Fox's Wallace did not challenge McCain campaign's assertion that "[y]ou'll never find John McCain changing his stripes just because of an election"
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SUMMARY: On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace did not challenge McCain campaign manager Rick Davis' assertion that "[y]ou'll never find [Sen.] John McCain changing his stripes just because of an election," despite criticism of Sen. John McCain's shifts on policy, some of which he has acknowledged. Indeed, McCain has "chang[ed] his stripes" and reversed his position on comprehensive immigration reform and the religious right.
On the August 10 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace did not challenge McCain campaign manager Rick Davis' assertion that "[y]ou'll never find [Sen.] John McCain changing his stripes just because of an election," despite criticism of McCain's shifts on policy, some of which he has acknowledged. In fact, as Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented throughout the course of the 2008 election season, in an attempt to satisfy conservative Republicans and more closely conform to the views of the GOP base, McCain "chang[ed] his stripes" and reversed his position on comprehensive immigration reform and the religious right.
- Immigration. McCain now says that "we've got to secure the borders first" -- a position at odds with his prior assertion that border security could not be disaggregated from other aspects of comprehensive immigration reform without being rendered ineffective. McCain further stated during the January 30 Republican presidential debate that he would not vote for the comprehensive reform bill he co-sponsored with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) if it came to a vote on the Senate floor. A November 4, 2007, Associated Press article reporting on McCain's reversal noted that McCain now "emphasizes securing the borders first," and also quoted McCain stating: "I understand why you would call it a, quote, shift. ... I say it is a lesson learned about what the American people's priorities are. And their priority is to secure the borders."
In a March 3 New York Times article, Elisabeth Bumiller wrote, "Senator John McCain likes to present himself as the candidate of the 'Straight Talk Express' who does not pander to voters or change his positions with the political breeze. But the fine print of his record in the Senate indicates that he has been a lot less consistent on some of his signature issues than he has presented himself to be so far in his presidential campaign." The article stated that McCain "has also expressed varying positions on immigration, torture, abortion and Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary." On immigration, Bumiller wrote:
Mr. McCain has also moved from his original position on immigration. In 2005, he joined forces with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, to co-sponsor an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws. Although the legislation included toughening border security, its center was a provision that would have provided a pathway to citizenship for many of the 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Conservatives immediately branded the bill as amnesty and fired steadily at Mr. McCain. After seeing his campaign and his fund-raising efforts derail last summer -- which his advisers attributed in large part to his position on immigration -- Mr. McCain now says that he got the message from voters. These days he speaks almost exclusively about border security, although he does say that it is not possible to deport 12 million illegal immigrants and that he would never deport the mother of a soldier serving in Iraq.
Additionally, in a June 20 Politico piece, journalist Gebe Martinez reported on McCain's reversal on immigration:
McCain, the Arizona senator, dismayed Latinos last year when he stepped back from his immigration bill that would have tightened the borders and legalized undocumented immigrants. As boos and hisses from angry Republican conservatives grew louder at campaign events, he switched course and vowed to "first" secure the borders. Were his failed bill to come up again, he would not vote for it, he said.
[...]
Trying to regain Latino support, McCain has chastised Republicans who stoke the fires of the immigration at election time. And at a private meeting with Chicago-area Latinos last week, he promised to push for a comprehensive immigration bill.
"It sounds like he's trying to have it both ways, and it's not convincing anyone," said Frank Sharry, who also was involved in immigration bill negotiations when he headed the National Immigration Forum.
This is not the McCain Hispanics thought they knew. Even after the 2001 terrorist attacks placed an emphasis on national security, McCain's speeches to Latino audiences and on the Senate floor prioritized the compassionate side of the immigration argument.
He understood that border security "first" means "deportation only" in the eyes of immigrant activists, and he championed a broader approach.
As the Senate mulled immigration in 2006, McCain often stood in the Capitol's corridors, pounding his fist in the air, arguing that border enforcement would not work without simultaneously penalizing employers who hire workers illegally, creating a temporary worker program and finding a way to bring 12 million illegal immigrants "out of the shadows" of society.
"It won't work! It won't work!" he protested of suggestions to do enforcement first. The stool cannot stand on one leg.
- Religious right. During his 2000 presidential run, McCain called Revs. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "agents of intolerance," asserting: "Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell on the right." However, McCain stated on the April 2, 2006, edition of NBC's Meet the Press that he no longer believed Falwell to be an "agent of intolerance." Subsequently, McCain delivered the commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University in May 2006. A May 14, 2006, Los Angeles Times article (retrieved from Nexis) described McCain's address as "an olive branch to Christian conservatives who could impede his presidential ambitions." The Times also noted that "[a]fter McCain accepted the invitation, critics accused him of pandering for political purposes."
Additionally, McCain admitted that during the 2000 South Carolina primary he pandered to Republican primary voters by failing to take a consistent position on whether the Confederate flag should fly atop South Carolina's Capitol dome. As reported in an April 20, 2000, New York Times article, McCain said that the flag was a "symbol of racism and slavery" but on the very next day called it a "symbol of heritage."
Indeed, in an April 20, 2000, speech, McCain stated that he had "compromise[d]" his "principles" in his statements on the flag:
McCAIN: My ancestors fought for the Confederacy, and I am sure that many, maybe all of them, fought with courage and with faith that they were serving a cause greater than themselves. But I don't believe their service, however distinguished, needs to be commemorated in a way that offends, that deeply hurts, people whose ancestors were once denied their freedom by my ancestors.
[...]
As I admitted, I should have done this earlier, when an honest answer could have affected me personally. I did not do so for one reason alone. I feared that if I answered honestly, I could not win the South Carolina primary. So, I chose to compromise my principles. I broke my promise to always tell the truth.
From the August 10 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday:
WALLACE: Let me switch to another member of the administration, the vice president, who we now find out has been invited to speak at the Republican convention on the first night But here is what McCain said about Cheney last year about the "mishandling," McCain's word, of the Iraq war.
Let's put it up: "Of course, the president bears the ultimate responsibility, but he was very badly served by both the vice president and, most of all, the secretary of Defense." Mr. Davis, given their sharp differences over Iraq, over the handling of interrogations of terror detainees, why is John McCain inviting the vice president to the convention?
DAVIS: Because I think John McCain believes that the only way we're going to change the culture of this town, the only way we're actually going ever start getting anything done, is if we stop putting our own self interests ahead. You know, if he wanted to make a point and, you know, strike out at this administration, it would have been very easy to do that, but he is not that kind of candidate.
He is the kind of man who says, "Look, we've got to get everybody on board in order to get progress in this country. I'm not going to, you know, take retaliation or retribution against anybody, whether they're Democrats or Republicans." If we are going to move forward, this culture has to change. The only guy who's been able to do that in this town for the last eight years is John McCain.
Barack Obama has never sided against his party's interest on any important issue. He's never joined with Republicans across the isle like John McCain has with Democrats. We have an ad out that shows a lot of Democrats, leaders in Congress, saying great things about John McCain. Of course, that was before there was a political campaign. You'll never find John McCain changing his stripes just because of an election.
WALLACE: What kind of Vice President does John McCain think Dick Cheney has been.
Maybe he changed his spots rather than his stripes?
;-)
Nah Jeter, jukebox john switches his position so often it's hard to tell if he's running for president or playing twister. Watch, grasshopper...
National Security Policy
1. McCain thought Bush’s warrantless-wiretap program circumvented the law; now he believes the opposite.
2. McCain insisted that everyone, even “terrible killers,” “the worst kind of scum of humanity,” and detainees at Guantanamo Bay, “deserve to have some adjudication of their cases,” even if that means “releasing some of them.” McCain now believes the opposite.
3. He opposed indefinite detention of terrorist suspects. When the Supreme Court reached the same conclusion, he called it “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”
4. In February 2008, McCain reversed course on prohibiting waterboarding.
5. McCain was for closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay before he was against it.
6. When Barack Obama talked about going after terrorists in Pakistani mountains with predators, McCain criticized him for it. He’s since come to the opposite conclusion.
Foreign Policy
7. McCain was for kicking Russia out of the G8 before he was against it.
8. McCain supported moving “towards normalization of relations” with Cuba. Now he believes the opposite.
9. McCain believed the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with Hamas. Now he believes the opposite.
10. McCain believed the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with Syria. Now he believes the opposite.
11. McCain is both for and against a “rogue state rollback” as a focus of his foreign policy vision.
12. McCain used to champion the Law of the Sea convention, even volunteering to testify on the treaty’s behalf before a Senate committee. Now he opposes it.
13. McCain was against divestment from South Africa before he was for it.
Military Policy
14. McCain recently claimed that he was the “greatest critic” of Rumsfeld’s failed Iraq policy. In December 2003, McCain praised the same strategy as “a mission accomplished.” 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.”
15. McCain has changed his mind about a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq on multiple occasions, concluding, on multiple occasions, that a Korea-like presence is both a good and a bad idea.
16. 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.”
17. McCain has repeatedly said it’s a dangerous mistake to tell the “enemy” when U.S. troops would be out of Iraq. In May, McCain announced that most American troops would be home from Iraq by 2013.
18. McCain was against expanding the GI Bill before he was for it.
Domestic Policy
19. McCain defended “privatizing” Social Security. Now he says he’s against privatization (though he actually still supports it.)
20. McCain wanted to change the Republican Party platform to protect abortion rights in cases of rape and incest. Now he doesn’t.
21. McCain supported storing spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Now he believes the opposite.
22. He argued the NRA should not have a role in the Republican Party’s policy making. Now he believes the opposite.
23. In 1998, he championed raising cigarette taxes to fund programs to cut underage smoking, insisting that it would prevent illnesses and provide resources for public health programs. Now, McCain opposes a $0.61-per-pack tax increase, won’t commit to supporting a regulation bill he’s co-sponsoring, and has hired Philip Morris’ former lobbyist as his senior campaign adviser.
24. McCain is both for and against earmarks for Arizona.
25. McCain’s first mortgage plan was premised on the notion that homeowners facing foreclosure shouldn’t be “rewarded” for acting “irresponsibly.” His second mortgage plan took largely the opposite position.
26. McCain went from saying gay marriage should be allowed, to saying gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed.
27. McCain opposed a holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., before he supported it.
28. McCain was anti-ethanol. Now he’s pro-ethanol.
29. McCain was both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.
30. In 2005, McCain endorsed intelligent design creationism, a year later he said the opposite, and a few months after that, he was both for and against creationism at the same time.
Economic Policy
31. McCain was against Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy before he was for them.
32. John McCain initially argued that economics is not an area of expertise for him, saying, “I’m going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues; I still need to be educated,” and “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.” He now falsely denies ever having made these remarks and insists that he has a “very strong” understanding of economics.
33. McCain vowed, if elected, to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term. Soon after, he decided he would no longer even try to reach that goal. And soon after that, McCain abandoned his second position and went back to his first.
34. McCain said in 2005 that he opposed the tax cuts because they were “too tilted to the wealthy.” By 2007, he denied ever having said this, and falsely argued that he opposed the cuts because of increased government spending.
35. McCain thought the estate tax was perfectly fair. Now he believes the opposite.
36. McCain pledged in February 2008 that he would not, under any circumstances, raise taxes. Specifically, McCain was asked if he is a “‘read my lips’ candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?” referring to George H.W. Bush’s 1988 pledge. “No new taxes,” McCain responded. Two weeks later, McCain said, “I’m not making a ‘read my lips’ statement, in that I will not raise taxes.”
37. McCain has changed his entire economic worldview on multiple occasions.
38. McCain believes Americans are both better and worse off economically than they were before Bush took office.
Energy Policy
39. McCain supported the moratorium on coastal drilling ; now he’s against it.
40. McCain recently announced his strong opposition to a windfall-tax on oil company profits. Three weeks earlier, he was perfectly comfortable with the idea.
41. McCain endorsed a cap-and-trade policy with a mandatory emissions cap. In mid-June, McCain announced he wants the caps to voluntary.
42. McCain explained his belief that a temporary suspension of the federal gas tax would provide an immediate economic stimulus. Shortly thereafter, he argued the exact opposite.
43. McCain supported the Lieberman/Warner legislation to combat global warming. Now he doesn’t.
Immigration Policy
44. McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants’ kids who graduate from high school. Now he’s against it.
45. On immigration policy in general, McCain announced in February 2008 that he would vote against his own bill.
46. In April, McCain promised voters that he would secure the borders “before proceeding to other reform measures.” Two months later, he abandoned his public pledge, pretended that he’d never made the promise in the first place, and vowed that a comprehensive immigration reform policy has always been, and would always be, his “top priority.”
Judicial Policy and the Rule of Law
47. McCain said he would “not impose a litmus test on any nominee.” He used to promise the opposite.
48. McCain believes the telecoms should be forced to explain their role in the administration’s warrantless surveillance program as a condition for retroactive immunity. He used to believe the opposite.
49. McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.
Campaign, Ethics, and Lobbying Reform
50. McCain supported his own lobbying-reform legislation from 1997. Now he doesn’t.
51. In 2006, McCain sponsored legislation to require grassroots lobbying coalitions to reveal their financial donors. In 2007, after receiving “feedback” on the proposal, McCain told far-right activist groups that he opposes his own measure.
52. McCain supported a campaign-finance bill, which bore his name, on strengthening the public-financing system. In June 2007, he abandoned his own legislation.
Politics and Associations
53. McCain wanted political support from radical televangelist John Hagee. Now he doesn’t. (He also believes his endorsement from Hagee was both a good and bad idea.)
54. McCain wanted political support from radical televangelist Rod Parsley. Now he doesn’t.
55. McCain says he considered and did not consider joining John Kerry’s Democratic ticket in 2004.
56. McCain is both for and against attacking Barack Obama over his former pastor at his former church.
57. McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but then decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks.
58. In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.
59. McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it.
60. McCain decided in 2000 that he didn’t want anything to do with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, believing he “would taint the image of the ‘Straight Talk Express.’” Kissinger is now the Honorary Co-Chair for his presidential campaign in New York.
61. McCain believed powerful right-wing activist/lobbyist Grover Norquist was “corrupt, a shill for dictators, and (with just a dose of sarcasm) Jack Abramoff’s gay lover.” McCain now considers Norquist a key political ally.
Respectfully, Snoopy, your list is out of date. I believe it's up over 70 now.
The media loves McCain, that's why these things aren't reported as the flip-flops they are.
I'll have to see if I can get it updated! Thank god for the internet, no trees will die in this process. ;)
But a whole bunch of electrons will get very tired....
:-)
Think progress just reported another flip-flop from the straight talk express. After promising to never give up the fight against Big Tobacco, McCain gives up and refuses to embrace the legislation he once championed.
Snoop, please don't stop posting your compilation of John McCain's cynical, opportunistic and many flip-flops.
I only wish that Barack Obama would take out full page ads in newspapers across the country detailing all of McCain's flip-flops...specifically indicating the last date on which McCain expressed one position on an issue, and then the date he expressed a contrary position. Those are facts... Put McCain on the defensive to have to explain his shifts in positions...all of which would draw more attention to them.
I slao wish that Obama would become less reluctant to use the verb "lying" when referring to John McCain's repeated distortions.
Rick Davis is certainly proving himself to be the Karl Rove wannabe he is. Obama really needs to do more to counteract McCain's self-serving distortions. Need I repeat the mantra...? John McCain is a fraud!
Maybe he changed his spots rather than his stripes?
Can you change liver spots? ;>)
Or pinstripes, Jeter???
Sorry, couldn't help myself.I just caught a little bit of my old friend Geraldo on Fox, and if I thought nobody could have a boner for the John Edwards story while ignoring Grampy's history more than Hannity, Gerry Rivers shut me up.
You're trashing one of my Monmouth County neighbors when you put down the mustache with the funny little man hiding behind it.
My wife saw him in a restaurant a few years back when he had one of his talk shows on. He came into the place with an entourage, trying to pass as one of the unwashed masses, wearing shades, and getting angry whenever anyone would notice him.
It was hard not to, everyone was wearing a black satin jacket with his name emblazoned on the back.
Everyone around here has stories about meeting some of famous residents and for the most part these people are kind to their fans. But everyone who's met Mr. Rivers has a horror story to tell.
Am I sounding a little like HissyFit?
everyone was wearing a black satin jacket with his name emblazoned on the back.
I demand the same of my friends when going out to dinner. It makes a powerful statement as to their allegiance. I try to get people outfitted within a few days of meeting them.
And, no, you don't sound like Hissy. You would have needed to throw in a fictional conversation with Geraldo that supported some lame opinion of yours.
Or pinstripes, Jeter???
====
Ha! You're killing me Colonel.
I knew you couldn't let the sweep go by unmentioned...
So Geraldo has his morals meter on? Too bad he shuts it off when it concerns himself. Hey I'm not going to excuse Edwards, after all he was pretty high & mighty when he sounded off about Bill Clinton's behavior way back when. Hypocrites all.
Can you change liver spots? ;>)
No - you get them surgically removed.
I wonder what Chris's Dad, Mike Wallace, feels about his son's fall from grace?
This is only a test: