NATIONAL SECURITY FLIP FLOPS
1. McCain thought Bush's warrant less 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, McCain reversed course on prohibiting water boarding.
5. McCain favored closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay before he was against it.
FOREIGN POLICY FLIP FLOPS
1. McCain was for kicking Russia out of the G8 before he was against it.
2. McCain supported moving "toward normalization of relations" with Cuba. Now he believes the opposite.
3. McCain believed the United States should engage in diplomacy with Hamas. Now he believes the opposite.
4. McCain believed the United States should engage in diplomacy with Syria. Now he believes the opposite.
MILITARY POLICY
1. 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."
2. 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 idea and a bad idea.
3. McCain was against expanding the GI Bill before he was for it.
ECONOMIC POLICY
1. McCain was against Bush's tax cuts for the very wealthy before he was for them.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
I could keep going but here is a link to an extensive source of flip flops: John McCain -- 61 Flip-Flops and Counting
By Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report. Posted July 10, 2008.
http://www.alternet.org/election08/90956/?page=entire
Economic Policy
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/6731.html
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16070.html
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/16112.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/03/us/politics/03mccain.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
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