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On the stage of the upcoming Republican debate later tonight, McCain makes one last ditch effort to salvage his atrophying presidential bid, by going after Romney. Get this man a saucer of milk, meow!
Wallace: You have gone after Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney this week for their lack of conservative credentials. What's your problem with them?
McCain: Well, in the case of Gov. Romney, when he said that he represents "the Republican wing of the Republican party"-a parody on what Howard Dean said, as we know-I think there's lots of good Republicans in the race and we can all claim to be "Republicans" but when you took liberal positions on issues in Massachusetts, as perhaps he had to in order to get elected-all of the things that he did: said he didn't want to go back to the Reagan/Bush years, supported a Democrat for President of the United States-Paul Tsongas-contributed to a Democrat running for office in New Hampshire, basically has changed positions on every...on many issues, then I have to take exception to it. It's...look, you can't con the voters; if you want to win their respect, you got to give them your respect. And by giving them...you give them your respect by telling them exactly where you are, where you're going and what you stand for and you don't change with the political season. That's the way I've always been and that's the way to gain the voters' respect.
Would that McCain just look in the mirror for a moment on that one. First of all, does anyone remember Mr. Straight Talk Express talking about the dangers of pandering to the Religious Right during the 2000 campaign season only to turn around and kiss up to them this year in order to get the "Values Voter"? By the way, it didn't work, John. Less than 2%? Ouch.
Proving once again his complete tone-deafness to the pulse of the country, John McCain didn't waste any time deriding Romney for being bi-partisan in a pretty blue state. Uh, John, the voters don't want a repeat of the Bush/Cheney years, your Rovian "I'm more conservative than thou" talking points are clearly not winning you any respect either.