Bad Week For McCain

So Charlie Black, former lobbyist for Ahmed Chalabi, is going to be gone from the McCain campaign shortly? I'll believe it when I see it.

More flip flopping from McCain. He's the ultimate creature of Washington, pandering all over the place.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P1vfXsiBw2k

There isn't a single issue he hasn't flipped on. Except, I think, abortion. Or did have two positions on "life of the mother exceptions"

This is an open flip flop thread.

I'll be by with more.

Huh. I'll be damned.

NRA

http://cliffschecter.firedoglake.com/2008/05/16/mccain-speaks-to-the-nra-whose-role-in-the-gop-he-once-condemned/

But yesterday, Bushies said that they actually were targeting Obama with their "appeasement" slur.

And why on earth didn't the McCain campaign vet its people before it hired them? Maybe Republicans primary voters don't care about lobbyists who represent murderous dictators doing their business from the Straight Talk Express, but I doubt it'll fly with the general electorate.

All staff and volunteers have been requested to report their lobbying/foreign government ties post haste.

That's a funny one.

One of McCain's staff members is a former cabinet-level official with the Mexican government who worked directly with Vicente Fox.

Not only that, but a non-hack asked him about it a few months back but the guy was still doing outreach for McCain last I heard.

And, he's been a senior fellow at the McCain-linked think tank for a couple years.

So, Michael Scherer, please tell me another one.

"Then George Bush goes to Israel and forces McCain into a shouting match with Obama about whether or not Hitler has anything to do with Hamas."

How did George Bush force McCain into a shouting match with Obama? Are you admitting that McCain is Bush's puppet?

Please fill out this form in full and sign below certifying that it will not be necessary for us to deny having ever laid eyes on you two weeks hence......

The problem with McCain is that as the Republican nominee, he has to have Republicans on the payroll. Because, as has been clear for a long time, there are no intellectually honest Republicans of character who are willing to stray from the party line, there is no pool of uncompromised advisors with campaign experience.

As for this Then George Bush goes to Israel and forces McCain into a shouting match with Obama about whether or not Hitler has anything to do with Hamas

Who forced him? This was a perfect opportunity for McCain to distance himself, but because McCain has spent the past eight years demonstrating his loyalty to the WH, the only way he gets the power of the Executive intercede on his behalf at every opportunity, he has to stroke their vanity. It's his loyalty that gives him a President willing to insert these McCarthyite attacks in Israel on his behalf. So Mesestophales is stuck with his devil's bargain.

To get the independents, he has to run as a third party, severing ALL connections to the aparatus, because of his financial shennanigans, he needs more desperately than ever.

Thanks, Michael. In Ana's yet another post on the Clinton campaign, I commented that I heard on the Diane Rehm show this morning that the McCain camp was really in disarray and thought it would be a more interesting story. Look forward to follow-ups.

Key campaign staffers lobby for brutal dictatorships:

http://cliffschecter.firedoglake.com/2008/05/12/breaking-mccains-murderers-row/

Marcy has a helpful summary:

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/05/16/one-very-special-disclosure-survey/

Bad week for McCain. Good week for the country.

Flips on 2000 position on "rogue state rollback"

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/04/mccain-rewrites.html

By the way, Schechter's book is sorta the field guide to McCain oppo research.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0979482291

On both sides on gun show background checks

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2008/5/15/john-mccain-still-backs-closing-gun-show-loophole.html

Here ya go, jayackroyd-- Steve Benen's been compiling McCain flip-flops for a long while.

Not on that list-- I believe that he said, in 2000, that if his daughter wanted an abortion, he wouldn't forbid it. He said something along those lines that had the far-right up in arms, though, and I think he's backed down since. I could be wrong about the particulars.

McCain saw an opportunity for a cheap shot and took it. So he flip on another of his media created myths. So much for running an honorable campaign.

jayackroyd:
There isn't a single issue he hasn't flipped on. Except, I think, abortion.

Actually McCain has been "all over the lot on abortion". See e.g. Somerby's archives. At one point in the 2000 campaign, McCain said he supported Roe v. Wade before later reversing himself under pressure. He also made the very personal comment that if his (then minor) daughter got pregnant, it would be her choice what to do.

The difference between McCain's flip flops and Romney's is that McCain sounds more sincere when he does it. And the press loves McCain and covers for him.

Thank you Elvis. Did anyone else notice the MSM completely ignoring that earlier admission once Obama decided to retaliate?

Note to media -- can you at least reference the earlier admission when quoting Perino?

Finally, on McCain's "Rainbows in 2013" speech, I had to laugh at the date selected. I guess there really is a rule that all Presidential candidates have to select a year in their second term by which some campaign promise can be measured, thus assuring that they will not have to defend the pledge or proposal when running for a second term.

Crust-- Jon Chait put it like this: "Political conversions are hardly new or scandalous. McCain's ideological transformation is unusual for two reasons: First, he has moved across the political spectrum not once--like Al Smith or Mitt Romney--but twice. And, second, he refuses to acknowledge his change."

McCain, in addition to having sincerity faked as you point out, is also personally likable to media types, which Romney will never be able to pull off.

McCain in 1999 on Roe v. Wade:
"[I]n the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade."

Later in the same campaign he wrote to the NRLC:
"I share our common goal of reducing the staggering number of abortions currently performed in this country and overturning the Roe vs. Wade decision."

Negotiating with Hamas

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/15/exclusive-video-mccain-wa_n_102031.html

Elvis, exactly right. That Chait TNR piece is a good one.

He went to our state, and, well, he isn't doing too well because he is trying to put lipstick on the pig the GOP is riding to disaster in November.

Smoke, mirrors, Swiftboat, and Rovian tactics aren't gonna work.

McStupid has come out of the latest bash looking more tightly linked to Bush than ever before, and he has absolutely nothing to offer on any other issue.

McCain an environmentalist? I'll grant he might be a mentalist, but these things have been tried before, and it's never worked.

Both Bushes tried the 'Compassionate Conservative' tack and never could make it live side by side with the Southern Stategy.

Even though the Southern Strategy is pretty much dead, or dying, he just cannot garner any picture other than 'heartless bean-counter' that is the perception of so many voters planning to change things in November!

Elvis, I see you beat me to it on replying to jayackroyd on Senator Straight Talk's abortion flip flops.

I'm not sure there is anything McCain HASN'T flipflopped on!

Is there anything he has actually NOT flipflopped on? I would really, REALLY like to know!

Even his long standing campaign reform has been added to the list by his actions. What's left?

"Is there anything he has actually NOT flipflopped on?"

Hating Vietnamese?

Also, thank you MS, for a post that has some substance to it.

last one for now:

http://energysmart.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/greenwashed-mccain-all-sides-call-it-dirty/

and NOBODY's buying his greenwashing.

Thanks, Crust, but I liked your detail and wording better.

I really didn't like that McCain's personal views about his daughter became fodder for criticism during the 2000 primary, but social conservatives are totalitarians at heart-- they know what God wants, after all, so why compromise?

i hate to pile on, and this was in very poor taste, but has anyone else seen the commercial on Comedy Network for carlos mencia's show wher he says, "i'm sweating like john mccain at a vietnamese restaurant"....i shot milk out of my nose when i saw it during the daily show...
btw, mccain has not flip flopped on his name. he has stood fast with that (and presumably his soc sec number). other than those 2 things i am guessing he has policy dyslexia

Oh, and on the post.

If they enforce those rules, who is gonna be available to work for McCain? The trough's been open for 7 years now. Will they really be able to find enough clean ones to fill out a staff?

Elvis, I agree with you -- and Somerby at the link I gave -- that the question about McCain's daughter getting pregnant was not a fair one. I'd say the same for the famous question to Dukakis about his wife being raped. Those are just too visceral, too personal; it's not fair to the candidate and not healthy for our discourse to go there.

I can't help myself.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/15547.html

Social security.

The point here, of course, is that he's a typical republican, with no policy-making skills. It's only about one thing: cronyism.

MS: All staff and volunteers have been requested to report their lobbying/foreign government ties post haste.

I'm sorry that you have to fill out that form, Mike...

I kid! I kid!

But really; I'm hoping that y'all follow up on whether or not McCain drops what constitutes the brain trust of his campaign team, or just puts out a press release of his current intentions to do so.

Then today, we get presidential adviser Ed Gillespie basically apologizing for the whole misunderstanding. The goal, says Gillespie, was to ding Carter, not Obama. "We did not anticipate that it would be taken that way," Gillespie said, though the Obama forces still disagree.

And yet here's Froomkin over at the WaPo calling it much differently:

On the record, White House officials issued disingenuous denials that Bush was talking about Obama. But on background, they admitted as much.

CNN's Ed Henry reported that "White House aides privately acknowledged the remarks were aimed at the presidential candidate and others in his party."

Sasha Issenberg writes for the Boston Globe: "White House officials indicated that the criticism applied to Obama."

Brian Williams reported on the NBC Nightly News that "it was clear to those listening that it was in part to make a point about Barack Obama back home." NBC correspondent John Yang then added: "Privately, White House officials said the shoe fits the Democratic frontrunner."

Bush wasn't talking about Carter or some long-dead Republican. C'mon.

I get the feeling this week has been very sobering for the McCain campaign. He may never be able to dislodge himself from Bush and now has an opponent who is much more formidable than they appear to have thought he was. His only shot may be to embrace Bush and the GOP legacy completely and hope they can frighten enough people (terrorists! black people!) to eek out a victory. He's been skating for too long. Old man's not going to enjoy the scrutiny of a real campaign.

I think it is going to be very very hard for McCain to keep his cool as his record is examined and discrepancies are brought to light.

Old man's not going to enjoy the scrutiny of a real campaign.

I'm gonna keep saying "I told you so." He hasn't been on a real campaign in a very long time. He didn't even win the nomination. He was the last one standing in a very weak candidate pool.

He's got a record a mile long, and he's incoherent.

His reaction to the 100 years in Iraq ad was typical. First he whined, and then he "changed positions" without doing so--because he's still planning to leave those 50,000 troops in the permanent base after the Pony Paradise arrives. He's going to withdraw "most" of the troops.

None of his positions can bear any scrutiny, because he doesn't believe in anything except McCain as president.

All he's got is the press running his sping.

Conason:

Instead of chanting "flip-flop" like the Republicans did to John Kerry, maybe we should look on the brighter side of McCain's latest somersault, and simply accept his decision to reduce the occupation's prospective duration by 95 years. At this rate, by November he will be promising that the war will be won and the ponies will magically appear just as soon as he is inaugurated.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/05/16/mccain_iraq/

Pardon me, but wasn't I informed, in this very blog, of the following:

no one seemed to question the veracity of Obama’s claim. In fact, the statement that “many” of McCain’s top advisers are lobbyists, or that “many of them” have been running their lobbying practice from the bus is, well, not that accurate.

Hey, as long as the press thinks it's neat to lie for John McCain, that's cool, right?

My impression is that McCain is already in a mini-panic mode. He's not expecting Iraq to get any better or become any less of an issue over the next 6 months, so he's already talking about pulling out.

Amazing. This John McCain is not the John McCain of 2000. He doesn't stand for anything anymore.

Bad for McCain, good for America.

McCain needs a game-changer. I'm thinking it may be time for a barbecue at one of his seven other houses.

It goes without saying that McCain's bad week is bad news for Democrats.

Cliff:

I remember that one. He retracted THAT one, too. Or at least he tried publically.

Now it becomes a question of:

If he really believes something, but says something to the contrary publically, then is that a flipflop, or is it a flopflip?

What if he doesn't believe something, and says so, but changes his mind later. What is that?

How about if he is TOTALLY convinced that what he believes in is true, but publically denounces it?

MS:

#3 is going to empty his office, I think. Aren't the people who put up 'Swiftboat Veterans For Truth' a 527?

Last time I checked, it was...

J Ack...Type O Negative?

The ONLY issue Maverick hasn't flip flopped on is that he was a POW.

"This was supposed to be John McCain's green week, when he went to the Pacific Northwest, hung out with the forest people, and made clear to America that he is not George Bush. Yesterday's Back-To-The-Future prediction that the war in Iraq would be essentially won by 2013 was icing on the cake."

Wow, talk about drinking the Kool Aide. I've never seen anyone react to icing by laughing and shaking their head in amazement. Guess you thought that was a winner huh....yeah....okee dokee. Made clear to America? Always at least one paragraph reserved to impress Meghan.

Bring it on,

Bush used the appeasement remark in 2006 before Obama was ever running for office.

Obama is such a crybaby.

You want to talk about flip flopping how about Obama flip flopping on the Israeli wall. He was against it in 2004 but now is for it to appease AIPAC.

Obama said the DC gun ban was constitutional but on the debate on ABC he said he hadn't seen the details.

Jamie Rubin lied today.

Bring it on dems. In today's gallup poll Obama is down 47-45 percent to McCain.

Obama will never be elected president. Just look at the results in west virginia.

I can't wait until november when you libs are whining again about some diebold conspiracy.

Jamesryan, you must really _hate_ America. I'm not very fond of either of the Dems, but they would, by far, be better than another four years of Repugnant control. What does McCain have to offer that's any different from Bush?

Let's see.

Today is day 5 in Burma.

The US has been chomping at being able to help the people there. I remember Indonesia, too, we were there on day 2. We were also ready on day 1 of the most recent Chinese earthquake.

Maybe this would be a VERY good time to reflect on the different response New Orleans got after Katrina...

Let's add that to the toll Republicans must pay...

I mean after all, I, a regular American, without any access to the 'Red Phone' whatsoever, found out what happened less than TWO HOURS after the levees broke there.

And Bush let that phone ring for approximately 100 hours before answering it!

Now, who would YOU want to have answer that phone 3 AM in the morning?

McCain and Bush are now Tag Team Forin Palsy.

Jamesryan, now WHAT has been accomplished over there? Ah-hyuh, ah-hyuh...

I got it! Now I know!

This free trade business where companies are free to oursource our jobs, and a foreign policy that favors instability and high gas prices, the hatred Republicans have for fellow Americans of all stripes, the willingness to make arms deals with Iran in the '80s (talk about appeasement a la Bill O'Reilly!), blaming American victims of Hurricane Katrina for their own demise, I got it!

Republicans are foreigners in disguise! They must be, the wey they've handled our affairs!

You dems love to lie and especially the press. McCain did not agree with saying Obama was an appeaser.

First of all the line wasn't directed at Obama.

The world doesn't revolve around Obama.

He hasn't even won his primary yet so for Bush to be going after him is silly. He is about to lose Kentucky by 40 percent.

Bush used the appeasement remark in 2006. He used it generally. He was referring to countries at the UN who bash israel on the security council.

The white house said they were concerned it would be interpruted as an attack on Carter.

Bush has said many times he is staying out of the election fight.

This just showed Obama as a crybaby whiner.

Then for the dishonest media to make it like McCain agreed and called Obama and appeaser is typical.

MESSAGE TO MCCAIN: GET THE DAMN MEDIA OFF YOUR BUS. CHARLIE BLACK AND MARK SALTER ARE CLUELESS. TALKING TO THE MEDIA CONSTANTLY IS DISASTROUS. EVERYDAY ALL THEY ARE LOOKING AT IS WHICH WAY THEY CAN LIE, SMEAR AND DISTORT YOU BETTER THAN YESTERDAY.

McCain said he took Bush at his word that it wasn't about Obama. Then he was asked what he disagreed with Obama's foreign policy. That is when McCain said he disagreed with him talking to Iran's leader.

But the media who loves distorting McCain pretended he agreed saying Obama was an appeaser.

Bush had no control over the ineptness of Ray Nagin and Kathleen Blanco.

If libs knew anything they would know that the governor controls security in state emergencies. Read posse comitatus. But that gets in way of their blame Bush argument.

Funny how florida who has competent local and state leadership can deal fine with hurricanes. Only when incompetent dems are in control is it a disaster. The dem governor's popularity was so low she didn't even try to run for re-election. If Jindal had been in charge down there it would have been far better.

"Funny", I don't recall any cities in Florida being under 15 feet of water.

boothruskin Wrote:
"..My impression is that McCain is already in a mini-panic mode."
Oh.
And we still have 5 months to go!

------
McFishy:
" .. You ever see a freshly caught fish on the deck of a boat? It flips, then flops, then maybe flips again…
Remind you of anyone?"
-----------

Jamesryan:

That red phone rang for over 100 hours. Sh!t, there are no less that 22 bases within 500 miles of New Orleans.

I KNEW about it, though our own news channel, at 9 am in the morning the day the levees broke. Bush made the unbelievable claim that he didn't know till much later. Stupidity.

I remember clearly, and BTW, I challange you:

SHOW me, in ANY major natural disasters, where the locals were able to function effectively!

It didn't happen in the 1906 SF Earthquake, nor when Andrew came ashore, nor in Galveston TX, nor when Camille came ashore, nor during the 1811 New Madrid quake, nor during any other major national disaster.

AND, Jamesryan, you idgit, you seem to be unaware that the epicenter of any natural disaster is greatest at it's epicenter.

It's clear that to Republicans, the populace of a major American city that was destroyed was less important to the image abroad they had to polish before the world afterward. AND, because of the very simple fact they were able to respond so quickly to natural disasters in other countries in which the locals are not even in the loop, or, in some cases, as in Burma, are not even cooperating, both THAT argument and any other argument as to Republican conduct durning the Katrina disaster has been entirly mooted.

Let's not even mention the Un-American foulness perpetrated by those Republicans who insisted on blaming the victims themsleves!

Should read:

"AND, Jamesryan, you idgit, you seem to be unaware that the damage from any natural disaster is greatest at it's epicenter."

Corrected the damage part, not the idgit part!

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