McCain gets a free ride from the press.

While the democrats tear each other apart in the news each night, the press seems to give our Republican candidate for president the free pass. You can’t even read a story about McCain without hearing him called a “maverick.”


Maverick

NOUN: One that refuses to abide by the dictates of or resists adherence to a group; a dissenter.

ADJECTIVE: Being independent in thought and action or exhibiting such independence: maverick politicians; a maverick decision.


According to Media Matters McCain was called a maverick more than 1,300 times in print and on television. I don’t know about you but someone who sticks with his party line 80% of the time is hardly a maverick. The times that he has bucked his party line was with issues that were very popular with the majority of the public so he was not taking any political risks.


McCain has been referred to be a moderate despite the fact that both his McCain himself and his voting record proves that he is a neo-con. McCain voted for cutting federal funding of family planning clinics that counseled women on abortion. He has opposed federal hate crimes legislation, the establishment of the International Criminal Court, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, pro-labor legislation, ergonomics rules, lawsuits against gun manufacturers, and benefits for gay partners. He has supported privatizing Social Security, conservative judicial appointments, the teaching of intelligent design in public schools, tax cuts for the wealthy, and the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools.


His claim to be a straight talker but McCain has been all things to all people. McCain used to describe Jerry Falwell as an agent of intolerance but after he decided to make another run for president he publicly embraced Falwell back in 2006. It seems like someone needs a favor from the religious conservatives.


He has flipped on many issues such as tax cuts for the wealthy he opposed in 2001 he is now in favor of when he needs to appeal to the conservative base. McCain also once said on abortion, I would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade." And yet he had also told an anti-choice group in a letter, "I share our common goal of reducing the staggering number of abortions currently performed in this country and overturning the Roe vs. Wade decision". Today, his website reads, "John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned."


When he ran for president in 2000, he skipped the Iowa caucus, and made clear his contempt for ethanol made from Iowa corn. "Ethanol does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve our air quality," he said in 2003. Yet in 2008, he decided to compete in the Iowa caucus, and had a change of heart on ethanol. "I do not support subsidies, but I support ethanol and I think it is a vital alternative energy source, not only because of our dependence on foreign oil but because of its greenhouse reduction effects," he said in August 2006.


The squeaky clean McCain has his own whitewater with his involvement in the Keating Five. Back in early 1987, at the beginning of his first Senate term, McCain attended two meetings with federal banking regulators to discuss an investigation into Lincoln Savings and Loan, an Irvine, Calif., thrift owned by Arizona developer Charles Keating. Federal auditors were investigating Keating's banking practices, and Keating, fearful that the government would seize his S&L, sought intervention from a number of U.S. senators. At Keating's behest, four senators--McCain and Democrats Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, Alan Cranston of California, and John Glenn of Ohio--met with Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, on April 2. Those four senators and Sen. Don Riegle, D-Mich., attended a second meeting at Keating's behest on April 9 with bank regulators in San Francisco.

Regulators did not seize Lincoln Savings and Loan until two years later. The Lincoln bailout cost taxpayers $2.6 billion, making it the biggest of the S&L scandals. In addition, 17,000 Lincoln investors lost $190 million.


The news media would also have you believe that McCain doesn’t tell people what they want to hear but makes decisions based not on what’s good politics but on what’s right. The press presents John McCain as unwavering in principle, and propped up by endless political courage and would never pander for a vote.


Consider his decision in 2000 to denounce the Confederate flag flying over the south Carolina statehouse but when the primary approached, he said that the flag was a symbol of heritage.


In recent months, McCain has backtracked on his positions on immigration and taxes, with an eye toward pleasing the conservative base, any other politician who tried a similar gambit would be criticized for such blatant pandering. But for John McCain, the rules are different.


Maybe after they pick the winner of the Democratic primary we will get to see the real John McCain.


Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.