McCain Struggles To Dispel That He’s Bush III

McCain has recently been trying to dispel an inconvenient truth about himself. He’s not a maverick. McCain went on the offensive on Tuesday and called Obama a liar:

“You will hear from my opponent’s campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I’m running for President Bush’s third term, you will hear every policy of the president described as the Bush-McCain policy. Why does Senator Obama believe it’s so important to repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows it’s very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false.”

However, Obama isn’t the one lying on the issue. In 2007, Senator McCain voted in lockstep President Bush 95% of the time. Senator McCain’s message boils down to the idea that he’s a new kind of Republican, a responsible Republican in contrast with President Bush. The problem with this of course that McCain supports the Bush tax cuts without opposing the war in Iraq(which would at least lower spending, making any tax cuts more plausible), he opposed investigating the federal government’s handling of Katrina, and of course, he voted for torture despite the fact that he knows first hand that it doesn’t work(not that effectiveness truly justifies such an atrocity.)

McCain has recently attempted to resurrect his image from 2000, but that John McCain is a very different man than the one running for President. 2000 McCain denounced Jerry Falwell and the other “agents of intolerance.” 2008 McCain kissed the rings of John Hagee and Rod Parsley until it became politically disadvantageous. 2000 McCain opposed tax cuts that favored only the wealthiest of Americans. 2008 McCain wants to make those tax cuts permanent. 2000 McCain opposed nation building. 2008 wants us to stay in Iraq. 2000 McCain might very well vote against 2008 McCain if they were seperate people and not just one man who has been driven to extremism because he thinks that’s what you do to win.

The DNC Will No Longer Take Lobbyist Money

The Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama announced today that the DNC will no longer accept donations from lobbyists or PACs(Political Action Committees) in order to bring the Committee into line with his own campaign policy. He also announced that he will keep Howard Dean as DNC chairman as explained by campaign spokesman Bill Burton:

“Senator Obama appreciates the hard work that Chairman Dean has done to grow our party at the grass-roots level and looks forward to working with him as the chairman of the Democratic Party as we go forward.”

This of course enables Obama and the Democrats as a whole to push the idea that McCain is the candidate of the economic elites and the special interests to a greater extent than they could if they hadn’t banned lobbyist money. This message would be strengthened by the fact that McCain’s senior advisers are lobbyists such as Phil Gramm(who as has been detailed earlier lobbied for UBS which is under investigation for helping to instigate the mortgage crisis.)

In order to obfuscate the issue, Senator McCain has already leveled the charge of ‘elitist’ at Senator Obama much like the George W. Bush and other post-Reagan Republicans always do towards their Democratic opponents. However, the recession and the mortgage crisis may serve as reminders of just what the end result of Republican economic policy is for those who aren’t part of the wealthy elite.