King Vurtang The Constipated wrote:
Colorado's Governor Bill Ritter on the Mike Rosen show (Station KOA -
850 AM) yesterday:

Caller Richard from Windsor: “Governor, you said 18 months’ experience
wasn’t enough experience as governor to be the vice president. Would
you want to contrast that with the 143 days’ experience Obama as
senator before he decided he had enough experience to be president.”

Ritter: "All I can tell ya is I am a fan of Barack Obama’s. "

Yep - that about sums it up - empty suit.




Just for Tom, whose candidate, John McCain, flip-flops more than a
striped bass on the deck of his low-transomed, flat-bottomed,
water-logged, etec-powered ranger.


Torture

BEFORE

McCain 11/16/07: "One of the things that kept us going when I was in
prison in North Vietnam was that we knew that if the situation were
reversed, that we would not be doing to our captors what they were doing
to us"

"I want to tell you. Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney all
think it is O.K. They have one thing in common. They don’t understand
the military and the culture of this nation. If they did, they could
never condone such behavior." [NY Times]

AFTER

McCain votes against a ban on CIA torture. [NY Times]

Special Interests

BEFORE

McCain: "I'm the only one special interests don't give any money to."
[YouTube]

AFTER

McCain's campaign manager and many key campaign officials are telecom
lobbyists, who have given at least $765,000 to his campaign (and that's
just one special interest) [USA Today]

Campaign Finance Laws

BEFORE

McCain author of McCain Feingold amendment, limiting use of soft money
in campaigns. [Wikipedia]

AFTER

3/21/08: McCain likely in violation of campaign finance laws. [WashPost]

Jerry Falwell

BEFORE

McCain 2/28/2000: "I am a pro-life, pro-family fiscal conservative, an
advocate of a strong defense, and yet Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and a
few Washington leaders of the pro-life movement call me an unacceptable
presidential candidate. They distort my pro- life positions and smear
the reputations of my supporters. Why? Because I don't pander to them,
because I don't ascribe to their failed philosophy that money is our
message."

McCain 2/29/2000: calls Robertson and Falwell "agents of intolerance." [IHT]

AFTER

McCain gives commencement speech at Falwell's Liberty University, cozies
up to Falwell. [ABC]

Iraq

BEFORE

McCain 9/29/02: “We’re not going to get into house-to-house fighting in
Baghdad. We may have to take out buildings, but we’re not going to have
a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies.”

McCain 1/22/03: “But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict.
We will win it easily.” [ThinkProgress]

AFTER

McCain: 1/4/07: "When I voted to support this war, I knew it was
probably going to be long and hard and tough, and those that voted for
it and thought that somehow it was going to be some kind of an easy
task, then I’m sorry they were mistaken. Maybe they didn’t know what
they were voting for." [ThinkProgress]

Abortion

BEFORE

McCain 8/24/99: "But certainly in the short term, or even the long term,
I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X
number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous
operations." [WashPost]

AFTER

McCain 2/18/07: "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be
overturned" [MSNBC]

Bush's tax cuts

BEFORE

McCain 5/26/01: "I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which
so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the
expense of middle class Americans who most need tax relief." [McCain's
Senate website]

AFTER

In 2006 McCain votes to extend Bush tax cuts [MediaMatters]

Ethanol [hat tip Carpetbagger]

BEFORE

McCain 11/03: "Ethanol is a product that would not exist if Congress
didn't create an artificial market for it. No one would be willing to
buy it. Yet thanks to agricultural subsidies and ethanol producer
subsidies, it is now a very big business - tens of billions of dollars
that have enriched a handful of corporate interests - primarily one big
corporation, ADM. Ethanol does nothing to reduce fuel consumption,
nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve air
quality." [CNN]

AFTER

McCain 8/06: "I support ethanol and I think it is a vital, a vital
alternative energy source not only because of our dependency on foreign
oil but its greenhouse gas reduction effects." [CNN]

Gay Marriage [hat tip anon]

Well, just watch:



Confederate Flag [hat tip The Real McCain]

BEFORE

McCain 1/12/00: "Personally, I see the flag as symbol of heritage."

AFTER

McCain 4/19/00: "I feared that if I answered honestly, I could not win
the South Carolina primary. So I chose to compromise my principles." [CNN]

Gun control

BEFORE

In 2001, McCain and Lieberman introduce legislation to regulate gun
shows. [HuffPo]

AFTER

McCain 4/19/07: "I strongly support the Second Amendment and I believe
the Second Amendment ought to be preserved, which means no gun control"
[WashPost]

Moqtada al Sadr [hat tip Think Progress]

BEFORE

McCain week of 3/16/08: "His influence has been on the wane for a long
time." [CNN via Think Progress]

AFTER

4/1/08: "I said he was still major player and his influence is going to
have to be reduced and gradually eliminated." [CNN via Think Progress]

Housing Relief

BEFORE

March 2008: "It is not the duty of government to bail out and reward
those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small
borrowers." [NY Times]

AFTER

4/11/08: "Let me make it clear, that in these challenging times, I am
committed to using all the resources of this government and great nation
to create opportunity and make sure that every deserving American has a
good job and can achieve their American dream." [NY Times

The Press and Hillary

BEFORE

"The media often overlooked how compassionately [Hillary Clinton] spoke
to the concerns and dreams of millions of Americans.”

AFTER

“I did not [say that]."

[Think Progress]

The Estate Tax

BEFORE

"I am concerned that repeal of the estate tax would provide massive
benefits solely to the wealthiest and highest-income taxpayers in the
country. A Treasury Department study found that almost no estate tax has
been paid by lower- and middle-income taxpayers. But taxes have been
paid on the estates of people who were in the highest 20% of the income
distribution at the time of their death. It found that 91% of all estate
taxes are paid by the estates of people whose annual income exceeded
$190,000 around the time of their death."

AFTER

"Another of my disagreements with Senator Obama concerns the estate tax,
which he proposes to increase to a top rate of 55 percent. The estate
tax is one of the most unfair tax laws on the books, and the first step
to reform is to keep it predictable and keep it low."

[Matthew Yglesias]

Wiretaps

BEFORE

"There are some areas where the statutes don’t apply, such as in the
surveillance of overseas communications. Where they do apply, however, I
think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that
are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter
what the situation is."

AFTER

McCain spokesman: "Neither the administration nor the telecoms need
apologize for actions that most people, except for the A.C.L.U. and
trial lawyers, understand were constitutional and appropriate in the
wake of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,”

[NY Times]

Immigration Reform

#1

BEFORE

McCain introduces bill on immigration reform.

AFTER

January 30, 2008, when asked if he would vote for his own bill: ""No, I
would not, because we know what the situation is today. The people want
the borders secured first.""

[MediaMatters]

#2

BEFORE

May 22, 2008: "[We must enact comprehensive immigration reform. We must
make it a top agenda item if we don’t do it before, and we probably
won’t, a little straight talk, as of January 2009."

AFTER

National Review: "Team McCain tells me the senator’s comments were
poorly worded. There’s been no discussion within the campaign of
altering their stance on illegal immigration, and as far as everyone on
the campaign is concerned, the policy is still, ’secure the border first.’"

[Think Progress]

Offshore drilling

BEFORE

1999 campaign: McCain opposes offshore drilling

AFTER

McCain 6/15/08: ""There are areas off our coasts that should be open to
exploration and exploitation, and I hope we can take the first step by
lifting the moratoria."

[MotherJones]

Social Security

BEFORE

McCain 11/28/04: “Without privatization, I don’t see how you can
possibly, over time, make sure that young Americans are able to receive
Social Security benefits.”

AFTER

McCain 6/12/08: "I’m not for, quote, privatizing Social Security. I
never have been. I never will be."

[Think Progress]

Hurricane Katrina investigations

BEFORE

2006: McCain opposes commission to study government's response to
Hurricane Katrina.

[LA Times]

AFTER

McCain 6/4/08: "I’ve supported every investigation and ways of finding
out what caused the tragedy."

[Think Progress]