting.? Returning to Michigan last month, the Arizona senator told a local television station that he would fight for new jobs and the state wouldn??t ??be left behind.?
Perhaps the good people of Michigan, as John McCain suggested to a Kentucky audience in April, can make a living on eBay.
10. Opposing Hurricane Katrina Investigations. During a June 4th town hall meeting in Baton Rouge, John McCain answered a reporter??s question regarding Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the New Orleans levees by announcing:
??I??ve supported every investigation and ways of finding out what caused the tragedy. I??ve been here to New Orleans. I??ve met with people on the ground.?
As it turns out, not so much. McCain??s revisionist history neglects to mention that in 2005 and 2006 he twice voted against a commission to study the government??s response to Katrina. He also opposed three separate emergency funding measures providing relief to Katrina victims, including the extension of five months of Medicaid benefits. And as ThinkProgress pointed out, ??until traveling there one month ago, McCain had made just one public tour of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina touched down in August 2005.?
And so it goes. As surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west each day, so too will John McCain change positions. (Like that other law of nature, McCain??s flip-flops are literally becoming a daily occurrence. Since this piece was originally drafted on Saturday, McCain added two new policy turnabouts - on phasing out rather than repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax and on requiring a litmus test for his judicial appointees - to his litany of reversals.) As the Pew Research Center recently found, the word Americans now most frequently use to describe John McCain is not ??maverick,? but ??old.? Given the dizzying pace of his reversals, ??opportunist? may soon top that list.
Here's an idea! Let's look at McCain's flip-flops
McCain Flip Flop is nothing new...
Fear this man
[GVIDEO]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5427374227663840448&q=McCain+Flip+ Flop+Video&ei=KHqWSIXtKJSUrgLkgO3HBQ[/GVIDEO]
Here's an idea! Let's look at McCain's flip-flops
he's just the kind of asshole america should elect to continue driving us off of the cliff
Here's an idea! Let's look at McCain's flip-flops
You forgot these, honey. Some of them are older, but they're also some of McCain's more significant ones.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/9111.html
McCain??s flourishing flip-flop list
Just to follow-up briefly on Michael??s guest-post from yesterday, Sen. John McCain??s (R-Ariz.) new-found opposition to Roe v. Wade is rather remarkable, even for him.
In 1999, McCain was in New Hampshire, campaigning for the GOP nomination as a moderate. He proclaimed himself a pro-life candidate, but told reporters that ??in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade.? He explained that overturning Roe would force ??women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations.? Yesterday, campaigning for the GOP nomination as a conservative, McCain said the opposite.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask one question about abortion. Then I want to turn to Iraq. You??re for a constitutional amendment banning abortion, with some exceptions for life and rape and incest.
MCCAIN: Rape, incest and the life of the mother. Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So is President Bush, yet that hasn??t advanced in the six years he??s been in office. What are you going to do to advance a constitutional amendment that President Bush hasn??t done?
MCCAIN: I don??t think a constitutional amendment is probably going to take place, but I do believe that it??s very likely or possible that the Supreme Court should ?? could overturn Roe v. Wade, which would then return these decisions to the states, which I support?. Just as I believe that the issue of gay marriage should be decided by the states, so do I believe that we would be better off by having Roe v. Wade return to the states.
The old McCain didn??t want an amendment and didn??t want Roe overturned. The new McCain completely disagrees with the old McCain.
It??s worth noting that politicians?? opinions on abortion can, and often do, ??evolve? over time. Dick Gephardt and Al Gore, for example, both opposed abortion rights before eventually becoming pro-choice. With this in mind, McCain??s unexpected shift may simply reflect yet another pol whose thinking has changed over time.
Or, far more likely, McCain is once again abandoning any pretense of consistency and integrity, and is now willing to say literally anything to win.
Let??s return, once again, to McCain??s flourishing flip-flop list, which is now a Top 11 list.
* McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as ??an agent of intolerance? in 2002, but has since decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans ??deserved? the 9/11 attacks. (Indeed, McCain has now hired Falwell??s debate coach.)
* McCain used to oppose Bush??s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.
* In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending ??dirty money? to help finance Bush??s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.
* McCain supported a major campaign-finance reform measure that bore his name. In June, he abandoned his own legislation.
* McCain used to think that Grover Norquist was a crook and a corrupt shill for dictators. Then McCain got serious about running for president and began to reconcile with Norquist.
* McCain took a firm line in opposition to torture, and then caved to White House demands.
* McCain gave up on his signature policy issue, campaign-finance reform, and won??t back the same provision he sponsored just a couple of years ago.
* McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it.
* McCain was anti-ethanol. Now he??s pro-ethanol.
* McCain was both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.
* And now he??s both for and against overturning Roe v. Wade.
It??s not exactly a newsflash that McCain is veering ridiculously to the right in a rather shameless attempt to reinvent himself, but Dems should take advantage of the situation and help establish the narrative now. Despite his rather embarrassing record of late, we still have major media figures telling the public that ??no one would accuse McCain of equivocating on anything.?
Now is the time to begin characterizing McCain ?? accurately ?? as a man with no principle beliefs. Dems should not only criticize McCain??s constantly evolving opinions on nearly everything, they should openly mock him for it now, so that the storyline becomes second nature (like the GOP did with ??serial exaggerator? Al Gore).
The nation is seeing McCain 2.0, and we like the old one better.
Here's an idea! Let's look at McCain's flip-flops
Is this when I spam the boards about those, "Repubs McCainites, where you at to defend mr.mccain", then later say they endorse neither candidate.
Here's an idea! Let's look at McCain's flip-flops
Quote:
Originally Posted by birdgirl73
There's so much noise being made about the opposing candidate's changing positions that the noisemakers fail to realize that candidate McCain long ago cornered the market on changing positions.
Noisemakers? Wow, that's harsh.:rolleyes:
I see we have some fine bi-partisan sources such as "Crooks and Liars", "Keith Oberman", and the "Carpetbaggerreport". I try to stay away from these types myself.....Sean Hannity would be a good example of this from the right but hey, to each his own. Considering all this good information though it's suprising that McCain is tied with Obama in the Gallop polls.
We all know what were getting with McCain. A moderate conservative asshole politician that is an american hero, has cut deals for 30 years in Senate behind closed doors, has a mind for military operations as proven with the surge, hasn't taken earmarks, is best suited to deal with the likes of Iran and Venezuela to name a few, and our best chance of drilling the hell out of this country for oil.
As for myself....I'll vote for the asshole before the piece of shit. The lesser of two evils once again. Hey, what is it Obama is actually for again????
Have a good one!:s4:
Here's an idea! Let's look at McCain's flip-flops
P4B why dont you truly tell us what you think lol......
Here's an idea! Let's look at McCain's flip-flops
Quote:
Originally Posted by fishman3811
P4B why dont you truly tell us what you think lol......
I know I'm a bit timid fishman......have to learn how to express myself more on here I guess.:D
Have a good one!:s4:
Here's an idea! Let's look at McCain's flip-flops
P4B well i know what you mean all politicians are only out for themselves and that will never change.
Here's an idea! Let's look at McCain's flip-flops
Obama is just as bad...
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BckykC3NrHw[/YOUTUBE]
