When his positions on Iraq get the coverage they deserve, the American people will be less willing to see him as a centrist. The majority of the American people want out of Iraq now- and he wants us to stay for another century. This needs to be hammered as much as possible before November.

More journalists need to do their jobs and question him and his positions- instead of being the Kiss Ass Express for the McCain campaign.

I can't let myself believe that the MSM is beginning to tire of its lap dance with McCain. I guess hope springs eternal no matter how hard the current administration works to extinguish all hope.

The Democratic party better get to work in getting the message out that a vote for McCain is as good as Bush/Cheney08 because this "moderate" label for McCain is very, very pervasive.

JT

I put this question to an old high school acquaintance who is generally very conservative (e.g. still thinks history will vindicate Bush and his Iraq war decisions) back in February. This was his reply:

"1) He voted against the Bush tax cuts. 2) He was in favor of the more moderate 'amnesty' approach to the immigration problem. 3) He came out strongly against waterboarding as 'torture.' 4) He joined the group of 14 that allowed the Dems to keep blocking federal judge nominees when the conservatives wanted to force a showdown on the 60 vote rule. 5) For the conservatives, McCain-Feingold is an unconstitutional abridgement of the First Amendment that only benefits the Dems.

"In short, his 'maverick' status and 'working across the aisles' has generally meant he adopted the Democratic position. Only on the war has his record been strongly conservative. I'm not agreeing with all the conservative positions, just stating what they are with respect to McCain."

No comment, except to note that a startling number of journalists and pundits in our "liberal" press agree with the "conservative" take on these matters, e.g. that tax cuts during a time of war are perfectly prudent and that it is perfectly reasonable for the government to torture people whenever it feels our "national interest" is at stake. This rightward trend in our punditocracy means that McCains hard-conservative stands on abortion and economic justice (among other important issues ignored by the press these days) are seen by many journalists as mainstream, not conservative at all.

both Obama and HRC should remind people just how much daylight is between them and McCain.

Hillary Clinton's not-infrequent praise of Senator McCain is yet another reason why so many people view McCain as centrist.

Oh wait: does me pointing that out make me sexist?

...and that's exactly the problem. The US range of expressible, permissible political opinion skews so far to the right that McCain can actually masquerade as a centrist, even though he's far to the right, if you're measuring from the true center of political opinion, with a vibrant left- and right-wing.

The absence of a credible left wing in this country has kept the scales tipped sharply to the right for generations, so people only know "relative center" instead of actual center. Totally sucks, and the McCain mythology continues to buoy him, even though he's got a legislative record that'd give Attila the Hun shithead envy.

It is vastly interesting to try to unravel why some Democrats and members of the media persist in this obvious falsehood about John McCain. What do the Clintons get from aligning themselves with McCain in their attacks against Barack Obama? Why would Bill Clinton wish to emphasize the friendship between his wife and Sen. McCain? Why would Sen. Clinton underline her odd belief that only she and McCain have somewho crossed the commander-in-chief threshhold? This unseemly coziness between the Clintons and McCain should send up huge red flares to anyone who considers her/himself a Democrat. We know that the Clintons have been right-leaning triangulators for years, but yikes!

...that "if (favorite Dem candidate's name here) doesn't win, I'll vote for McCain!"

McCain's moderation is such a fantasy that even the MSM cannot avoid it through November. On issue after issue -- even the ones he is supposedly "moderate" on, such as immigration -- he has either assumed conservative stances from day one, or he has slithered his way out of the "center" to the shady fringes of the right.

The fascist warlords of Sudan? Ayaltollah GonnaNukadainfdels of Iran?

This false perception of McCain as a moderate explains why he and the two potential Democratic candidates are virtually tied in the polls at this point. Changing this perception and getting people to SEE that a McCain administration would be nothing more than a continuation of Bush's disastrous policies may be the greatest challenge the Democrats will face in the Nov. electon.

It's not just the people in Pennsylvania either. The Republicans have turned our economy to shit and McCain is part of the problem. Forget the Presidency, get his ass the hell out of the Senate too. What year did he die anyway? I've had enough of brain dead zombies. Time to Move On.

Indeed. McCain's positions on this issue are strongly right-wing. See Conason's April 11, 2008, Salon column:

"McCain's Lack of Candor on Reproductive Rights"

See also especially NPR article of February 7, 2008, found on Google:

"Misperceptions About McCain's Abortion Stance"

Since Hillary cannot win the nomination unless Obama dies or is discovered to play online bridge with Osama on a daily basis, the Democratic primaries should end right now with Hillary suspending her campaign. The Democrats need to launch a massive advertisement campaign in all 50 states that would attempt to reverse the absurd conventional wisdom that McCain is a centrist. McCain is an extreme right winger but the public, for a myriad of reasons, perceives him as a moderate. Unless that perception is reversed, and very quickly, he will be the next president and I doubt our nation or the world can survive another extreme right winger for the next 4-8 years. If Hillary remains in a contest she cannot win, it can only mean that she's hoping for a McCain victory in 2008 that would enable her to run unopposed in 2012 as the candidate who would save the nation from 4 more years of McCain.