Does anyone here actually consider McCain to be a "Moderate"?

[El Pinko]

If so, could you point out which of his positions make you think so?

Every vote I've ever seen by him, every position I've seen him take tells me he's far right, and yet the media paints him as a moderate.



So what do they base that on? His hatred for the poor? His love for the war? His zeal for usurping reproductive rights? His sycophancy towards Bush?

I honestly can't figure it out...

[ixion]

1. ba-ba-ba bomb bomb Iran

'nuff said.

[More Than A Feeling]

2. No, I consider him "less insane" which is not the same thing as sane or moderate.

[El Pinko]

6. We are talking about the same guy, right?

[More Than A Feeling]

10. Nice pictures.

:rofl:

You know as well as I do that the same pictures could be taken of any politicians, because of the number of frames that get taken and developed.

[Quantess]

35. McCain is arguably more insane than W.

How much more insane do you need?

[margotb822]

3. No way

He's in his own world. He thinks he can slide by on his military background. And the fact that he initially voted against the Bush tax cuts...

[billbuckhead]

13. Campaign finance reform, immigration, Gramm Rudman, not a religious nut

environmentalism, is hated by the NRA and the Christian right, against confederate flag then flip flopped and supported it to win south carolina but said doing that it put him in a dark place, normalization of relations with Vietnam, took on tobacco industry,,,,plenty more........... McCain is a maverick with a long record of trying to do the right thing and belittling his often courageous and righteously earned record won't make :+bama look stronger come election day. McCain isn't the kind of guy who votes "present".

[margotb822]

17. Trying to do the right thing

And doing the right thing aren't the same. I would say that he is more 'outside of the conservative mainstream' than 'moderate' (although I didn't make that up myself). I don't think that Obama is the strongest candidate (I'm an Edwards supporter), but I have the feeling that McCain wouldn't be the stablizing, uniting force that the country needs.

[DLnyc]

34. The maverick has pretty much returned to the stable at this point.

For example, his cave-in on the torture bill:
--------
McCain, whose six years of captivity and torture in Vietnam made him a national celebrity, negotiated (in September 2006) a compromise in the Senate for the Military Commissions Act of 2006, suspending habeas corpus provisions for anyone deemed by the Executive Branch an "unlawful combatant" and barring them from challenging their detentions in court. Coming on the heels of a Supreme Court decision adverse to the White House, McCain's compromise gave a retroactive, nine-year immunity to U.S. officials who authorized, ordered, or committed acts of torture and abuse, and permitted the use of statements obtained through torture to be used in military tribunals so long as the abuse took place by December 30, 2005.<23> McCain's compromise permitted the President to establish permissible interrogation techniques and to "interpret the meaning and application" of international Geneva Convention standards, so long as the coercion fell short of "serious" bodily or psychological injury.<24> Widely dubbed McCain's "torture compromise", the bill was signed into law by George W. Bush on October 17, 2006, shortly before the 2006 midterm elections.
------------
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_John_McCain

Your points are correct, I think, but outdated a bit. Mr McCain has, in recent years, apparently traded most of his principles and self-respect for some kind of unknown favor from the BushCo operatives. IMHO.

[JanMichael]

4. He's a fucking nut. BUT he's also a known nut.

The nut you know v. the nut you don't know (O).

[HughMoran]

5. He's MODERATELY insane

I've seen crazier.

[lapfog_1]

7. Nobody HERE does.

but out in the great vast hinterlands that are the rest of America, not very well read and more up on the latest American Idol vote than the Presidential race... sadly, yes, McCain is viewed as a moderate, hence the wingnut hatred of the man, and the mild support from folks like my family (all 13 of them) who view themselves as not so much republican, but anti-democrat (especially Hillary).

[napi21]

8. I don't know if I'd consider him a moderate, but he's more rational

than all the Minority leaders are now. I only have three main things against him. 1. He forgave Shrub for all the horrible things he did to him during the last campaign and actually made it LOOK like they were friends! 2. He's way too war hungry. 3. He would nominate SCOTUS justices like Roberts & Alito.

He is one of the few Pubs who have had the balls to stand up to his own comrads and tell them they're wrong.

[El Pinko]

9. But on 99% of issues he is in lockstep line with the GOP.

To me, Pat Buchanan is more moderate than McCain, by a long shot.

[rwheeler31]

11. He was for campaing forr finance reform.

[El Pinko]

18. Ah, but what kind? Public campaign financing? Don't think so.

McCain Feingold may be a positive step, but it doesn't bring us any closer to a system where non-m(b?)illionaires have any chance to win national office...

[TreasonousBastard]

12. By whose definition? He goes off-script from one or two...

neocon issues and immediately he's "moderate."

That, of course, is bullshit. but, it's no more bullshit than one of our people going off script on one or two progressive issues and being called a DINO, or worse.

Only one thing is for certain, as certain a death or taxes-- anything said in a campaign is bullshit.

[LVjinx]

14. Yeah, but unreliably so.

He's unpredictable, and like Obama said, some wheels have come off the Straight-Talk Express lately.

Still, if we HAD to suffer under 4 years of another Republican I'd prefer it to be one who was willing to meet us half-way even 25% of the time. McCain, I think, would do that.

However, there's no chance that'll happen because we're going to slaughter whoever the Republicans nominate this year.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

15. Hell tha fuck no!

Lately they're pointing to his immigration record. Prior to that it was campaign finance reform. But big deal! Those are 2 issues among the hundreds that he's reliably wingnut on.

[El Pinko]

19. Promoting unregulated immigration is not liberal or moderate.

Unregluated immigration means cheap labor - a consensus of republican politicians has always favored it - despite the wishes of their constituents...

[mrreowwr_kittty]

22. Well, in fairness, McCain supported comprehensive immigration reform.

But you're absolutely right about big business repugs wanting cheap labor.

[water]

16. He's a liberal pro-war Republican.

Basically, he's for the government getting involved in everything.

[robbedvoter]

39. What makes him a "liberal" GOP-er? The term gives me whiplash

[TahitiNut]

20. Compared to ... ? Well ...

[El Pinko]

28. This is the second time you've posted that graph...

Are you trying to put forth that he actually is moderate?

I've taken those tests, and they have a very limited set of dated question, and even if you accept that the results of the test are an accurate reflection of a person's ideology,

being slightly to the left of people like Giuliani, Huckabee, etc. does not make him a moderate.

If anything, it's more shocking to realize how far to the extreme right many of our so-called elected "democrats" are.

[TahitiNut]

30. It's not "the second time" - not by a long shot.

See ... http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1962056


I personally regard the mapping to be far more valid than any other I've seen, particularly in the topological distance portrayed and the relative bearing of one from the other. Insofar as what one might regard as "moderate" or "centrist" ... those are VERY relative terms. Most often they're solely relative to the agenda of the person using the term, if only to mask radicalism. I also strongly agree that what passes for "left" these days is obscenely far right, both in the social sense and the economic sense.

[El Pinko]

31. More specifically, it's the second time I've seen it posted in regards to McCain.

thanks for the link

[JFN1]

21. Nope

He's batshit crazy...

[OneSelf]

23. I don't

I figured him for a maverick in the 2000 election. But he has since given in to the globalist crowd.

[MiniMe]

24. At one time, maybe before 2000, he was more moderate than he is now

But he has totally sold out, one reason he is so disapointing to everybody. Now he is a total neocon.

[TwilightGardener]

25. McCain is all about McCain. He likes to go on high-profile crusades

that buy him MSM love for seeming like he's taking on his party, but really, his stands against his party are pretty weak, and when he's done getting attention for those positions, he maneuvers around them or edges away from them--like immigration reform and campaign finance reform. None are especially that controversial, even to Republicans, but he gets tons of "maverick" attention for them anyway, which pisses off his GOP colleagues and makes idiots on DU think he's reasonable and sincere. A real GOP maverick would have the nutsack to say "no" to the war, or be vocally pro-choice, or stand against corporations--the GOP has had a few of those, but they're either fading away or completely gone now. McCain does what he does to enhance his image--that's it. I don't think he loves anyone, even his country, more than he loves and worships himself.

[daleo]

26. He seems moderately crazy to me. n/t

[NI4NI]

27. anyone willing to keep US troops in Iraq for 100 years

if neccessary is light years far and away from being moderate.

[Warren DeMontague]

29. If he believes in evolution and doesn't literally think the Earth is 6,000 years old

he's a "moderate" by the standards of the loony GOP base.

Beyond that, though, dude is a straight up right winger.

[BearSquirrel2]

40. Caption ....

Gimme them love handles. I LOOOOVE them love handles. HMMMMMMMM.... Ooohhh, theres the belt, what's below that ... hhmmmmmmm...

For reference, any "man hug" should have on the shoulders or shoulder blades to not seem "gay". The small of the back, handles and leaning your head on the other guys shoulder ... that's gay. This photo will not play well. This looks like Winnie the pooh hugging Christopher Robbins.

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. compared to the rest of the loons running, he is a moderate

when you look at him in the overall scheme of things... he is a loon.

That is why he is being painted as a moderate.

;-(

[ordinaryaveragegirl]

33. A moderate nutjob.

And a major hawk.

[leftofthedial]

36. compared to cheney . . .

on the same scale that calls Clinton "liberal"

[malaise]

37. McCain isn't even a moderate lunatic

He's bat shit crazy - a raving warmonger.

[robbedvoter]

38. For 5 minutes he opposed torture - then got us a farther reaching torture law

I wish everyone (on our side - not theirs) remember this little factoid.
By the time the "maverick: folded, the bill has become worse than the one he ..."opposed"

[IsItJustMe]

41. Hell no. I watched him today on one of his stump speeches on CNN. The guy could have been GW's

evil twin, as far as I could see. He was hitting on all of the right wing talking points. War, war, war.

[butterfly77]

42. No..