CNN's Late Edition dug from their archives this clip of John McCain in August of 1999:
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McCain: I think that we must go back to the party platform of 1980 and 1984 - we include people who have specific disagreements who share our same goals. Ultimately, I would like to see the repeal of Roe v. Wade, but to do it immediately, I think, would condemn young women to dangerous and illegal operations.
See, back in 1999, McCain was walking a tightrope by calling himself pro-life on a personal level while at the same time assuring pro-choice voters for pragmatic reasons that “in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade.” Yet, today, McCain says bluntly right on his website that "John McCain believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned."
It's really hard to overstate the audacity of those in the media who tried to make Obama's recent decision to opt out of public campaign financing out to be some colossal flip-flop without even mentioning the fact that McCain has now flip-flopped a gazillion times on almost every issue under the sun. To summarize just a few of Steve Benen's list of McCain flip-flops:
- McCain was against the repeal of Roe v. Wade before he was for it.
- McCain was against torture before he was for it. Really for it.
- McCain was against crazy right-wing preachers like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson before he was for them.
- McCain was against Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy before he was for them.
- McCain was against shady Bush "Pioneer" Texas billionaire swift-boat financiers before he was for them.
- McCain was for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law before he was against it and began breaking it.
- McCain was against Grover Norquist, whom he called "corrupt, a shill for dictators" before he was for him.
- McCain was against BJU because of its "hateful," "racist and cruel" policies before he was for it.
- McCain was against ethanol before he was for ethanol and then he was against it again.
- McCain was against a Martin Luther King holiday before he was for it. ...
And that's not all. There's many many more. In fact, here's an even longer list. McCain has reversed his former positions to fall more in line with the Bush administration so many times now it's really hard to tell Bush and McCain apart (can you beat my 3 out of 5 on the first try?). It might actually be easier to list the issue(s) McCain hasn't (yet) flip-flopped on, although I can't think of a single one right offhand.
