Sen. McCain got pwned on ABC’s The View today… not only did the women (save for Elizabeth Hassleback who tried to take the bullet many times and failed) ravage him on the choice of Palin as his running mate, but also on the lie his campaign keep saying that she never requested earmarks as governor.
But the best part was the fact that they forced him to essentially issue a challenge… so Sen. McCain has thrown down the gauntlet… and he better be prepared for the onslaught that’s coming.
While appearing on the show today, McCain tried to defend his ‘maverick’ image and failed… epically.
Joy Behar: “… you used to be more of the Maverick, then you sort of turned.”
McCain: “In what way?”
Behar: “You became much more lockstep, I think, with your party, with George Bush’s policies. […] I don’t see the old John McCain. … I understand why — you want to get elected.”
McCain: “I’ve been through this litany before, where I say, “ok, what specific area have I quote changed?” Nobody can name it. … I am the same person and I have the same principles.”
Ooooo, a dare…
McCain argued that on issues (spending, climate change, the war in Iraq, torturing of prisoners) he’s the “same guy” he always has been.
WRONG-O!
He dared people to give examples of how he’s flip-flopped on any issue, and you know the progressive blogosphere will have a field day with this… in fact it’s already started on Think Progress and The Carpetbagger Report.
Rather than point all of them out (I don’t have that kind of time), I chose my Top Ten John McCain Flip Flops… enjoy.
10. John Hagee, Rod Parsley. Jerry Falwell. All three are ‘controversial’ (read: idiotic) religious leaders who have either said outrageous and inane things or done outrageous and inane things. First he didn’t want their endorsement… then he did… then he didn’t again, but still kept the endorsement. Confused? Imagine how McCain feels…
09. Lobbyists. Back in May of this year McCain approved a ban on lobbyists working for his campaign… months later in July his campaign changed their mind and said lobbyists could work for his campaign.
08. Roe v Wade. First he said he would NOT repealing it, now he says the exact opposite.
07. Immigration. McCain announced in February 2008 that he would vote against his own bill. (Voting against your own bill is damn near the definition of flip-flopping. You can also see is own lobbying-reform legislation from 1997 that he crafted yet now opposes as another example of voting against a bill he created)
06. Taxes. McCain was against Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy before he was for them and vowing to keep them in place.
05. Social Security. First he defended the “privatizing” of Social Security and now he says he’s against privatization when in reality he still supports it. Also, at first he said he would not, under any circumstances, raise taxes… not soon after he said “nothing off the table” regarding an increase in the payroll tax.
04. McCain was against expanding the GI Bill to the point he offered his own version that was panned by every veteran’s group dating back to the Peloponnesian war… how he’s for it AND taking credit for it.
03. McCain believed the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with Hamas, he now believes the opposite. He also believed the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with Syria, he now believes the opposite. He also supported normalization of relations with Cuba… he now believes the opposite. (Do you sense a trend here?)
02. Torture. How in God’s name a former POW who was tortured over a course of five years can support waterboarding is anyone’s guess. But this past February McCain did just that and reversed course on the banning of waterboarding.
And the number one McCain flip-flop can be summed up in one word: Iraq.
McCain recently claimed that he was the “greatest critic” of Rumsfeld’s failed Iraq policy, however in December 2003, McCain praised the strategy as “a mission accomplished.” Later, in March 2004, he said, “I’m confident we’re on the right course.” In December 2005, he said, “Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course.” (Yeah, how’d that work out for us Johnny boy?)
Furthermore on Iraq, McCain said before the war in Iraq; “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” Four years later McCain said he knew all along that the war in Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough.”
As if that wasn’t enough, McCain has also changed his mind about a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq many, many many times… coming to the different conclusion that a Korea-like presence is both a good and a bad idea. 20.
McCain staunchly opposed Obama’s Iraq withdrawal timetable, and even blasted Mitt Romney for having referenced the word during the GOP primaries. In July, after Iraqi officials endorsed Obama’s policy, McCain said a 16-month calendar sounds like “a pretty good timetable.”
These aren’t even counting the facts that he opposed a holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., before he supported it… or that he endorsed intelligent design creationism in 2005 before saying the opposite a year later and then months after that saying that he was for and against creationism… or the fact he opposed a variety of measures on equal pay for women but then, this past July, said that he’s “committed to making sure that there’s equal pay for equal work. That, is my record and you can count on it” (not on my life would I count on ANYTHING this man says… or how he changed course on Bush’s warrantless-wiretap program circumventing the law or the fact he was all for closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay… now not so much.
Remember, these are only my Top Ten flip-flops. If you want more, click HERE or HERE or HERE.
Let’s take-up this challenge and show McCain, and the American people, just how much he DOES flip-flop.
And how sad is it that a show that is defined more as entertainment than news is the only one to do the work of a journalist? Looks as though Ms. Walters has a little journalistic integrity left in her after all… good job everyone.
Except you Elizabeth…
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