McCain flip flops again

Comments

1. Tim on Jun 17, 2008 7:52:36 PM:

   Andoni, lets just ignore the flip flops this election, you have two senators, who only know that *pander* trick, and will say what ever they think to get elected. If you want to cover Obama's flip flops, we could start with his on again off again dis-support of NAFTA (unless he's talking to the canadians. You have the central one, "I could no more disavow my preacher than I could my grandmother" that lasted what 4 weeks? The "united Jerusalem" blunder.
   Basically this is all that is going to go on ALL SUMMER, so don't get your voter hating panties in a wad.

1. Tim C on Jun 17, 2008 10:16:55 PM:

   Let's talk about flip flops. What differentiates a flip flop from a reassessment of a position based on available information? To listen to the talking heads, once you state a position, you may never change that position. You are not allowed to consider new information -- once said, it's carved in stone. Any intelligent person is always assessing new information and is ready to change his position based on that continual gathering and assessing. So, McCain was once opposed to drilling for oil off the American coast. A barrel of oil once cost $20 and drilling technology was more risk-prone. Now a barrel of oil costs $135 and oil drilling technology is more advanced than however many years ago that McCain last voted on offshore oil drilling. Once, it made less sense to drill due to the risk of spillage vs. the value of the extracted barrel. Now that equation is different. Kerry had the same issue. Some of the so-called flip flops were based on votes he had made many years before the same issue came up again, closer to his Presidential run. Except this time, many particulars of the issue were different, which caused a different vote the next time around. Flip flopping charges are usually nothing more than a symptom of our current love of "gotcha" politics. We need to learn to be more discerning.

1. Strict Scrutiny on Jun 17, 2008 11:12:52 PM:

   What differentiates a flip flop from a reassessment of a position based on available information?

   It's a reassessment when it happens once or twice. It's flip-flopping when you change positions on all the issues to win the support of your political base.

   McCain abandoned many of "maverick" positions in order to woo the neocon nutbags who are running the Republican party these days. It ain't just oil drilling -- it's Roe v. Wade, the embrace of Jerry Falwell, the Bush tax cuts, his decision to abandon the campaign finance reform, etc. The list goes on.

   The man has no conviction or principle.