Posted on 01/30/2007 8:43:41 AM PST by meg88
Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R.-Ariz.), often described as a “maverick” by the media, has been duly dealt blows from both the right and the left by groups who find hypocrisy in the senator’s “straight talk.”
Straight Talk America is the name of McCain’s presidential campaign committee, a spin-off from the well-known “Straight Talk Express” bus he toured on during his 2000 presidential campaign. On the “Straight Talk Express” reporters enjoyed full-access to McCain and nothing was “off the record.”
But, yesterday two groups claimed McCain’s “straight talk” is a sham.
Brave New Films, a left-leaning film-making company that has produced Michael Moore style “documentaries” about Wal-Mart, FOX News and the Iraq War unveiled a short video online showing McCain making contradictory statements on several issues that include gay marriage and the religious right.
Producer Robert Greenwald calls the nearly three-minute video that contains spliced clips from several news shows “John McCain vs. John McCain.” Contrasting statements are put together to make McCain appear to be a “flip-flopper” as John Kerry was by Republican groups when he ran for president in 2004.
The video is posted on www.TheRealMcCain.com and is accompanied by an anti-McCain blog written by Cliff Schecter. Before writing his attack blog, Schecter was a pollster for President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign, raised money for former Gov. Mark Warner (D.-Va.) and was a consultant for the DNC and the DCCC.
Sinking numbers in the latest Rasmussen poll that show McCain at 52% approval (down from 59% in December) caused Schecter to headline his latest blog "Bad News for 'Double Talk' McCain."
The liberal blogger wrote “It seems all his double talk has started to hurt him in the polls…Although, it could have also been the Iraq escalation, which every sentient being opposes, or possibly the fact that he was one of 28 Republican Senators to vote in favor of ELIMINATING the federal minimum wage.”
Similarly, the right-leaning Center for Individual Freedom issued a press release that wondered “whether the ‘Straight Talk Express’ has taken a U-turn.”
The group has been putting pressure on McCain to answer if he will accept funding from the presidential public financing system in his 2008 White House bid. McCain has been repeatedly targeted by conservatives for collaborating with Sen. Russ Feingold (D.-Wis.) to impose new campaign finance laws in 2001 that included a pre-election ban on “issue advertisements” and limits on “soft money.”
Democrat White House contender Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) ruled out the possibility of using public funding for her campaign because of the spending limits that are attached of it.
If McCain makes the same decision, he will be forced to answer questions related to his support of the public financing system, of which he sponsored legislation in 2003 to expand. Sen. Barack Obama (D.-Ill.) has also supported the public financing system in the past, but has not said if he will accept the public money and spending caps associated with it.
In a November 19, 2006 interview on ABC’s "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos asked McCain, “As you look to a Presidential campaign you’ve been a great advocate for campaign finance reform. If you choose to run, will you stay inside the public financing or go around it?”
“I don’t think-it depends, on what other candidates might do,” McCain said.
A letter written by CFIF to McCain on January 29 said, “Senator McCain, as the Senate’s chief ‘campaign finance reformer,’ you have an obligation to the American people to clearly state your intentions on this issue regardless of ‘what other candidates might do.”
Potentially further drawing criticism from conservatives is McCain’s decision to decline an invitation from the Republican Study Committee to speak at their annual retreat this weekend.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will be speaking, as will former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R.-Ga.) and former Sen. Phil Gramm (R.-Tex.).
Miss Carpenter is Assistant Editor for HUMAN EVENTS. She is the author of "The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy's Dossier on Hillary Rodham Clinton," published by Regnery (a HUMAN EVENTS sister company).
An example of what happens when you are a moderate.
McPain has created his own political pretzel - using his primary constituency, the media, to "talk" conservative to the media-induced ignorant public, while creating all his signature legislation in alliances with the left-most elements in Congress.
Watch him squirm as he tries to explain his political contortions, asking everyone to believe that red is not really red and blue is not really blue.
He will say he is a "centrist"; he's not. He's just a big ego that has survived as an opportunist. Let's hope his last political opportunity has already occurred.
McCain is a RINO. That sums it up.
McCain - not worthy of discussion.
"It's John McCain folks. Wake up folks before our country is completely destroyed."
No. It is not McCain. If McCain is our candidate, we will lose.
Why do you think McCain can beat Hillary? Most of this article is about a DEMOCRAT website that highlights McCain flip-flops. If McCain gets the nomination, you think that Hillary won't spend millions on ads about McCain's double-talk? As this article reports, the Democrat ads about his hypocrisy have already begun - and they'll accellerater, they'll be all over TV, if he gets the GOP nomination.
This is why the media loves him - because he's a likely loser in the general election.
Once again, most of this article is about DEMOCRATS who are pointing out McCain's hypocrisy. They'll have a heydey if he's the Republican nominee.
John McCain would be worse than Hillary.
Hillary's treachery is known and open, McPain's is subversion within the GOP. He is as much a conservative as is his primary Congressional allies, Fiengold and Kennedy. You are known by the company you keep.
I'll never forget when the American Bolsheviks under the leaderhsip of International A.N.S.W.E.R. organized the immmigration "amnesty" mobs in the street, and McPain praised them for it. You are known by the company you keep.
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