John Kerry was successfully branded a flip-flopper in 2004 which went on to become one of the major campaign themes that cost him the election. At the Republican Convention wingtards donned purple heart band-aids and chanted “flip-flop” while rotating their palms up and down. To this day Kerry is seen as this sort of rubbery faced spine of jell-o flip flopper.

Bush however was made out as the anti-flip-flopper. Bush NEVER changes his positions…even when they are wrong. This was dubbed “sticktuitiveness”. Republicans love that even when the facts prove Bush to be completely wrong he just plows along never wavering and never changing his position. He’s no god-damned flip-flopper.

Well for the past several days the media has been trying to brand Obama the flip-flopper over his decision to not accept public financing. Nearly every segment on MSNBC for the past few days leads off with the various female anchors asking “so is Obama a flip-flopper?”

I guess what bugs me the most about all of this is that no one has changed their positions or flip-flopped more than McCain. Yet for some reason the flip-flopper label is being shellacked onto Obama.

McCain was against the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, now he supports them. McCain was for the privatization of Social Security. Now when he addresses fellow seniors he is against privatizing Social Security.

McCain used to be in favor of immigration reform. He even put forth his own immigration reform legislation then later called it a bad bill and vowed to vote against his own legislation! In 2000 McCain called Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell Agents of Intolerance. He has since recanted and embraced the radical evangelical Christian wing of the Republican Party.

McCain used to be against offshore oil drilling now he is for it.

McCain was against torture of any kind. Then when a bill came before Congress to put an end to the torture going on at Abu Ghraib McCain aligned himself with Bush and voted against it. McCain later said he didn’t think water boarding was torture.

On Iraq, McCain flops around like a newly caught mackerel on a boat deck. One day he claims to be the biggest critic of the occupation of Iraq bragging about how he lambasted Rumsfeld for the many mistakes made. The next day he seems unwilling to be critical of operations in Iraq and instead embraces “The Surge” while saying he would be fine with a U.S. troop presence there for 100 years.

McCain routinely attacks those who are critical of the occupation while simultaneously claiming to be The Maverick™ for being critical of the occupation. Some days McCain thinks we were right to invade Iraq and agrees with Bush that it is the central front of the “global war on terror”. Other days McCain says he’s been opposed to the occupation of Iraq right after the first mistake was made.

Some days McCain thinks we’re fighting Sunni extremists in Iraq and other days he thinks we’re fighting Shi’a extremists. Sometimes he thinks Iran is working with Al Qaeda even though Iran is a Shi’a Republic and Al Qaeda is a radical Sunni sect.

In short, McCain is the Super Flip Flopper of the likes never seen before in politics.

But as far as the mass media is concerned it’s all very clear now: if Obama changes or adapts an existing position then he is a flip-flopper. If McCain changes a position then he’s The Maverick ® tough talking Independent Express ©.