A beautiful quote from John McCain during the 2000 election, when he was trying hard to distinguish himself as the moderate candidate in relation to Bush:
"Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton on the left or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right."
Now, of course, he's delivering commencement addresses at Falwell's university. Which one has changed in the last 6 years, Falwell or McCain?
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McCain. And frankly it is disappointing.
Jon Stewart from Comedy Central's Daily Show called Sen McCain on this right after it was announced. McCain tried to laugh it off, but he was busted and he knew it. IMO he is sucking up to the right and losing the respect of non-hard-right REP and Dem cross-over voters - and probably losing self-respect as well. "What a wicked web we weave" and all that. Maybe Oliver Stone or Dan Brown could doa conspiracy thing about the North Viets, McCain and thae Hanoi Hilton prison thing. It's the only reason he gets any slack from me. Slack, but no vote... he is irredeemably slimed by his Liberty visit.
I've been quite impressed by Stewart on this. Until recently he'd pretty much bought into the whole "straight-talking maverick" bullshit, but starting with the show J-Dog talks about, where he gave McCain every chance to climb out of the hole but he just kept digging, Stewart's been hammering him. The show on Monday ripped into him with that quote followed by the Liberty University speech. He also mocked McCain's absurd attempt to pretend that supporting the Iraq war was a brave stance.
I am no McCain fan, finding the guy lacking the intellectual capacity I'd like to see in a president. However, in defense of McCain, he also is delivering the commencement address to The New School, formally known as New School U, a traditionally far left institution and I don't see anyone attacking him for that speech, http://www.newschool.edu/observer/
Speaking at a commencement ceremony doesn't neccesarily mean the speaker supports the policies of the institution. In fact it can be a wonderful opportunity to challenge the audience.
However, my understanding of McCain's Liberty U. speech is that he did NOT challenge anyone, instead preaching to the choir on issues you would expect them to suport and avoid differences McCain may have withi this audience -so maybe the criticism is justified after all.
Mike-
The problem is that he said that no one should pander to intolerant extremists like Falwell. But that's exactly what he's been doing the last couple months.
Anyone disappointed by John McCain hasn't been paying attention: he's always been a wingnut. This is the real John McCain. The other was just a ruse thrown up to seem more like a real alternative to Bush.
Isn't this the same pattern that Dole followed, waffling back and forth between sanity and ideology before becoming a hardened ideologue for the sake of a presidential nomination? Whatever his previous stands on issues were, what he is doing now is a mistake he can't recover from.
McCain is very conservative, but he has, on occasion, been willing to compromise on certain issues and stand up for what's right on others.
He's simply being a politician. Pandering to Bush supporters and Falwell wingnuts is to be expected since he's after the 2008 nomination.
I suspect he's got a good chance in 2008, but only if he get's past the Republican primary. All this pandering is an attempt to position himself far enough to the right so that none of the others in the race can outflank him. But I don't think the wingnuts will be fooled. His only hope is that they remain demoralized enough that they can't be bothered to vote for anyone.