John McCain: World's Biggest Flip Flopper

It's been a dizzying fall for the once-semi-credible John McCain. In his quest for for the Republican nomination in '08, he's reached new lows in pandering and boot-licking and has now become the nation's biggest flip flop. At one point in time McCain was seen as a maverick, an outsider, someone who wasn't afraid of taking on many aspects of the knuckle-dragging tendencies of GOP doctrine. Well, that's all changed (if it ever was true to begin with, anyway):

So it’s truly disheartening to watch McCain jettison the principled independence that used to make him a transcendent figure. Jerry Fallwell, formerly an “agent of intolerance” in McCain’s estimation is now a chum, who no doubt smiled when McCain decided to deliver the keynote address at a creationist convention.

Abortion used to be a woman’s choice. Now it’s time to overturn Roe v. Wade, says McCain. McCain says he doesn’t believe in building a border fence, but then, suddenly, in the same sentence, he offers to build the “damn fence” if the GOP base demands it. Same goes for gay marriage, which he recently said “should be allowed”, until an adviser whispered in his ear, prompting him to clarify, “I do not think that gay marriages should be legal.”

The Flop meter:
Abortion rights? Flop.
Rev. Falwell and his band of merry mischief-makers? Flop.
Soft money campaign donations? Flop.
Gay marriage? Flop.
Swift-Boat electioneering tactics? Flop.
Supported Rumsfeld's agenda? Flop.
Straight Talk Express? Flop.
Flip? Flop.

McCain's recent public reaming of Donald Rumsfeld - however deserved - is just another nail in the coffin. To slightly paraphrase another pol once accused of the dreaded flip flop - didn't McCain vote for Rumsfeld's handling of the war before he voted against it:

At a campaign stop in South Carolina on Monday, Mr McCain lashed out at Donald Rumsfeld, the controversial former defence secretary, as "one of the worst secretaries of defence in history". The 70-year-old Vietnam war veteran added: "We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement – that's the kindest word I can give you – of Donald Rumsfeld of this war. The price is very, very heavy and I regret it enormously."

Sad, really. The man is so intent reaching the White House that he now values propaganda over principle. The abortion flop has provided the impetus for a host of folks to take a look at McCain's past statements, and boy howdy! are they ever revealing. The ugliest flop may be the hiring of the douchebags who created havoc for Kerry in '04 when they Swiftboated the truth right out from under Kerry's legs. At the time, McCain shouted something along the lines of "liar, liar pants on fire" at the concept and the weasels behind it; now however, he's apparently decided that weasels make plenty good company for the likes of him and his campaign. Sure, politicians are inherently untrustworthy, and yeah, they often change their tune on an issue or two to appease the base, but the glad-handing realignment with the lunatics on the religious right makes absolutely no sense. They don't pull enough weight in the electorate to actually elect anybody. Sure, they're often more motivated to vote in the primaries, but in a general election they're outnumbered by a wide margin even within their own party. Centrist, moderate Republicans despise them nearly as much as those of us on the left; the financial conservatives also push them away as their inflammatory rhetoric tends to push financial issues onto the backburner, whilst debate rages over some far-flung, high-strung social issue that has no real world value - abstinence education for example - and takes attention away from corporate wants and needs that the GOP depends on for cash, cash, cash! So it's come to this - McCain suckling at the neocon teat for his sustenance, as whatever vestiges of dignity and self-worth the man once had are swept out into the trash like so many used packing peanuts. Not that I'm crying over the self-destruction of a GOP candidate, that's always amusing, but there was a time when McCain almost (almost!) sounded like someone with a little common sense and a good idea or two somewhere up his sleeve. That John McCain is dead; replacing him is someone willing to blow goats in furtherance of a political career.
Want to see for yourself? Check out the video below. It's McCain -Vs-McCain:


Well, to do a little more paraphrasing as to John McCain's ambitions and intentions - I guess you go to the presidential primaries with the principles you now have, not the principles you wish you had...