John McCain: The Flip Flop Flupper

Having toyed with various other themes for attacking Obama, the Republican noise machine seems to have settled back into familiar territory. Barack Obama (like John Kerry before him and Al Gore before that) is apparently a flip-flopper, a man with no core beliefs who will cynically adopt whatever position he feels is politically expedient in order to become president. And as usual, the Republican candidate is a man of principle, a man who says what he believes even when it's not popular.

Dutifully playing his part is Charles Krauthammer in today's Washington Post with a column entitled A Man of Seasonal Principles. In the column, Krauthammer hits all the usual notes. He refers to "Obama's brazen reversals of position and abandonment of principles." The example he leads with is Obama's supposed flip flop on the chief issue of our time--whether or not to wear a flag lapel pin. He goes on to suggest--without any evidence or analysis--that Obama has already completely reversed himself on withdrawing from Iraq.

Putting aside the question of whether Obama actually has changed his position on these issues (I don't think there's any evidence he has on Iraq), it takes an astounding amount of Chutzpah for Krauthammer--and anyone else who's actively backing John McCain--to play the flip-flopper card this time around. After all, there really isn't anyone in politics who has vacillated back and forth more dramatically over the years than John McCain, and for transparently political reasons.

John McCain was, for years, a fairly run-of-the-mill Republican, a guy who could be counted on to vote the party line on most issues. Then, as his presidential campaign gained steam in 2000, he pivoted rather wildly to the center in order to appeal to his new found political base, the Beltway press corps. He moderated his positions on abortion, on taxes, on a whole host of issues. He referred to people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance." And after he lost the nomination, during Bush's first year in office, he openly flirted with the idea of leaving the Republican party and caucusing with the Democrats. He opposed Bush's tax cuts on the grounds that they were reckless and unfairly skewed toward the wealthy. And as late as 2004, he is reported to have been genuinely considering an offer to become John Kerry's running mate.

Then, when he realized that his most likely path to the presidency was winning the Republican nomination in 2008, he began tacking wildly back to the right. He backed President Bush on just about every issue that arose during his second term. He started pulling people into his fledgling campaign that he had previously decried. He spoke at Liberty University. He became an ardent supply-sider and began criticizing those who would allow President Bush's tax cuts to expire (even in part). He started touting his conservative voting record and backed off any number of previously reasonable positions he'd taken on issues like torture, warrantless surveillance, the estate tax, and now off-shore drilling.

No presidential candidate in recently memory has as well-established a track record of flip-floppery as John McCain. His quest to become president has led him on quite a journey across the political spectrum (and back again!). In fact, he's pivoted back and forth so many times that flip flopper isn't really the right word. He's long since flipped and flopped. At this point he's flupping.

Yet with this man as their standard bearer, the Charles Krauthammers of the world are writing columns accusing his opponent of having no core principles and changing his positions in order to become president. Amazing. It's like if the backers of a candidate who had used his family connections to avoid going to war started attacking his opponent's military record, even though his opponent had actually volunteered for combat and earned a Silver Star and several Purple Hearts.

Oh wait. That actually happened. I guess this is just par for the course then.