Monday, September 1, 2008

McCain's flips and flops

In a healthy political atmosphere, a politician has to be allowed to change his mind. But there's a difference between coming to a new perspective on issues over time and flipping everything in an instant to try to win an election. The degree to which McCain has gone from being a "maverick" to toeing the Bush party line is shameful. He is running as the experienced candidate that is a "known" quantity, yet has only come to hold most of his major positions over the last two years.

TAXES
During most of the Bush presidency, John McCain opposed the Bush Tax Cuts and supported the basic principle of the Estate Tax. Now he considers those same Bush Tax Cuts and a heavy rollback of the "most unfair" Estate Tax to be major parts of his economic plan. And those aren't the only tax policies he's tried to have both ways.

IMMIGRATION
In 2006, McCain was a strong proponent of a landmark immigration bill that was derided by many conservatives. This year his focus is on border security instead, and he's made conflicting statements on whether he would vote against his own bill and the DREAM Act.

FOREIGN DIPLOMACY
McCain has frequently criticized Obama for his willingness to use diplomacy when dealing with dictators. However, during the Bush presidency he was willing to consider negotiating with Hamas and Syria and normalizing relations with Cuba, positions he now opposes and mocks Obama for.

WAR
McCain accuses Obama of naivety when discussing war, but often comes around to agreeing with his positions. He now claims to have been "the greatest critic" of the Iraq War despite cheerleading for it throughout the first four years, keeps changing his mind on the need for a long-term presence in Iraq, now sees a 16-month timetable for Iraq as "pretty good", and is increasingly aligning with Obama's call for forces to be transitioned from Iraq to Afghanistan.

CIVIL LIBERTIES AND HUMAN RIGHTS
John McCain used to criticize the Bush administration for how it was rolling back civil rights in its "War on Terror". However, he has now withdrawn nearly all of his criticisms, supporting Bush's warrentless wiretaps, ending his confrontations with the Bush administration over torture, and pulling his support for trials of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

ABORTION RIGHTS
In 1999, McCain stated that he would not support a repeal of Roe v. Wade, even in the long term. In 2007, he decided that Roe v. Wade should be overturned. And just this year he put a hold on his attempts to insert language into the Republican platform that would protect abortion rights in cases of rape and incest.

THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT AND "FAMILY VALUES"
McCain often has trouble catering to the religious right without alienating independents, which means that his campaign must be as unclear as possible when discussing gay adoption, gay rights, which theories to teach in science class, and pandering to extremists within the Religious Right.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
McCain made a name for himself by bucking the wishes of his own party in campaign finance reform. But once he started competing for the nomination, many parts of that reform fell by the wayside, including his dedication to not hiring lobbyists and the finance reform bill he had championed.

PRIVATIZING SOCIAL SECURITY
McCain says that he does not want to privatize Social Security, though his plans to privatize Social Security have remained unchanged. He has just decided to pretend that "privatize" means something else.


For even more position switches from John McCain, including his reversals on equal pay for women, the Law of the Sea convention, divestment from South Africa, the NRA, nuclear fuel storage, ethanol, affirmative-action, coastal drilling, associating with corrupt politicians, and many other policies, see the CarpetBagger Report's:

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