It depends on what the meaning of ‘stood tall’ is

July 12, 2008

It’s one thing to flip-flop; it’s another to live in an alternate reality in which the flip-flop never occurred.

Yesterday, on a McCain campaign conference call, Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) praised John McCain for his consistency in support of comprehensive immigration reform. In fact, with righteous indignation, Martinez can’t imagine why anyone would argue anything to the contrary.

“Far from him running away from the issue during the primary, as it is falsely and shamelessly claimed, in fact, [McCain] stood tall during that time…. In the meantime, what I think is terribly unfair, and I will not stand idly by and let happen, is for [Obama] to trash Senator McCain’s record on comprehensive immigration reform. Senator McCain was for it during the primary. He was for it now. And he will be for it when he is president.”

As it turns out, this appears to be the latest line embraced by the McCain campaign. Just a couple of weeks ago, McCain spoke to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) in DC, and also tried to play the audience for fools. In reference to comprehensive immigration reform, McCain said, “It would be my top priority yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

Now, when Barack Obama talked about “refining” his Iraq policy as he gained additional information, the media pounced — and continues to pounce — citing this as evidence of a candidate lacking core convictions. To hear McCain tell it, Obama’s word isn’t to be trusted.

But for the McCain campaign to seriously push the notion that McCain “stood tall” during the primaries in support of comprehensive immigration reform is transparently ridiculous.

Here’s McCain seven months ago, promising not to support comprehensive immigration reform:

“I understand why you would call it a, quote, shift,” McCain told reporters Saturday after voters questioned him on his position during back-to-back appearances in this early voting state. “I say it is a lesson learned about what the American people’s priorities are. And their priority is to secure the borders.”

And here he is four months ago, promising not to support comprehensive immigration reform:

“[I] have pledged that it would be among my highest priorities to secure our borders first, and only after we achieved widespread consensus that our borders are secure, would we address other aspects of the problem in a way that defends the rule of law and does not encourage another wave of illegal immigration.

And here he is two months ago, promising not to support comprehensive immigration reform:

“As the recent immigration debate demonstrated, Americans have little trust that their government will honor a pledge to do the things necessary to make our border secure. As president, I will honor that pledge by securing the border, thus strengthening our national security. I will also require that, among other things, border-state governors certify that the border is secure before proceeding to other reform measures.”

McCain felt so strongly about this, he told a national television audience earlier this year that he’d vote against his own bill if it came to the Senate floor.

Martinez apparently believes taking note of McCain’s own public positions is “terribly unfair.” For us to realize what McCain actually said about his own beliefs is “shameless.”

Once again, McCain is counting on public ignorance to get him through the campaign.

The sad thing is that it will probably go unchallenged, especially if it comes out that Obama had a $259.60 haircut, or he “cackled” when responding to a joke, because those things are far more important than the blatant McCain flip flops.

Maybe it gets ignored because McCain’s flip-flops are so common and ‘everybody’ knows about it, that it isn’t really news.

Sure….

  • The people he pandered to in the primaries know what he said even if the media won’t correct the record. The same thing that is true for Obama on FISA is true for McCain on immigration: pissing off the base is going to lead to decreased turnout and lack of enthusiasm in the fall.

  • In its mad rush to support McCain at all costs the media seems to be overlooking the fact that four more years of Republican policies will leave most Americans unable to afford newspapers,cable television or Internet access.

  • You pay attention to the news.

    For many years now, the press has stood (tall!) as a propaganda arm of the Republican Party. I suspect that with media conglomeration and the resultant obscenely huge bucks involved, they felt it in their best interests to prop up the Republicans because their way of governing only benefits the very rich at the expense of the rest of us. (Something the media fails to actually report, of course.) Look, there are various things accepted as given: the Republicans are strong on defense (false — look at their handling of just about any armed conflict in the 20th – 21st centuries); the Republicans are all about small government (which must be why our “defense” spending is around SIX HUNDRED BILLION dollars more than the next biggest spender; they are interested in eviscerating all the various domestic programs that help keep the country running, however). Republicans also hold the moral high ground, which is equally false & equally ridiculous. Look a their lawbreaking, their hypocrisy and their craven pandering. It’s not like Dems are pure as the driven snow, but, really, they aren’t in the same league as the Republicans.

    Why are these canards accepted? Accepted as essential facts of the political landscape?

    Because the big media companies feel it is in their best interests to shore up the narrative. I think this is stupid & incredibly short-sighted of them — it’s true that it’s people like me that are hurting (whine whine whine) very much more than some rich fat cat, but it’s also true that thanks to the Republican mis-management of the last 8 years, the dollar is worth, what, 70 percent what it once was?

    Heckuva job there, everybody.

  • “Why are these canards accepted? Accepted as essential facts of the political landscape? — zhak”

    Might I also add that liberals — both elected and unelected — allowed this to happen by not fully understanding the nature of their opponents, the media or the public. Even now, the pushback is barely audible. What should have risen as a loyal opposition has cowered in fear. America has a lot of house cleaning to do on all fronts.

  • America has a lot of house cleaning to do on all fronts.

    Let me start: Diane Feinstein recall vote!

    I don’t remember, can we do that? I’d give anything to see grandma get the boot but good!

  • Unless the MSM starts scrutinizing his remarks his dependence on public ignorance will pay off. He counts on the press to make sure that even when he out and out lies and purposely misleads that it will not be pointed out or the ‘pointing out’ will be done at a later time with a different audience and that a much smaller number of voters will hear the correction.

    God how I long for Left Wing TV with world and consumer news. If that’s not possible at least extend the daily show for 2hrs. with a special news spot. Just dreaming.

    If someone seriously yelled “Yosemite Sam for President”, people would laugh which should be the reaction when the same is yelled about McCain. Now that the present Bush/republican disaster has proven republicans don’t know what the hell they’re doing, they could only run their least embarrassing candidate. Time to get them all out of government….they need a whole new party.

  • “General Excellence” of an almost unknown magazine, out of New York, has been damaged with last front page as much that only “The Mummy” in the next cover may recover its credibility.

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