The Oct. 16th issue of the Rolling Stone magazine has an article that is much longer and more detailed than my short attention span can usually handle, but this morning I digested it all. (It helps to click on the print version so that all the text is on one full-sized screen; it's the narrow columns and the flashing ads that usually distract me from the task at hand.)
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"Make-believe Maverick" by Tim Dickinson exposes most of the inconvenient facts that McCain stays busy trying to spin to his political advantage or in some cases, denies outright they ever happened. Does the man not realize that his flip-flopping has been recorded?
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...his own statements show that he has been on both sides of a host of vital issues: the Bush tax cuts, the estate tax, waterboarding, hunting down terrorists in Pakistan, kicking Russia out of the G-8, a surge of troops into Afghanistan, the GI Bill, storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, teaching intelligent design, fully funding No Child Left Behind, offshore drilling, his own immigration policy and withdrawal timelines for Iraq.
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It's no wonder the man acts like a confused old man most of the time! He is a confused old man.
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...perhaps the most revealing of McCain's flip-flops was his promise, made at the beginning of the year, that he would "raise the level of political dialogue in America." McCain pledged he would "treat my opponents with respect and demand that they treat me with respect."
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Throughout the campaign this year, McCain has tried to make the contest about honor and character. His own writing gives us the standard by which he should be judged. "Always telling the truth in a political campaign," he writes in Worth the Fighting For, "is a great test of character." He adds: "Patriotism that only serves and never risks one's self-interest isn't patriotism at all. It's selfishness. That's a lesson worth relearning from time to time." It's a lesson, it would appear, that the candidate himself could stand to relearn.
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"I'm sure John McCain loves his country," says Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar under Bush. "But loving your country and lying to the American people are apparently not inconsistent in his view."
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One of the reader's comments had this plug for Obama:
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I’m glad people are starting to open their eyes to the truth. It’s been there all along, just go to the library of congress and look at the legislation McCain has introduced. Almost every single bill is military related. A search for Obama shows legislation for the betterment of Americans.. equal rights, housing, health care, environment, energy independence, increased fuel economy, etc..