John McCain = agent of change? I used to think so.

When McCain ran in 2000 I didn't just stick my toes in the water to test how comfy it was, I jumped into the deep end of the pool. In fact, my very first website - a previous incarnation of The Independent Voter - was dedicated to rallying Independents to John McCain's candidacy. I still have several "McCain 2000" bumper stickers in a dusty manilla envelope around here somewhere.

I remember well the moral outrage I felt when Tucker Eskew and pals led a bunch of fellow "Christians" in South Carolina in suggesting, on behalf of George W. Bush, that McCain's adopted Bengali daughter was really the lovechild from an illicit affair he'd supposedly had with a black woman, and how he ought to be ashamed of her.

I cheered inside when McCain said in a 2000 interview that "I believe that there is a special place in hell for people like (Tucker Eskew)".

An "agent of change" wouldn't have just hired Tucker Eskew for any role. Not even to help his running mate Sarah Palin, which is what Eskew was hired to do.

That's not action of an "agent of change." That's literally more of the same.

But that's not where he lost me. This is where he lost me:

After the slime and mud heaped on McCain by Bush I just couldn't stomach such an abject display of... groveling. It appeared then and still does that McCain wanted another shot at power more than he wanted to take a principled stand. And as a father of two daughters I can guarantee that if you slimed them like Bush's surrogates slimed McCain's adopted daughter there would be hell to pay, not a pathetic tucked-tail display with someone who clearly cared more about waving to the crowd than in aknowledging such an intimate embrace. The body language of the two men speaks volumes about their motivations and desires at that moment in time.

On the two most important issues right now in America - the economy and the Iraq War - John McCain represents more of the same rather than change.

After adamently opposing the Bush tax cuts when they were first proposed McCain now promises more of the same.

John McCain supported and voted for the fiscally disasterous and morally questionable Iraq War on what we now know to have been badly flawed "intelligence" and outright lies. He continues to this day to support it. But of more relevance to this election, McCain has continually echoed President Bush's bombastic rhetoric in rejecting and ridiculing any sort of timetable for getting our brave soldiers out of that ongoing mess even though Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki has expressed agreement with Barack Obama's 16-month timeframe for withdrawal.

That my friends is more of the same obstinate adherence to preexisting ideology rather than anything resembling either independent thinking or change.

Ultimately, John McCain has himself made the case for why he represents more of the same,

"No. No. I--the fact is that I'm different but the fact is that I have agreed with President Bush far more than I have disagreed. And on the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I've been totally in agreement and support of President Bush."

John McCain = agent of change? His own record of flip-flops screams otherwise.

"The important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our Number One priority and we will not rest until we find him!" George W. Bush, Sept. 13, 2001

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and I really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." George W. Bush, March 13, 2002

And now for something off the beaten path... Do men in America enjoy equal protection under the law with regard to reproductive rights? Roe v. Wade granted women considerable choice over their reproductive rights. Did this level the playing field or did it tilt it unfairly?

A few years ago I sought to answer this question or at least test it. Read how here: Equal Rights?
By Kevin Kamberg

The American Way New!
By Todd Fishkind

What Kind of Country do We Want? By Peter G. Cohen

An Independent Writes Senator McCain
By Robert J. Skaggs Jr.

WHY GOD IS NOT A REPUBLICAN . . . NOR A DEMOCRAT
By Todd Fishkind

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