There was a time when John McCain had positions. Then he ran for
president, and everything was suddenly up for grabs.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/132860
NEWSWEEK
Once Upon a Principle
Anna Quindlen
April 19, 2008
Barack Obama morphed in the public mind from populist to elitist with
one ill-wrought comment about guns and faith and the "bitter" working
class. Hillary Clinton responded by improbably re-creating herself as
the kind of woman who knows her way around a shot glass and a rifle.
But neither Democrat can match the transformation of the Republican
candidate, who is running for president by turning his back on much
of what he once was.
What John McCain really stands for came up most recently in light of
his position on abortion. Planned Parenthood commissioned a survey
showing that more than half of those women polled don't know much
about McCain's stance, and a quarter of those who are in favor of
keeping abortion legal mistakenly think the senator agrees.
That confusion may be because McCain has sometimes seemed confused as
well. In 1999, during a campaign swing through California, he
challenged conservative orthodoxy and said he did not support
overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that found a
constitutional right to abortion. He explained that a reversal could
lead some women to undergo illegal and dangerous operations.
This is just the sort of nuanced position that has led to the
widespread notion of McCain as maverick. But it didn't last long.
After the right went nuts, McCain backtracked and said he did favor
the repeal of Roe, adding, however, that it might lead to dangerous
illegal abortions. A day later, his campaign issued a
"clarification," and by that time McCain was saying that if elected
president he would actually work to overturn the court's decision.
Any concern over the effects of illegal abortions disappeared
overnight in the cold clear light of must-win.
What's interesting about all this is not the flip-flopping. All pols
flip-flop: if they're Republicans, they describe it as "evolving,"
and if they're Democrats, they get pounded for it. (If either Clinton
or Obama had followed the trajectory described above on an important
issue, it would be running on a continuous loop around the digital
news wire in Times Square.) And McCain's voting record on abortion is
clear. He has a zero lifetime rating from the Planned Parenthood
Action Fund because of his opposition to, among other things, family-
planning funding and sex education. When benighted friends used to
suggest that McCain was a stealth moderate, I urged them to look at
his voting record, which was about as moderate as Strom Thurmond's.
But now even his record has become irrelevant, since to become the
front runner McCain has jettisoned many of his past positions. The
Bush tax cuts: McCain voted against them as a senator, but now says
he would make them permanent as president. Immigration: he
cosponsored a bill in 2005 to make it easier for those in the country
illegally to become citizens, but now says that if his own bill-his
own bill!-came to a vote on the Senate floor, he would vote against
it. After Columbine, he called for more gun control; after Virginia
Tech, he said more gun control was unnecessary.
Sen. James Webb has been trying to nail McCain down on a revamped GI
Bill that would fund education for veterans. But the closest McCain
has come to a position is to say he needs to examine it more closely.
Both Obama and Clinton support the bill, and it's fair to assume that
neither senator has any more leisure time than McCain. If the point
is that the Republican candidate is incapable of multitasking, that's
something he might want to lick before he becomes president, a job in
which, to paraphrase the White Queen from "Alice in Wonderland," a
person is often asked to tackle six impossible things before
breakfast. Or maybe it's just safer not to take a position than to
take one, to try to be all things to all people by being nothing at all.
This is completely at odds with the patented McCain persona, the
alleged guy who speaks his mind without fear or favor. His notorious
irascibility is often mistaken for principled candor, but experience
teaches that McCain's principles remain consistent now only when they
appear to lead to the West Wing. Sadly, no one understands better the
personal cost of such pandering. In 2000 he was asked about the
Confederate battle flag, which flew from the capitol dome in South
Carolina. McCain first called it a "symbol of racism and slavery,"
then backed off with a "clarification" that described it as a "symbol
of heritage." Later he admitted, "I feared that if I answered
honestly, I could not win the South Carolina primary. So I chose to
compromise my principles."
He has done that over and over during this race. The Straight Talk
Express is all over the road. There are those optimists who like to
believe that once elected, McCain would again emerge as a small-
government progressive who would set his own course. But it is the
greatest of illusions to believe that a man will masquerade to win,
then revert to his authentic self-after all, there is always another
election coming. "Important principles may, and must be, inflexible,"
said Abraham Lincoln. Or maybe this says it best: "I wanted them to
think me still an honest man, who simply had to cut a corner a little
here and there so that I could go on to be an honest president."
That's from McCain's 2002 memoir, but perhaps there's been a
"clarification" issued since.
president, and everything was suddenly up for grabs.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/132860
NEWSWEEK
Once Upon a Principle
Anna Quindlen
April 19, 2008
Barack Obama morphed in the public mind from populist to elitist with
one ill-wrought comment about guns and faith and the "bitter" working
class. Hillary Clinton responded by improbably re-creating herself as
the kind of woman who knows her way around a shot glass and a rifle.
But neither Democrat can match the transformation of the Republican
candidate, who is running for president by turning his back on much
of what he once was.
What John McCain really stands for came up most recently in light of
his position on abortion. Planned Parenthood commissioned a survey
showing that more than half of those women polled don't know much
about McCain's stance, and a quarter of those who are in favor of
keeping abortion legal mistakenly think the senator agrees.
That confusion may be because McCain has sometimes seemed confused as
well. In 1999, during a campaign swing through California, he
challenged conservative orthodoxy and said he did not support
overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that found a
constitutional right to abortion. He explained that a reversal could
lead some women to undergo illegal and dangerous operations.
This is just the sort of nuanced position that has led to the
widespread notion of McCain as maverick. But it didn't last long.
After the right went nuts, McCain backtracked and said he did favor
the repeal of Roe, adding, however, that it might lead to dangerous
illegal abortions. A day later, his campaign issued a
"clarification," and by that time McCain was saying that if elected
president he would actually work to overturn the court's decision.
Any concern over the effects of illegal abortions disappeared
overnight in the cold clear light of must-win.
What's interesting about all this is not the flip-flopping. All pols
flip-flop: if they're Republicans, they describe it as "evolving,"
and if they're Democrats, they get pounded for it. (If either Clinton
or Obama had followed the trajectory described above on an important
issue, it would be running on a continuous loop around the digital
news wire in Times Square.) And McCain's voting record on abortion is
clear. He has a zero lifetime rating from the Planned Parenthood
Action Fund because of his opposition to, among other things, family-
planning funding and sex education. When benighted friends used to
suggest that McCain was a stealth moderate, I urged them to look at
his voting record, which was about as moderate as Strom Thurmond's.
But now even his record has become irrelevant, since to become the
front runner McCain has jettisoned many of his past positions. The
Bush tax cuts: McCain voted against them as a senator, but now says
he would make them permanent as president. Immigration: he
cosponsored a bill in 2005 to make it easier for those in the country
illegally to become citizens, but now says that if his own bill-his
own bill!-came to a vote on the Senate floor, he would vote against
it. After Columbine, he called for more gun control; after Virginia
Tech, he said more gun control was unnecessary.
Sen. James Webb has been trying to nail McCain down on a revamped GI
Bill that would fund education for veterans. But the closest McCain
has come to a position is to say he needs to examine it more closely.
Both Obama and Clinton support the bill, and it's fair to assume that
neither senator has any more leisure time than McCain. If the point
is that the Republican candidate is incapable of multitasking, that's
something he might want to lick before he becomes president, a job in
which, to paraphrase the White Queen from "Alice in Wonderland," a
person is often asked to tackle six impossible things before
breakfast. Or maybe it's just safer not to take a position than to
take one, to try to be all things to all people by being nothing at all.
This is completely at odds with the patented McCain persona, the
alleged guy who speaks his mind without fear or favor. His notorious
irascibility is often mistaken for principled candor, but experience
teaches that McCain's principles remain consistent now only when they
appear to lead to the West Wing. Sadly, no one understands better the
personal cost of such pandering. In 2000 he was asked about the
Confederate battle flag, which flew from the capitol dome in South
Carolina. McCain first called it a "symbol of racism and slavery,"
then backed off with a "clarification" that described it as a "symbol
of heritage." Later he admitted, "I feared that if I answered
honestly, I could not win the South Carolina primary. So I chose to
compromise my principles."
He has done that over and over during this race. The Straight Talk
Express is all over the road. There are those optimists who like to
believe that once elected, McCain would again emerge as a small-
government progressive who would set his own course. But it is the
greatest of illusions to believe that a man will masquerade to win,
then revert to his authentic self-after all, there is always another
election coming. "Important principles may, and must be, inflexible,"
said Abraham Lincoln. Or maybe this says it best: "I wanted them to
think me still an honest man, who simply had to cut a corner a little
here and there so that I could go on to be an honest president."
That's from McCain's 2002 memoir, but perhaps there's been a
"clarification" issued since.
