As the general election begins to ramp up, it’s worth marking off a number of Sen. McCain’s claims that are demonstrably bogus, despite being accepted more or less at face value by national political press.
First, McCain a critic of President Bush’s war policies?
Please.
Sen. McCain has consistently supported all of the president’s war policies. His dissents have been atmospheric and marginal, at best.
Indeed, his embrace of the advisors, outside supporters and policies of President Bush’s neoconservative foreign policy shows that it is President Bush’s failed foreign policies that he is most intent on continuing and expanding. Whatever McCain might do on cutting upper-income taxes is clearly not something he’s got his heart in. These are topics he doesn’t have a great deal of interest in and he’s espousing policies he denounced only four or five years ago. They are simply the necessary scaffolding of building a conservative coalition to support his war policies where are his real interest very evidently remains.
On foreign policy, McCain is 100% with President Bush’s policies.
Given the president’s abysmal public approval ratings, it’s in the Democrats’ obvious political interest to portray a McCain presidency as a continuation of President Bush’s foreign policy. But this charge has the benefit of being true. Simply listen to what he says. On every particular, it’s staying true to President Bush’s course.
