John McCain, Flip Flopper

Washington, January 20, 2009 -- John McCain was sworn in as the 44th president at noon today, vowing to end "the era of rancor" and pledging to work with Democrats to vanquish what he called the triple peril of terrorism, climate change, and runaway entitlement spending. "These are the challenges that have the potential to end the dream we call America," McCain told an estimated crowd of more than 200,000 assembled in heavy snow at the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

With Chief Justice John Roberts administering the oath of office, McCain struck a bipartisan note, issuing an invitation to top Democratic leaders to visit the White House for an emergency meeting. Conservatives, who have been wary of McCain for years, have grown increasingly so since his election and the appointment of several prominent Democrats to his cabinet. Many were despairing after yesterday's address...

Well, we can dream, can't we?

If there's going to be a President McCain, I hope it's the one portrayed above: the reflexively bipartisan one who sponsored bills with Democrats John Edwards (patients' bill of rights), Russ Feingold (campaign-finance reform), and Ted Kennedy (immigration); one of just two Senate Republicans who opposed the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and one of three in 2003; the centrist who valiantly tried to steer a Big Tobacco settlement through Congress in 1998, ending years of litigation in exchange for stringent regulation. The McCain I want is the one who recognizes climate change as a real threat and who understands that entitlements can undo the economy. That's the one a lot of executives want too.

Unfortunately, we could get the McCain of this year's presidential campaign, the one who now says that he wants to make permanent the Bush tax cuts he once opposed and that he would vote against his own immigration-reform bill if it came before him. The politics of hope? When it comes to McCain, it's all about hoping the right McCain shows up.

That's because, at 71, McCain is still among the most protean political figures in American life. This is particularly true with regard to economics, which is distressing at a time when Wall Street institutions are imploding and no one really knows when this credit mess will end. After more than two decades in Congress, the senior senator from Arizona told the Boston Globe last year, "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should."

McCain aides insist that he meant it in a self-deprecating way and that he knows plenty. But when he was asked during a debate in January whom he'd listen to on the economy, he pointed to the budget-cutting scolds of the Concord Coalition as well as who-cares-about-the-deficit tax slashers like Jack Kemp. Which is it? His website made no mention of backing Bush's plan for private Social Security savings accounts. Then in March, he said he was for them, surprising even the Wall Street Journal. In that same month, he also said a dismal jobs report was "not terrible." Huh?

For more, click here.

Comments

[Tags]

After eight years of just flopping, it'll be great to get some flipping back in the mix.

[MajorKong]

Mr. Cooper didn't you get the memo? Only Democrats "flip flop". Republicans "re-evaluate their positions".

[dtrobert]

Whoa!!! McCain, bipartisan??? He has never been bipartisan. He has been one of the most consistently conservative senators there is, one of the most consistent GOP hardliners as well. LOOK AT HIS VOTING RECORD.

His VERY few excursions (the tobacco *non*-bill, a campaign *reform* bill designed to sap the money out of the Democratic Party while doing little to actually reform anything, a bill which he has violated already) are all designed to make YOU, the *elite* Washington media, weak in the knees without any real effect whatsoever. Oh, and BTW, has he ever taken up the tobacco issue after it failed in the House?

Come on, Wake up... There is only ONE McCain, the Real McCain, the one who made the joke about Chelsea Clinton; remember, the joke you and your paper made sure to protect him on? The joke which your paper refused to reprint, because it would have damaged him too much? Remember that?

The Real McCain WILL bomb Iran. The Real McCain WILL re-ignite the Cold War. HE HAS ALREADY SAID SO. Believe him.

[cognitorex]

Pat Buchanan, noting McCain's dramatic changes of heart on taxes, religion and torture declared, "There should be a sign on the 'Straight Talk Express' bus that says, "This Bus Makes U-Turns.""

[lboucher]

"I may have made a mistake last week in the words that I chose," said Obama.

This man just can't say I screwed up again! Obama will get smashed in the general election, he just does not have the chops to win a national election contest.

[LeftRight]

"The Iranians are training al Qaeda"---John McBush

"I was dodging sniper fire", "I misspoke"----Hillary Clinton

[melonman]

"The Iranians are training Al Qaeda..." said John McShrub Lite.

And you call what Obama said a screw up? You are dreaming the dream of a loser.

[izAriver]

Hopeless, I hope that's sarcasm. Poor John lost any credibility he might have had when he lost the primary to "that thing in the White House" in 2000. All he is now is an old man desperate to be president. He has my empathy, but not my vote. The idea that he's "in touch" is ludicrous. The idea that he's a "maverick" may be more appropriate. He is a horse's ass.

izAriver

[LeftRight]

I'm sorry, but john McBush has lost all right to campaign as the "moderate republican" in this year's election. He has, since 2004, out bushed bush!

[Henry]

McCain suffers the short man's syndrome. We have no need for this type of person as a leader of anything.

[hopeless277]

Sorry, but stupid labels like 'flip-flopper' only apply to Democratic candidates. Republicans are much to serious and grown up to be labeled as anything other than serious and grown up. Perhaps that is because the corporate sponsored media is nothing more than an extension of the RNC. Ya know, someday we'll all look back at this and wonder how we could have been allowed to even consider voting for a Democrat.