John McCain flip flops on taxes, feels heat from the right

Another day, another John McCain flip flop.  But unlike the others, this one is actually getting media coverage, and drawing him a sharp rebuke from his conservative allies.

On Sunday, John McCain told reporters on his campaign bus that he would keep all options on the table when it comes to social security, including raising taxes.

“There is nothing that’s off the table. I have my positions, and I’ll articulate them. But nothing’s off the table,” McCain said. “I don’t want tax increases. But that doesn’t mean that anything is off the table.”

This is a complete flip flop from Senator McCain’s previous tax position, and is a similar position to the one his campaign criticized Senator Obama for holding.

Senator McCain has tried to follow the Bush talking point of “no matter how much the government is in debt, I’ll never raise your taxes” talking point in the past. Several times in the past, he has explicitly say he will never raise taxes, and has criticized Senator Obama for suggesting that more income be eligible under the payroll tax.

March 16th:

In a March 16 interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, McCain said he would cut taxes where possible, and not raise them.

“Do you mean none?” Hannity asked.

“None,” McCain replied.

June 13th:

When Obama announced his plan June 13, McCain’s top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, told reporters that as president McCain would not consider a payroll tax increase “under any imagineable circumstance.”

July 7th:

At a July 7 town-hall meeting in Denver, he said voters faced a stark choice between him and Democrat Barack Obama.

“Sen. Obama will raise your taxes,” McCain said. “I won’t.”

For most of us in the blogosphere, A John McCain flip flop is nothing new.  He makes them on almost a daily basis, sometimes contradicting a position he laid out in the same day.  Unlike other flip flops, this one is actually getting some coverage, and it’s also getting him some criticism from his conservative allies.

Considering the trouble that McCain has had courting conservatives, the last thing he needs to be doing is pissing off conservative groups.  Club for Growth has already fired a warning shot at Senator McCain:

That comment drew a strong response Monday from the Club for Growth, a Washington anti-tax group. McCain’s comments, the group said in a letter to the Arizona senator, are “shocking because you have been adamant in your opposition to raising taxes under any circumstances.”

With conservatives criticizing him, this flip flop might actually have some legs in the media.  Hopefully it will lead to an examination of Senator McCain’s many other flip flops, and will expose him for the political opportunist that he is.

A couple of more observations about McCain’s reversal on Social Security:

Has everyone noticed a trend appearing?  Barack Obama proposes a policy.  Senator McCain and his team spend months criticizing that proposal of being the workings of some sort of naive liberal. A few months later, Senator McCain casually offers up a complete shift in position that now backs the policy Senator Obama already proposed.  It’s almost as if in brief moments of clarity, John McCain realizes how ridiculous some of his policy positions are, and he then tries to run away from them as quickly as possible.

Senator McCain’s response on Sunday highlighted a flaw McCain has that everyone in the media refuses to pick up on. He has absolutely NO POLICY POSITIONS.  Let’s look again at what his answer was on how he’d handle Social Security.

There is nothing that’s off the table. I have my positions, and I’ll articulate them. But nothing’s off the table

“I have my positions, and I’ll articulate them”? What the hell kind of answer is that? He might as well just said “stuff”, and saved me 10 seconds of my life from reading his ridiculous answer. And the media chooses to criticize Senator Obama for being fluff?  It seems the only position that McCain can accurately articulate is that he thinks Obama is a pansy.  When will the media start to call him out of his complete lack of substance?

I’m happy someone is finally starting to take McCain to task for his ridiculous flip flop, even if it is from a far right group.  Hopefully someone will start to call him out on his complete lack of substanc