Washington Post chronicles McCain’s flip flops
The Washington Post, in an article talking about flip flops by both candidates, doesn’t spare McCain.
Have a look:
McCain has changed his stances more often than he is usually prepared to admit.
…
Nachama Soloveichik, communications director for the Club for Growth, a free-market think tank and lobby group, said Romney comes across as “more sincere” than McCain when it comes to maintaining President Bush’s tax cuts. She said the senator had sounded “like Ted Kennedy” in 2001, when he opposed the tax cuts because they helped the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
“He is trying to have it both ways,” Soloveichik said. “It’s hard to take him seriously when he says he is going to fight to make the Bush cuts permanent. He was front and center opposing them.”
[in defending himself against McCain's flip-flop charges]
Romney shot back that McCain was “against the Bush tax cuts” but “now he’s for making them permanent.” And “he was for McCain-Kennedy” immigration reform, Romney continued. “Now he’s for a new program on immigration. He’s changed his view on issue after issue. He was against ethanol, then for it, then against it again.”
…
[A] Romney ad … shows McCain justifying his position change on the Bush tax cuts with the “Blue Danube” providing the soundtrack. A caption then flashes across the screen: “John McCain. Always for Tax Cuts . . . Except when he’s against them.”
Romney supporters argue that McCain’s flip-flops have largely been under the public radar because they conflict with the “straight shooter” narrative that they say has been accepted and promoted by the media. McCain has altered his position on such issues as taxes, immigration, the religious right, Roe v. Wade and ethanol. McCain has moved toward mainstream Republican positions on all these issues, including an embrace of the Ronald Reagan philosophy that tax cuts always lead to higher government revenue.
The senator has sought to disguise his flip-flop on the Bush tax cuts by arguing that the main reason he opposed them was that they were not accompanied by cuts in government spending. This was not the explanation he gave at the time, however. In a May 2001 speech on the Senate floor, he said he could not “in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle-class Americans who most need tax relief.”
This article hits Mitt, too, but most of us here have understood and gotten comfortable with Mitt’s change to pro-life (a conversion we welcome), but the story here is that at least someone is noticing that McCain’s “Straight Talk” label is bunk.
February 5th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
I am still wondering, to this day, why didn’t Romney’s campaign use the famous Kerry’s phrase on McCain - “I voted FOR tax cuts after I voted AGAINST it”…
February 5th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
This is only the beginning for McCain if he gets the nomination. Why do you think the Washington Post is starting this now? Because they think he’s got the nomination in the bag.
February 5th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Uh, where was the Post last week when this would have had more impact… I hope everyone reads their paper before going to vote today
February 5th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Good point, SB, but the backlash would be too much.
We understand Flip/Flop = someone who goes back and forth repeatedly on the same issue. But that is not how the media defines it. They make Flip = Flip/Flop.
Governor Romney has flipped his public stance on abortion. He has admitted his previous effective pro-choice position and mended his ways. That shows strength of character, and wisdom. He has never gone back, so no flop. The Gay Marriage argument holds no water as he was never for it in the first place. The sad truth, however, is the media has painted him as a flip/flopper and it has stuck. The real truth is, Governor Romney has been consistently conservative in public office (and that includes fiscally conservative too, to those wavering Huckabee supporters out there. Please give Romney and conservatism a chance today…)
So, Governor Romney simply can’t open this can of worms or he would be excoriated by the MSM. We all see McCain for what he is, though, so we need to get the word out, and GOTV for our man. We can’t let our party be hijacked by liberals and those who align themselves with their agenda.
Rally to Mitt!
February 5th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Frozone, I don’t know…I guess I could never be a candidate or an adviser to one because I believe in say out loud whatever you feel, especially if the other candidate lies in front of millions of people. I don’t see how Mitt would get hurt if he used some “straight talk” on TV, something like “you say I am a flip flopper? What about Senator McCain here who voted for tax cut after he voted against it…it would be nice of you to look at both of us, not just what you don’t like about me”.
But then again, I am not a political adviser