McCain's Ideological Flip-Flops

[babylonsister]

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/336804

McCain's Ideological Flip-Flops
posted by Ari Berman on 07/14/2008 @ 4:28pm


Many in the media still can't figure out how to cover Obama v. McCain.

"Obama revels in contrasts with McCain," the Associated Press wrote on Sunday.

"Obama, McCain agree on many once-divisive issues," the Los Angeles Times countered.

No wonder voters are confused. So who's right? Is Obama a flip-flopping centrist or a fierce Democratic partisan? Or both?

In a nutshell: There are big differences between Obama and McCain on the war in Iraq, how to manage the economy, offshore oil drilling, reproductive rights and the types of judges they'd appoint to the Supreme Court, to note just a few issues. They may agree on a few things (the LAT angle), but they disagree on far more (the AP angle).

As Obama faces accusations of shifting with the political winds in recent weeks, McCain's zig zags across the ideological spectrum go virtually unnoticed.

Back in 2000, McCain was the swashbuckling maverick who dared to take on the Republican Party establishment.

In his second run for the White House, McCain shed his maverick persona and morphed into the dutiful heir to Ronald Reagan.

Now he's back trying to run as Teddy Roosevelt, a conservationist, reformist moderate.

Pundits keep asking: who is Obama?

Maybe they should ask the same thing about McCain.

Edit to add:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6502412&mesg_id=6502412

Obama’s Iraq Flip-Flop? Nope.
By Angie Drobnic Holan, Politifact

snip//


For example:

• At a Democratic debate in Hanover, N.H. on Sept. 26, 2007, the late Time Russert pressed Obama as to whether he would have all troops out by the end of his first term. “I think it’s hard to project four years from now, and I think it would be irresponsible. We don’t know what contingency will be out there,” Obama said. “I will drastically reduce our presence there to the mission of protecting our embassy, protecting our civilians and making sure that we’re carrying out counterterrorism activities there. I believe that we should have all our troops out by 2013, but I don’t want to make promises not knowing what the situation’s going to be three or four years out.”

• At a Democratic debate in Cleveland on Feb. 26, 2008, Obama said, “As soon as I take office, I will call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, we will initiate a phased withdrawal, we will be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in. We will give ample time for them to stand up, to negotiate the kinds of agreements that will arrive at the political accommodations that are needed.”

• At a debate in Philadelphia on April 16, 2008, Obama said, “Now, I will always listen to our commanders on the ground with respect to tactics. Once I’ve given them a new mission, that we are going to proceed deliberately in an orderly fashion out of Iraq and we are going to have our combat troops out, we will not have permanent bases there, once I’ve provided that mission, if they come to me and want to adjust tactics, then I will certainly take their recommendations into consideration; but ultimately the buck stops with me as the commander in chief.”

• On “Meet the Press” on May 4, 2008, Russert asked Obama what he would do if advisers thought “a quick withdrawal” from Iraq would result in genocide. Obama replied, “Of course, I would factor in the possibilities of genocide, and I factored it in when I said that I would begin a phased withdrawal. What we have talked about is a very deliberate and prudent approach to the withdrawal -- one to two brigades per month. At that pace, it would take about 16 months, assuming that George Bush is not going to lower troop levels before the next president takes office. We are talking about, potentially, two years away. At that point, we will have been in Iraq seven years. If we cannot get the Iraqis to stand up in seven years, we’re not going to get them to stand up in 14 or 28 or 56 years.”

Taken in their entirety, Obama’s comments reflect a philosophy of “about 16 months” for withdrawal. He also appears to be willing to take advice from commanders on the ground that might affect the general pace, but not the overall goal of withdrawal. Yet Obama has been artful in his rhetoric. His campaign has clearly emphasized “16 months” when speaking to anti-war audiences and “about 16 months” when answering questions from withdrawal skeptics. But Obama never urged a “precipitous” withdrawal; even a bill he offered in January 2007 that set a deadline for getting out of Iraq contained an exemption for national security.

snip//

Weighing all these statements together, we find the McCain campaign is off-base in saying Obama has changed position. Obama repeatedly said facts on the ground could affect the tactical moves of an overall withdrawal. Obama’s position was not an iron-clad withdrawal timeline in the first place. We find the McCain campaign’s statement that Obama has reversed position to be False.