What's this . . . John McCain flip-flops on energy policy and CNN tells the tale! Crazy stuff, don't they know he's a straight-talker who can do no wrong? At any rate, kudos to Dana Bash.
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A Job Well Done
17 Jun 2008 07:29 pm
Comments (15)
I'm not sure using a "flip-flopper" charge is wise, given his stubbornness and disconnection from reality with regard to the wisdom of the invasion. The problem is that he flip-flops on sensible positions--the environment, torture, taxes--and holds fast onto insanity.
McCain is just too complicated a guy to go after with a simple frame. He combines great heroism (POW) with sickening callousness (Carol). He was a "good" Republican who many Dems wouldn't have minded seeing as VP in '04, and now he's the last hope of the dead-enders. The victim of torture who now supports torture, the campaign finance reformer who hangs out with lobbyists, the cap-and-trader gas-tax-cutter. There's no rhyme or reason here--just the capricious browning motion of his whims, both honorable and selfish.
He's easy to attack, but any attempt to get those attacks to gel together into a coherent narrative seems to fail.
It's interesting, he's trying to get all kinds of credit for breaking with his party, but all his flip-flops are demonstrating is how totally opportunistic and shallow his "maverick" moves really are.
He broke with his party when it was to his political benefit to call out the Republicans on their tax breaks for the wealthy, but once he started running for office and needed those R votes, he's all "nope, they make growth! They're amazing!"
Now he's doing it on the environment. One day he waxes populist, saying he'd support a windfall profits tax. But the next day, he's gotta keep the business guys happy, so he goes to Texas and says a windfall profits tax would be foolishness! Carterism! All the while trying to get credit from the independents for supporting cap-and-trade while denying that his cap-and-trade bill is still a cap-and-trade even though it doesn't have caps, because Republicans don't like caps. What's amazing here is that on cap-and-trade, it's a simultaneous flip-flop!
Likewise, he was tough on social security when he wanted to impress the beltway anti-entitlement gang and get close to Bush's supporters for his '08 run, but now that he's got his hand on the third rail, it's all "privatization? I NEVER supported it!"
So far, the only issues I see him standing firm on are anti-choice (though he certainly doesn't talk about his support for a constitutional amendment banning abortion), and a pre-emptive neocon foreign policy.
Wacky.
Covering McCain should be easy- just listen to what he said and mash it up with what he said six months ago.
What would be great is a central hub of McCain spots from all his news appearances and town halls cut apart and organized by topic. That way if you wanted to show how many times he has flip flopped you could go to the website, navigate to a topic and have 100 McCain videos saying different things on any given issue. It would be a really deadly instrument in the era of youtube and the media can be a bit lazy and would love it too. A couple interns could probably set it up or at least make a good start. Think Jedreport on steroids. If you like the idea, Matt, give it some attention.
As someone at the New Yorker noted recently, The Daily Show has nailed down the simple task of researching [clip 1] what Cheney said then and [clip 2] what Cheney says now, to show that he's a liar.
There must be a mid-level writer/editor/producer at CNN gunning for a promotion... or spending too much time watching Comedy Central.
browning motion
Just a nitpick, the term is "Brownian motion."
McCain is the biggest flip flopper around; it should be easy to portray him as such in a general election.
Sites like therealmccain.com jedreport.com do a great job of providing video evidence of McCain's unfitness to be president.
McCain is the biggest flip flopper around; it should be easy to portray him as such in a general election.
Sites like therealmccain.com jedreport.com do a great job of providing video evidence of McCain's unfitness to be president.
McCain is the biggest flip flopper around; it should be easy to portray him as such in a general election.
Sites like therealmccain.com and jedreport.com do a great job of providing video evidence of McCain's unfitness to be president.
It's odd that people are accusing him of flip-flopping, when the real problem is that his position now is *more right wing* than the position he had before he got the nomination. We may have a race where both candidates, because of reasons peculiar to them, are not going to tack to the center much during the general. Both in part because they have unfinished business with many primary voters.
It's only your buddy Marc Ambinder who thinks that McSame can do no wrong.
Flip-flopper doesn't say enough.
What this shows is that he essentially doesn't think about anything. He doesn't have any real domestic policy positions on anything.
How could the same man be a Maverick in 2000 and a far right war monger in 2008 with no useful policy ideas while the entire country shifted left? Simple. He doesn't know anything. He contradicts himself constantly and just gets fed ideas that he then rides like holy crusades, even if he opposed the same policy a month earlier.
The man as president will be a disaster. He'll kick the can down the road on every important issue and crusade on idiotic ones.
Obama's energy policy
no to new refineries
no to new drilling
no to nuclear
yes to hydrogen cars that emit pure drinking water
yes to windfall profits tax
yes to pretty pink windmills with pretty flowers planted below
Obama's energy policy no to new refineries no to new drilling no to nuclear yes to hydrogen cars that emit pure drinking water yes to windfall profits tax yes to pretty pink windmills with pretty flowers planted below
Allowing for the simplification, this is a problem because...?
Comments closed July 01, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
My question is, why haven't the Dems, or at least MoveOn, released some adds showing how McCain has flip-flopped over the years? Are they just waiting for him to do it some more, so they can get the maximum effect? Seems like they should be defining him as a flip-flopper early on, since that actually is one of his main weaknesses...
Posted by Noah | June 17, 2008 7:42 PM