Motley Moose – Archive

Straight talk.

Apparently it’s a dying art.

John McCain was never a maverick. He was a staunch Republican whose positions deviated from those of his party only on occasion. But the one thing he had going for him was honesty and sincerity. He told the country what he believed and why he believed it, firmly and unapologetically. He stood up for his beliefs even if they were unpopular. He defended his principles. But somewhere along the line John McCain gave up. He sacrificed his principles, he surrendered to the sordid tactics of his party, the tactics he once despised and vocally denounced. To fully understand the magnitude of his fall, one must look back — a glance at the McCain of a month ago, really, is sufficient to understand the duplicity of his statements and positions, but the differences between the McCain of 2000 and the McCain of 2008 are staggering. A brief list compiled by blogger Alex Valentine shows the stark contrast between the two McCains:

Back in 2000, I actually thought John McCain might make a good president, not that I would have voted for him. However, I did think he would surely be better than George W. Bush.

When the Rove attack machine turned on McCain in South Carolina, I was outraged and expected McCain to turn against Bush even more. It wasn’t long before I discovered just how wrong I was about McCain. He not only forgave Bush for the smears about his adopted daughter, he actually embraced Bush. If it had been me, I would have punched him.

Over the last eight years, McCain has shown that he will do and say anything to have the title of President of the United States of America. He has flip-flopped on nearly every important issue. He has embraced people he would have once shunned and reached out for support from people he has condemned. Does this man have any principles left?

He said the war would be quick and easy and then flipped and said that he had always claimed it would be a long hard war.

more after the break, plus videos