An update on Jukebox John

July 16, 2008

As readers may have noticed, I added a permanent link to the list of John McCain’s flip-flops, just under the search feature. I’ve received quite a bit of positive feedback on the list, and several people encouraged me to make it easier to find. This should do the trick.

Instead of periodically running updated lists, I’m going to update this one individual page whenever new reversals come to my attention.

I do, however, need to ask a favor. Would someone mind putting together a small-but-eye-catching graphic for me? The link does its job, but I’m looking for something a little snazzier, preferably small that fits with the overall color schemes and fonts, and says, “The Official McCain Flip-Flop List.” (I wouldn’t want anyone to work too hard on this. Twenty of you might help me out, and I don’t want to make 19 of you too angry when I pick my favorite.)

Oh, and before I forget, there are three more I’m about to add to the list, which will bring the total to 64:

* McCain was against additional U.S. forces in Afghanistan before he was for it.

* McCain opposed gay adoption before his campaign concluded he didn’t really mean it.

* In the Senate, McCain opposed a variety of measures on equal pay for women, and endorsed the Supreme Court’s Ledbetter decision. In July, however, McCain said, “I’m committed to making sure that there’s equal pay for equal work. That … is my record and you can count on it.”

I’m no graphic artist so I probably can’t help with the icon. But I would recommend strongly that the link also include the current total of flip-flops as of the moment. Right now, it’d say “64”. By tomorrow, it’d probably be “66” or “67”.

Just to give a quick impression of the sheer magnitude of this guy’s problem.

  • I would love an icon that is a graph of sorts that “keeps going up”, like Al Gore’s line graph, and that would, at some point, have the flip-flops be off the charts.

  • I would suggest that for any example where there’s video of McJukebox flopping back and forth, then that should be prominently featured, and made available to the folks who drop in. The undecideds in this election cycle are usually in that position because they’re fairly low information voters, and haven’t had the time or inclination to actually read much, so they’re a lot more likely to check out a video than to actually read anything.

    I would also make available any and all videos where McCain freezes up after being asked a question. I’ve seen it, and it’s unnerving to say the least. I think the one I remember best was when he was asked about his campaign director being a major league lobbyist. He locked up for about four long seconds and then started babbling for awhile, before launching into yet another one of his patented “here’s a lie and I double daer you to call me on it” riffs.

  • Regarding the Afghanistan one, I think you should add a few bits about his confusion about whether those should be NATO or U.S. troops (his campaign changed their minds over the course of one day, finally settling on ‘that’s something to be worked out’).

  • It is nice to have the list in an easy-to-find place like that. Kudos definitely. Though if I read the page source right, it looks like you have the list numbered manually. That means that if you have to put a new flip-flop somewhere near the beginning or the middle, you need to renumber all of them yourself. You might want to look into using the “ol” html tag to create an ordered list that numbers itself automatically.

  • If you can make it to 71 on the list, we can say there’s one flip-flop for each of JMac’s years. When he turns 72, we can wish him a happy birthday and tell him he gets a freebie flip flop on us.

  • By the way, this is nitpicky but I think some of these, such as the equal pay for women, actually qualify as lies rather than flips. In other words, he could make the claim because there isn’t any pending legislation so he doesn’t actually have to live up to his new claim. He could be caught in the lie, but most people won’t hear about it because the MSM won’t report it. They’ll just keep yelling about us DFHs.

    But I love the list, the idea as well as the content, so add everything you can to it, I sez.

  • I’d like to suggest two additions that could make the list an authoritative list of “McCainisms”. (I think “flip flop” is too generic a term to use for McCain’s pathological behavior.) First, dates should be added to the list in order to show when each of McCain’s positions was expressed. Second, links might be found to cite each of McCain’s positions.

    I think if we (meaning CB readers) all worked on this, the dates and potential links could be found in short order and CB could add them to the list as they became available.

    For example, McCain on Russia in the G8 (the first Foreign Policy item, #7) might read:

    7. McCain was for kicking Russia out of the G8 (Nov/Dec 2007 and March 26, 2008) before he was against it
    (June 25, 2008). (Seems to be something funny with this Reuters link… YMMV.)

  • Hey Steve, I whipped up this sidebar bug for your official list of flip flops.

    I am still playing with the script font a bit, and trying to work in the current number, as suggested by Bernard above, but this should give you a good idea of what I am proposing.

    Let me know if you are interested in using it!

  • Glad to see you’re running with this.

    And yes, the number should be on there, so that the magnitude of his flopping is apparent even to those who don’t click on the link. (And it would also pique their interest to click through, too. Win-win.)

  • Also, how about an image/link that other blogs can add to their own sidebars? Get this thing out there!

  • I second Bernard’s running total idea, #1; this feature is brilliant and necessary and may even — come on you guys with the design talent! — become a must stop site for lazy MSM.

  • If someone could put together something like this:

    http://www.angelfire.com/art/masks/maskhistory.html

    but have both faces be cartoonish distortions of McCain’s face, it might do the trick. After all, if we’re not laughing our collective asses off at the old coot, we’re on the verge of shedding a tear for the destruction he’ll cause if elected….

  • I did another one, incorporating the number count: mccain_flipflop2.gif

    The problem with including a count in the image is that the Carpetbagger would have to be updating images all of the time to match up to the current number, and other sites linking to a banner would very quickly be using an outdated banner (unless the current image kept being replaced – which would lead to browser caching problems).

    Unless a dynamic banner was set up…

  • Then again, I’m probably underestimating ‘ol Johnny by only including 2 digits in that last one!

  • I like Mike’s (@13) “bug” (why is it called a “bug”, if you don’t mind a question from a ‘puter-illiterate person?).

    But I also would like to toss in the image of a toy I used to play with as a child (and McCain might have also. It’s an old, old, toy). Several — fancier — versions of it are on this site:
    http://www.toypost.co.uk/home.php?cat=1
    but there are others, more traditional ones, if you search for “wooden acrobat+toy”. Maybe the image could be doctored, so it wears flip-flops, to reinforce the idea?

  • Oh, and a reinforcement for Mike’s thumbs-up/thumbs-down picture: ¡ ! (Spanish-type exclamation marks)

  • I like the one with the counter Will, but you’ll have to update it several times daily! 🙂

    Well, as long as we’re sharing. Here’s mine.

  • Here’s a concept. I remember a two headed giant on Monty Python or Star Wars where the two heads were constantly at odds with each other. Perhaps somebody could do a video where John McCains two heads present both side of the flip flops. They do not need to argue about it. Just present it as if neither head is aware of the other.
    David Chisholm

  • one more thought. If the two heads could be updated as the flip flops mount. It could be done as some kind of a loop that increases in length with each addition. I wish I could do the graphics, but I don’t know enough about the craft. This is a free concept. Whoever can do it will never hear me say,”I thought it up, etc”.
    David Chisholm

  • David, that was the 3-headed giant from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. McCain could play the cowardly Sir Robin (afraid to tackle real issues), plus all 3 heads (one rambling about being “flip,” another rambling about being “flop,” and the third going on about barbecue, donuts with sprinkles, and singing bomb-bomb-Iran.

  • Jesse, @ 29 &30

    It does, but it’s sloooow. The changes happen in real time — about one per second. That’s too long to wait, in ‘puter time; at first, I thought the animation *didn’t* work…

  • To Libra:

    Yea, the first time I tried it McCain spun around so fast it looked like a scene from “The Exorcist,” So I felt it needed slowing down… Still kinda new to the whole graphic design thing.

    Other than the animation speed, what do you think of the image?

  • Jesse, @33, if you’re still reading…

    I see you changed the speed — much better now that he’s tick-tocking like a clock 🙂 The image itself… I don’t know. It suggests that he actually *thinks* before changing his position. But I have an impression that the changes are not really considered ones. Still…Nice.

    My one “caveat” for all the complex and animated ideas — much as I’ve enjoyed looking at them — is that Steve has asked for something small:
    Would someone mind putting together a small-but-eye-catching graphic for me?
    More a clever icon, I think, than a movie.

  • libra , 34:

    Yea, I know he wanted something small, but I had the time and I thought a banner might be nice.

    If I have the chance I might submit another. what’s a good size to go with (in pixels)? like I said, I’m pretty new at this and not sure how all the measurements work.

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