1115.org

Even for John McCain, this should be impossible. Granted he is the biggest flip-flopper ever to run for President. But his performance during an interview last week that appears in the WSJ today has caused even jaded flip-flop-expecters like me to sit up and go “Wow!”

First he cheerfully reneged on the “No new taxes” pledge he made only two weeks ago:

Two weeks ago, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked him on “This Week” if he were a “‘read my lips’ candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?” referring to a pledge made by President George H.W. Bush, which he later broke. “No new taxes,” Sen. McCain responded. “But under circumstances (sic) would you increase taxes?” Mr. Stephanopoulos continued. “No,” Sen. McCain answered.

Asked in The Wall Street Journal interview to clarify, Sen. McCain softened that stance. “I’m not making a ‘read my lips’ statement, in that I will not raise taxes,” he says. “But I’m not saying I can envision a scenario where I would, OK?”

And then he blithely repudiated his own official campaign position on Social Security. That’s the Social Security policy he’s been campaigning on for a year now.

On Social Security, the Arizona senator says he still backs a system of private retirement accounts that President Bush pushed unsuccessfully, and disowned details of a Social Security proposal on his campaign Web site.
[…]
Sen. McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign Web site (proposes) “supplementing” the existing full Social Security system with personally managed accounts. Such accounts wouldn’t substitute for guaranteed payments, and they wouldn’t be financed by diverting a portion of Social Security payroll taxes.
[…]
Asked about the apparent change in position in the interview, Sen. McCain said he hadn’t made one. “I’m totally in favor of personal savings accounts,” he says. When reminded that his Web site says something different, he says he will change the Web site. (As of Sunday night, he hadn’t.) “As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it — along the lines that President Bush proposed.”

Just to be clear, here’s what the Republican Party is asking you to do in November: Please listen to this man tell you what he will do as President. And then please vote for this man for President. Even though you can’t trust that what he espouses today, he will still be espousing two weeks from now. Even though what he really believes in and plans to do is often the exact opposite of what his campaign has been telling you for a year he stands for.

And the media, of course, goes right along telling us what a straight-talker John McCain is, what an honorable politician.

Remember when McCain went:

The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.

Let’s hope that one of these days he allows: “The issue of honesty is not something I’ve understood as well as I should.” Short of that, there’s really not much hope of the media changing its St. John narrative.