Not Ranked
OK lets discuss flips!
Social Security PrivatizationMcCain Flips:
In March 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported that in an interview McCain said he “still backs a system of private retirement accounts that President Bush pushed unsuccessfully.” The Journal also noted that “a centerpiece of a McCain presidential bid in 2000 was a plan to divert a portion of Social Security payroll taxes to fund private accounts.” [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/2008]
McCain Flops:
At a town hall meeting in Pemberton, NJ on June 13, 2008, McCain was asked about privatization and replied that “I am not for quote ‘privatization of Social Security.’ I never have been, never will be. That is a great buzzword for an attack.” However, he then added that “workers should have the right to put their own taxes, their own money into an account,” which is still privatization. [Nashua Telegraph, 6/13/08]
Detention Of Detainees
McCain Flips:
In 2003, McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham wrote a letter to then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld urging him to resolve the issue of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. The letter said that “a serious process must be established in the very near term either to formally treat and process the detainees as war criminals or to return them to their countries for appropriate judicial action.” In 2005, he told Tim Russert on Meet the Press that “I know that some of these guys are terrible, terrible killers and the worst kind of scum of humanity. But, one, they deserve to have some adjudication of their cases.” [Meet the Press, 6/19/05]
McCain Flops:
In 2008 the Supreme Court ruled that detainees at Guantanamo are required to receive habeas corpus rights. McCain called the Court’s ruling “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.” “Senator Graham, and Senator Lieberman, and I…made it very clear that these are enemy combatants, these are people who are not citizens. They do not and never have been given the rights that citizens of this country have,” he said. [Newark Star-Ledger, 6/14/08]
Offshore Drilling
McCain Flips:
In May 2008, McCain said “with those resources, which would take years to develop, you would only postpone or temporarily relieve our dependency on fossil fuels,” when asked about offshore drilling. [Huffington Post, 6/18/08]
McCain Flops:
Three weeks later, McCain announced that “there are areas off our coasts that should be open to exploration and exploitation, and I hope we can take the first step by lifting the moratoria.” [Washington Post, 6/17/08]
Criticizing The MediaMcCain Flips:
In an interview with Newsweek, McCain denied that he ever said “the media often overlooked how compassionately [Sen. Hillary Clinton] spoke to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans.” McCain said in the interview that he “did not [say that] — that was in prepared remarks and I did not [say it]. I’m not in the business of commenting on the press and their coverage or not coverage.” [Newsweek, 6/7/08]
McCain Flops:
In a speech delivered on June 3, 2008, McCain did, in fact, deliver the line. [The Denver Post, 6/4/08]
21st Century GI Bill
McCain Flips:
McCain initially refused to co-sponsor Sen. Jim Webb’s 21st Century GI Bill of Rights, because of concerns that it did not have “incentives for people to stay in the military.” Instead of joining the other 56 co-sponsors and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America in pushing through Webb’s bill, McCain drafted his own bill which was “more focused on career officers, not the entire volunteer military force.” [The Hill, 4/22/08]
McCain Flops:
After a clause was added allowing service members to transfer their benefits to their family members, McCain supported Webb’s GI Bill. “[Transferral of benefits] has always been my primary concern with respect to the Webb bill, and it is essential that we continue to act decisively to encourage military service and ensure the well being of our All Volunteer Force,” McCain said in a statement. [ABC News, 6/19/08]
Illegal Wiretapping
McCain Flips:
In an interview with the Boston Globe in December 2007, McCain was asked if, as President, he would ever authorize illegal wiretapping. “I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is,” he said. “I don’t think the president has the right to disobey any law.” [Boston Globe, 12/20/07]
McCain Flops:
The New York Times reported that a letter from top McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin said that McCain believes that the Constitution gave President Bush the authority to wiretap Americans “without warrants.” The letter says that “neither the Administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the ACLU and the trial lawyers, understand were Constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001.” [New York Times, 6/6/08]
Taxpayer Funding For Contraception In AfricaMcCain Flips:
McCain was asked whether he supports taxpayer funding for contraception in Africa, with the goal of preventing the spread of AIDS. McCain replied that he would rather fund abstinence education, but would provide contraception where abstinence “was not being followed.” [Salon, 4/11/08]
McCain Flops:
Moments later, McCain said “Let me think about it a little bit … I don’t know if I would use taxpayers’ money … I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out … I’m sure I have taken a position on it in the past … I have to find out my position on it … I am sure I am opposed to government funding. I am sure I support the president’s policy on it.” He then said that “I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it in the past. I have to find out what my position was,” and asked an aide “Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception?” [Salon, 4/11/08]
Abortion Exceptions
McCain Flips:
While campaigning for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination, McCain chastised George Bush for adhering to the Republican “pro-life plank,” which includes no exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. At that time, McCain said that the plank should be changed. In 2007, McCain told ABC news that he still wanted to see a change in the Republican platform. [Washington Post, 1/31/00 & ABC News’ Political Radar, 4/16/07]
McCain Flops:
Since gaining the Republican presidential nomination, McCain has not changed the party’s abortion plank, and neither does his campaign website mention the abortion exceptions that he used to support. [CNS, 8/29/08]
Fairness Of The Estate Tax
McCain Flips:
In a June 2006 speech on the Senate floor, McCain expressed his belief in “the essential morality of the estate tax,” and explained that he has “consistently voted against repealing this tax because of the impact it would have on the deficit, as well as the possible chilling affect it could have on charitable giving in this country.” [Huffington Post, 6/10/08]
McCain Flops:
In June 2008, McCain delivered a speech before the National Federation of Independent Business in Washington in which he called the tax “one of the most unfair tax laws on the books.” [CNN Money, 6/10/08]
Nuclear Waste Storage At Yucca Mountain
McCain Flips:
In March 2007, McCain told the Utah Deseret News that he is “for Yucca Mountain. I’m for storage facilities.” In May 2008, McCain advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin told Reuters that “the political opposition to the Yucca Mountain storage facility is harmful to the U.S. interest and the facility should be completed, opened and utilized.” [Deseret News, 3/3/07 & Reuters 5/6/08]
McCain Flops:
In a speech in Reno, NV, McCain announced that he would seek to establish an international repository for spent nuclear fuel that would “make it unnecessary to open the proposed spent nuclear fuel storage facility at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.” [Las Vegas Sun, 6/27/08]
Normalization Of Relations With Cuba
McCain Flips:
In 2000, McCain said in an interview on CNN’s Late Edition that he is “not in favor of sticking my finger in the eye of Fidel Castro. In fact, I would favor a road map towards normalization of relations such as we presented to the Vietnamese and led to a normalization of relations between our two countries.” [CNN Late Edition w/ Wolf Blitzer, 4/9/00]
McCain Flops:
On the campaign trail against Barack Obama, McCain told Cuban-Americans in Florida “that he would maintain the decades-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba if he is elected president.” [Wall Street Journal, 5/21/08]
Defense Spending
McCain Flips:
Writing in Foreign Affairs in 2007, McCain explained that to promote national security the U.S. can “afford to spend more on national defense, which currently consumes less than four cents of every dollar that our economy generates — far less than what we spent during the Cold War.” [Foreign Affairs, November/December 2007]
McCain Flops:
In June 2008, Forbes noted that “McCain’s top economic adviser, Doug Holtz-Eakin, blithely supposes that cuts in defense spending could make up for reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% and the subsequent shrinkage in federal revenues.” [Forbes, 6/9/08]
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