A maverick who follows the line

Wright on the Left

By: Tommy Wright

Posted: 9/18/08

Flip-flop is a term that is often used to criticize politicians. The views of politicians can change and evolve over time, just as the views of their constituents can change. However, the changes in John McCain's views over the past eight years seem to be intelligent design rather than evolution.

McCain's ideas have not changed naturally, but instead they have moved from those of a maverick to those that his party and conservative base believe will get him elected as president.

In 2000, McCain labeled evangelical leaders Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as "agents of intolerance."

"Unfortunately, Governor Bush is a Pat Robertson Republican who will lose to Al Gore," McCain said earlier in the speech.

But McCain lost the Republican primary to Bush, and Bush beat Gore.

On April 2, 2006, McCain was on NBC's "Meet the Press" and said that he no longer believed that Falwell was an "agent of intolerance." McCain gave the commencement address at Falwell's Liberty University the next month.

McCain seems to be attempting to emulate the Bush campaign's success.

During the 2000 South Carolina primary, a smear campaign accused McCain of fathering a black child out of wedlock, according to a Jan. 27 New York Times article. McCain's patriotism and sexuality were also questioned.

Tucker Eskew, who directed communications for Bush's 2000 South Carolina campaign, was held responsible for the accusations by members McCain's 2000 campaign, according to a Sept. 1 ABC News Web site article.

Eskew was hired as a member of the McCain campaign on Sept. 1, the article stated.

It appears that McCain has abandoned his ethics in an all-out attempt to win the presidency.

Once he was back to the Senate in 2001, he denounced the Bush tax cuts.

"I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle-class Americans who most need tax relief," McCain said in May 2001, according to a March 3, 2008 New York Times article.

An article on Saturday from the Associated Press stated that McCain plans on keeping the Bush tax cuts intact.

McCain has also changed his position in a matter of hours, when needed.

On Monday, he said "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," according to an article in the New York Times on Tuesday. That same newspaper reported on Monday that "investors suffered their worst losses since the terrorist attacks of 2001."

After Democratic opponent Barack Obama used the statement to call McCain out of touch, McCain quickly backtracked and said he was referring to the American workers, according to an AP article from Wednesday.

In McCain's defense, he has claimed to know little about the issue.

"The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should," McCain said in 2007, according to a Sept. 4, 2008 USA Today article. At the Republican debate on Jan. 24, he denied ever making the statement.

McCain lost his economic adviser on July 18. The adviser, Phil Gramm, quit after calling the U.S. a "nation of whiners" and saying the country was in a "mental recession," according to an AP article from July 19.

An AP article from Monday stated that some of the blame for the current economic crisis goes back to the late 1990s when a law was passed to "remove depression-era barriers between commercial banks and financial firms." Gramm authored the law while he was a U.S. Senator.

Despite the baggage of Gramm, who according to a Wednesday CBS article was also a lobbyist for investment bank UBS until April, McCain accepted Gramm's help because he knew he needed help on the economic side to win the election.

McCain is still a maverick, but only toward his own ideals. He now only follows what people tell him he needs to do and say to be victorious in November.

Stephen Colbert said it best during the March 19 edition of "The Colbert Report."

"The man is such a maverick, he is even independent from his own true feelings."