John McCain, for several years now, has told everyone who will listen that his record is one of “mainstream conservative.” As a presidential candidate, he offers voters “a clearly conservative approach to governing.”
And yet, reporters at major news outlets don’t believe him, and feel the need to tell the public that McCain isn’t especially conservative at all. Just this week, the Boston Globe reported that the senator’s “opposition to Bush on a range of issues, combined with his nonideological voting record, gives him an image of moderation.” An image, of course, that the media seems anxious to reinforce.
Consider another example. About a week ago, in the midst of a discussion on Jeremiah Wright, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough insisted that McCain “has never attached himself to these people on the far right that say if you’re gay, you’re going to hell, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.” Scarborough’s observation was completely right — just so long as one overlooks McCain attaching himself to radical televangelists like John Hagee, Rod Parsely, and the late Jerry Falwell.
I mention this not just because it’s maddening, but because it’s a subject covered very well in a new book, “Free Ride: John McCain and the Media,” written by Media Matters’ David Brock and Paul Waldman. As part of the release of the book, some blogging colleagues and I are featuring various myths tackled by the authors. Atrios covered Myth #1 the other day: “John McCain is a maverick.”
Today, I’m highlighting Myth #2: “John McCain is a moderate.”
It’s a myth that is in desperate need of debunking.
Since his rise to prominence on the national scene, McCain has been routinely referred to as a moderate — despite the fact that both his voting record and McCain himself attest that he is a reliable conservative. Take abortion. Over the years, McCain has voted for cutting federal funding of family planning clinics that counseled pregnant women on abortion and has supported a ban on late-term abortion. He has consistently received zero ratings from NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood. In 2000, hard-line social conservative Gary Bauer actually endorsed McCain over Bush because he said McCain assured him he would appoint pro-life judges to the Supreme Court (Free Ride, Page 139).
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He has opposed extending the assault weapons ban, 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 (Free Ride, Pages 139-140). On national security, McCain has consistently proven himself to be one of our most hawkish senators. Conservative groups such as the American Conservative Union and the Christian Coalition of America routinely give McCain high marks (Free Ride, Pages 145-146).
Some of this came before his metamorphosis into the consistently conservative candidate we see today, some of it during. Either way, to characterize McCain as some kind of “moderate” is absurd.
“Free Ride” covers this and other myths extremely well, and I can’t recommend the book highly enough. McCain’s relationship with the media — or, as it’s better known, “McCain’s base” — is going to be one of the most important angles to the 2008 presidential campaign. Brock and Waldman know this issue better than anyone, and their book deserves to be read by reporters, staffers, and voters.