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McCain's Double Talk Express Hits A Fork in the Road

March 9, 2007

Despite going from "maverick" to establishment candidate and from "straight talk" to double talk since first running in 2000, John McCain has dusted off an old campaign gimmick. This weekend McCain is hopping aboard the so-called "straight-talk express", asking voters to forget his willingness to discard long-held beliefs in the interest of political expediency.

It should surprise no one that there was "some back-and-forth in the McCain campaign" about the bus and that it makes some of McCain's "newer advisers nervous." [The Caucus, nytimes.com, 3/7/07] Since he first ran in 2000, McCain has found himself courting Christian conservatives he once labeled "agents of intolerance," has shifted his position on ethanol for Iowa voters, and has fumbled as he tries to both distance himself from the Iraq war while remaining its biggest advocate. [Quad-City Times, 2/18/07; Des Moines Register, 12/19/99; politico.com, 2/12/07] McCain has even backed down from his signature issue of campaign finance reform, seeking the help of lobbyists and fundraisers he decried for years and voting against grassroots campaign finance reform unpopular with conservative primary voters who don't trust him. [Washington Post, 2/12/07; The Hill, 1/18/07] When a Washington Post report exposed the double talk, McCain reacted angrily, blasting the report but never addressing his inconsistencies. [CNN, 2/11/07]

"No road McCain's bus travels on will have more twists and turns than those that have marked his do-anything-to-win approach to the Republican presidential primary," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Luis Miranda. "If John McCain is committed to straight talk, he should start by changing the name of the bus."

Below are the highlights of McCain's double-talk, as outlined by the Washington Post in a February 11th report. The full report can be viewed here.

McCain Then:
"long supported" public financing and spending limits on campaigns.

• McCain Now:
McCain's campaign "is still studying whether to forgo the public financing and spending limits" and has said that he "will not be handicapped by restrictions his competitors will not face in 2008."

McCain Then:
"McCain the reformer worked unsuccessfully through Congress and the courts to try to stop nonprofit political groups known as 527s from using unlimited donations to run political ads and fund other activities aimed at influencing voters in the run-up to elections."

• McCain Now:"McCain the candidate now expects Republicans to use the same big-money 527 groups in the 2008 elections to beat Democrats, if the groups remain legal.At least six of McCain's first eight national finance co-chairmen have given or raised large donations for political parties or 527 groups, campaign and IRS records show. In all, the finance co-chairs have given at least $13.5 million in soft money and 527 donations since the 1998 election."

McCain Then:
McCain "relentlessly argued that six- and seven-figure 'soft money' checks that corporations, wealthy individuals and unions were giving to political parties to influence elections were corrupting American politics."

• McCain Now:"McCain the candidate has enlisted some of the same GOP fundraising giants who created and flourished in the soft-money system, including Bush's fundraising 'Pioneers' and 'Rangers,' who earned their designations by raising at least $100,000 or $200,000 for his campaigns.

McCain Then:
"Just about a year and a half ago, Sen. John McCain went to court to try to curtail the influence of a group to which A. Jerrold Perenchio gave $9 million, saying it was trying to 'evade and violate' new campaign laws with voter ads ahead of the midterm elections."

• McCain Now:"As McCain launches his own presidential campaign, however, he is counting on Perenchio, the founder of the Univision Spanish-language media empire, to raise millions of dollars as co-chairman of the Arizona Republican's national finance committee."
  

McCain Then:
McCain "proposed legislation requiring so-called grass-roots groups that organize average citizens into lobbying forces to disclose their financial backers."

• McCain Now:"But McCain the candidate switched positions and last month voted against that disclosure requirement after influential GOP groups such as Focus on the Family and National Right to Life strongly opposed the idea. McCain also hired as his campaign manager one of the grass-roots-lobbying industry's key consultants, Bush strategist Terry Nelson."