McCain's Major Flip-Flops and Poor Voting Record. It's Not a Good Resume

Candidate McCain, once again, changing his mind...

It appears that due to the soft pedaling of Senator John McCain by the country's top political media reporters, McCain's major flip-flops and past voting record in the Senate have take second place to any "potential" negative activity on the Democratic side of the ticket.

In the recent past, the media had given Barack Obama a very bad time for not voting on the non-binding Senate resolution declaring the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. Senator McCain on the other hand, has pretty much been ignored even though he has missed 9 more Senate votes than Senator Tim Johnson, who had a brain hemorrhage in December 2006, and could not return to the Senate for 10 months.

To be fair, missing some Senate votes may not be that big of a deal, as some Senate votes are not that critical. Many times the majorities of both parties may both agree on the bill's provisions, and the bill would pass anyway. On the other hand, it might be a bill that has no chance of passing, so a few more votes, one way or the other would not make any difference in getting it passed. But when looking at the overall voting records of all of the US Senators, John McCain has held the number one position as the US Senator missing the most votes by an amazing 58% in the current 110th Congress. (And this is McCain's "day job" for which we are paying him $176,000 a year.) McCain has broken all the Senate's past records for missed votes. Obama and Hillary Clinton's voting record "misses" for the same period were both less than 40%. And for the man known as the "patriotic prisoner-of-war Senator", John McCain even missed voting on the recent bill for increasing the support of all US veterans. The McCain staff has said that he didn't like the veteran's bill and that he has a better bill. However, for a nominee that is running on his record as a patriot and a military veteran, he could at least have given them the proper respect by voting against the bill and then immediately introducing his own bill. Unfortunately, that didn't even come close to happening.

After four years of the Bush Administration's poor performance, most American's today are just looking for someone they can trust, regardless of whether they are Democrats or Republicans. When one compares Obama's so called minor flip-flops, versus the highly critical changes of political direction by John McCain, there is no real comparison.

Let's look at the very long list comparing the "Old" McCain with the so called "New" McCain:

>>> A Woman's Right to Choose: In 1999, the old McCain, while on the GOP campaign trail had said; "In the short term, or even in the long term, I would not support the repeal of Roe vs Wade."

However, in a recent TV interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, McCain said; "I do believe that that it's very likely or possible that the Supreme Court should or could overturn Roe vs Wade, which would return it to the states, which I support."

>>> Religion: In 2002, McCain described the televangelist, Jerry Falwell, as an "agent of intolerance", when Falwell had said that "American's deserved the attacks on 9/11".

Today, McCain has been cozying up to the Falwell contingent and he has even hired Falwell's debate coach for his election team.

>>> Political Corruption: In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen, Sam & Charles Wyly of being corrupt. He had said they were spending "dirty money" to help finance Bush's presidential campaign. McCain went so far as to file an official complaint against the Wyly's for violating campaign finance law.

However, apparently the Wyly's weren't "too dirty" for Senator McCain. In April 2008, McCain reached out to both of the Wyly's, asking for financial support for his 2008 election campaign efforts.

>>> Crooked Republicans: For years, Senator John McCain has said; "That the wealthy Republican supporter, Grover Norquist, was a crook."

Since McCain became the official Republican nominee for the 2008 election, he has been "reconciling" with the influential Norquist.

>>> Torture: Having been a tortured prisoner in the war in Vietnam, McCain has been against the torturing of war detainees and had also stated that the results of questioning prisoners using torture was usually very unreliable.

McCain has recently caved in to President Bush's program that supports the torture of any and all detainees as is deemed necessary by the the military commanders.

>>> Campaign Finance Reform: McCain's most famous policy issue has been his support for the bill he sponsored on campaign finance reform.

It's hard to believe, but today, McCain refuses to support the reform policies that he stated in his own campaign finance reform bill....?

>>> Bob Jones University: McCain was strongly against presidential candidates being able to campaign at the highly controversial Bob Jones University.

Today, John McCain supports campaigning at Bob Jones University.

>>> Ethanol: McCain was previously a big supporter of ethanol.

Today he's against ethanol.

>>> Confederate Flag: McCain was against displaying the confederate flag until he was advised that he would lose key Southern supporters if he said he disagreed with displaying the flag. He has since admitted that he changed his position back in 1999 just to make sure he did not lose those Southern supporters.

>>> Going to the Far Right: Previously known as the "Maverick" or "independent Republican", McCain is unashamedly, more and more in walk-step with George W. Bush's far right policies in the areas where it really counts for all Americans. Despites his current horrible record of major flip-flops, there are still many soft-pedaling media reporters and pundits telling Americans that "no one could accuse John McCain of deliberately being ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or withhold information".

Yeah, right...................please see the items as stated above before you agree with that statement.

Now that Barack Obama is the official Democratic presidential candidate, it is time for him and his supporters to call out McCain on these issues that are critical to so many Americans. (These issues, plus the many other areas of concern that are traditionally challenged between the two political parties.) McCain needs to be shown up for the "non-Maverick", business-as-usual Republican that he is today. It also needs to be shown that he is a man with virtually no basic solid principle beliefs that can be written down in ink. Today, McCain's principles can only be written with a #2 pencil that has an eraser.

It is one thing to change ones mind or to learn additional information that could reshape one's opinions. It's another matter to change your position on key areas of principle, just to gain a larger plurality of partisan support. That is John McCain's position today, and the closer to November we all get, the more that it will become clear to all those that care to look closely at John McCain and his continually changing positions.