John McCain – new posterboy for “Flip-flopper” designation?

Have the Democrats, after many Presidential campaigns with candidates labeled flip-floppers or similar, finally found a break from the designation while a conservative worms into that position now? John McCain certainly looks to be front-runner for the flip-flopper title as we start seeing Presidential campaigns start up.

• McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.
• McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.
• McCain took a firm line in opposition to torture, and then caved to White House demands.
• And now McCain has gone from insisting that the war in Iraq would be easy to insisting that he’s always said the war in Iraq would be hard. And yet, you’ll still find most of the political establishment arguing that McCain’s strength as a candidate is his credibility.

That’s just a sampling of the switches McCain has made. Of course, he’ll not be labeled a flip-flopped for them, because the conservatives only seem to use that and similar terms against liberals, whether or not the label is actually accurate.

I should point out here that I like John McCain. He’s one of the few politicians that I have any inkling of respect for. And I really don’t think having a change of opinion or taking a new stance after learning more about a topic is a bad thing. But I think every candidate running for President needs very careful scrutiny, and his actions deserve the same review Kerry’s actions got which lead to his being inaccurately called a flip-flopper. I still expect McCain to be a strong candidate for the conservatives, but he needs a sharp review the same as any other politician.

[tags]McCain fighting for flip-flopper title[/tags]