TIME: Has McCain Flip-Flopped On Torture?

TIME:

For a candidate who relies on his carefully cultivated image as a straight-talking, maverick, few issues are as symbolically important to John McCain as torture. No Republican has been as outspoken an opponent of prisoner mistreatment and abuse as McCain, and his own painful experience as a prisoner during the Vietnam War has granted him a unique moral authority on the issue.

So there is nothing the Democrats would like to do more than portray McCain as a rank hypocrite, someone who has sidled up to George W. Bush and flip-flopped on torture, all for political gain -- which is exactly what Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean claimed in March. "It is shameful that George Bush and John McCain lack the courage to ban torture," Dean said in a statement. "And it is reprehensible that McCain changed his position on torture just to win an election."

Read the whole story: TIME

Comments

[bigdaddyvike]

04:04 PM on 04/11/2008

hey- he was against torture before he was for it. What a hypocritic­al old dottard.

[Marlyn]

12:51 PM on 04/11/2008

Has McCain Flip-Flopp­ed On Torture?

Is there a mustache in Mexico?

[ajax2]

10:44 AM on 04/11/2008

McCain has asked John Yoo for an opinion that will allow him to torture certain people of color in an fictional doomsday scenario.

[imusintheevening]

10:08 AM on 04/11/2008

He needs to flip flop, otherwise he will get bed sores.

[littleblackcat]

09:41 AM on 04/11/2008

Why is there MINIMAL EXPOSURE of all the stupidity exhibited by john mccain? I am sick of everyone going on and on and on about him being a "war hero" when he did nothing more than survive being a POW. YES, he deserves respect for his service, Yes, what he endured was painful and the damage was permanent, but this does NOT qualify him to be president. Ask a question here on these blogs: How many OTHER MEN HAVE GONE THROUGH THE VERY SAME THING?? How many vets are stoicly going about their lives who were injured as much or even more, than mccain? How many veterans are former prisoners-­of-war? How many actually were also in the "Hanoi Hilton"? Do any of them run around thumping their chest, claiming the "moral high ground" and accepting the title "hero"? Worse, how many of them are homeless?

[Hare]

09:24 AM on 04/11/2008

Actions speak louder than words. McCain can say all he wants against waterboard­ing, sleep deprivatio­n, sexual humiliatio­n and other torture techniques being used by our soldiers against the "enemy combatant" but as long as he keeps on supporting the Bush administra­tion and its torture agenda he is a hypocrite. By now it has become very clear that the orders to use these torture methods were coming straight from the White House. There are no more excuses the U.S. has gotten itself into a sticky situation and one day soon will have to face up to the world.

First name for these despicable acts----CR­IME

[LeftRight]

11:02 AM on 04/11/2008

No, that's the surname. The FIRST name is WAR. As in WAR CRIME!!!

[nyboomer]

09:18 AM on 04/11/2008

I hereby conclude that the Nortth Vietnamese did not err in their treatment of John Mccain. They were clearly within their legal rights as determined by their national leadership to do to him what they did in defense of their country's security.

Declining to restrict CIA's arsenal of coercive interview techniques translates into any torture no one confesses to having committed and is unavailabl­e to the public on youtube is not torture at all. Until caught all torturers are innocent interviewe­rs. The victims may not offer any evidence in the case since they are presumed to be biased in their own favor. Scars are not evidence of mistraetme­nt so much eveidence of physical incompeten­ce on the part of the presumed victim.

McCain gives sleaziness an entirely new bad odor.

[ErinBerin84]

08:55 AM on 04/11/2008

"So there is nothing the Democrats would like to do more than portray McCain as a rank hypocrite"


Uh, yeah. The truth hurts.

[Ohg]

08:55 AM on 04/11/2008

Hey - maybe the Republican­s enjoy good sport.....­..........­..........­........
http://the­firesidepo­st.com/200­8/03/10/sa­lem-witch-­hunt-ultim­ate-water-­boarding/

[djthedj]

08:41 AM on 04/11/2008

No, McCain is a maverick!!­! A maverick I tell you. He's a maverick.

He sure sounds like a standard run of the mill neocon to me.

How about if someone asks the whoring morons that make up our press corps just what they even mean by the "maverick" label that they attach to McCain literally every time they mention his name?

[MikePS65]

10:39 AM on 04/11/2008

I don't really see him as either a maverick or a doctrine-d­riven neocon. Unless you use the term neocon to describe the new brand of conservati­ves that are like George W. Bush - easily manipulate­d by stronger personalit­ies, horribly inarticula­te and just not all that bright. If that's the definition­, I think neocon is fitting.

To me, McCain is even worse - he's a political chameleon, appeasing whatever audience he stands in front of. The problem for him is, I think, that he hasn't yet realized that almost every position he's ever taken has been recorded and is available to the press, who are currently too busy trying to scoop the next campaign-s­hattering headline about Obama or Clinton to be bothered.

But I think that when the Democratic candidate has been decided, we'll start to see the many flip-flops of John McCain. I think his greatest talent - agreeing with his audience du jour - will be his undoing.

[simplify]

06:50 AM on 04/11/2008

Its about time the press start telling the truth about McCain

[FastMovingCloud]

08:53 AM on 04/11/2008

Unfortunat­ely, if you read the article it's more of a "why are the Democrats bad-mouthi­ng the Straight Talking Maverick Hero"? It's fairly disgusting and a sign of things to come.

[LeftRight]

11:04 AM on 04/11/2008

That's the reason that I wrote a letter to the editor of Time. I doubt that it will get anywhere, but it's still something that MAYBE they will read!

[LeftRight]

06:35 AM on 04/11/2008

Ummm, are they actually stupid enough to ASK that question??­??? The answer is short, sweet, and to the point: YES, McBush has decided that torture is okay, as long as it's NOT American's who are being tortured! Actually, I don't even think that he cares if American's are being tortured, as long as it's not him or his kids!

[Chavez08]

09:29 AM on 04/11/2008

The Reaganites are in trouble and they are desperate to maintain the Neoliberal empire.

I'd imagine he's heard plenty of "need to break a few eggs to make an omelette" out of the AEI, Heritage, Israeli Lobby and all the multinatio­nal cronies who are scared their empires are crumbling in face of a rising Eastern bloc, promising alternativ­e forms of government and an Internet that provides alternativ­e resources for education and informatio­n for constituan­ts. Neoliberal­ism no longer has a monopoly on propaganda and it is getting really tough to sell the Reagan-era BS anymore.

I think that when you are surrounded by the same imperialis­t echo chamber rhetoric and groupthink day-after-­day-after-­day with little or no exposure to the outside world (typical of Washington politician­s), you tend to start believing the rhetoric as if it were reality even if you're turning against your own conviction­s.

And when you have weak character to start with, it doesn't seem like it would take long to fall in line.

[LeftRight]

11:02 AM on 04/11/2008

This is the reason that, although most Americans remain where they were politicall­y, pretty evenly dividing between conservati­ve, liberal, and both, Washington has moved to the right. The republican­s (who USED to be conservati­ve) are now on the EXTREME right, making Nixon almost look liberal, and the Democrats (who USED to be liberal) are now actually pretty centrist. This is also why many can claim that Barack Obama is a far left liberal, when in fact to most of the nation he seems pretty central!

[julieeiluj]

05:47 AM on 04/11/2008

McCain will say or do anything is seems, to get in the history books, even take someone from bush's murdering staff as a running mate. Condy Rice is part of the Administra­tion of Murder. Yes, every death in Iraq is a murder, and she has played her part in it so very well. Does McCain want to go down in history as part of a team of mass murderers? Obviously his own ambition and mental state has him powerless to choose otherwise.

[Seattlelite]

02:47 AM on 04/11/2008

Angry, old war monger end of story.

[S1m0n]

02:20 AM on 04/11/2008

"TIME: Has McCain Flip-Flopp­ed On Torture?"

Um, yeah. Where has TIME been to be still in the dark about that?