Torture

BEFORE

McCain 11/16/07: "One of the things that kept us going when I was in prison in North Vietnam was that we knew that if the situation were reversed, that we would not be doing to our captors what they were doing to us"

"I want to tell you. Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney all think it is O.K. They have one thing in common. They don’t understand the military and the culture of this nation. If they did, they could never condone such behavior." [NY Times]

AFTER

McCain votes against a ban on CIA torture. [NY Times]

Special Interests

BEFORE

McCain: "I'm the only one special interests don't give any money to." [YouTube]

AFTER

McCain's campaign manager and many key campaign officials are telecom lobbyists, who have given at least $765,000 to his campaign (and that's just one special interest) [USA Today]

Campaign Finance Laws

BEFORE

McCain author of McCain Feingold amendment, limiting use of soft money in campaigns. [Wikipedia]

AFTER

3/21/08: McCain likely in violation of campaign finance laws. [WashPost]

Jerry Falwell

BEFORE

McCain 2/28/2000: "I am a pro-life, pro-family fiscal conservative, an advocate of a strong defense, and yet Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and a few Washington leaders of the pro-life movement call me an unacceptable presidential candidate. They distort my pro- life positions and smear the reputations of my supporters. Why? Because I don't pander to them, because I don't ascribe to their failed philosophy that money is our message."

McCain 2/29/2000: calls Robertson and Falwell "agents of intolerance." [IHT]

AFTER

McCain gives commencement speech at Falwell's Liberty University, cozies up to Falwell. [ABC]

Iraq

BEFORE

McCain 9/29/02: “We’re not going to get into house-to-house fighting in Baghdad. We may have to take out buildings, but we’re not going to have a bloodletting of trading American bodies for Iraqi bodies.”

McCain 1/22/03: “But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” [ThinkProgress]

AFTER

McCain: 1/4/07: "When I voted to support this war, I knew it was probably going to be long and hard and tough, and those that voted for it and thought that somehow it was going to be some kind of an easy task, then I’m sorry they were mistaken. Maybe they didn’t know what they were voting for." [ThinkProgress]

Abortion

BEFORE

McCain 8/24/99: "But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations." [WashPost]

AFTER

McCain 2/18/07: "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned" [MSNBC]

Bush's tax cuts

BEFORE

McCain 5/26/01: "I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle class Americans who most need tax relief." [McCain's Senate website]

AFTER

In 2006 McCain votes to extend Bush tax cuts [MediaMatters]

Ethanol [hat tip Carpetbagger]

BEFORE

McCain 11/03: "Ethanol is a product that would not exist if Congress didn't create an artificial market for it. No one would be willing to buy it. Yet thanks to agricultural subsidies and ethanol producer subsidies, it is now a very big business - tens of billions of dollars that have enriched a handful of corporate interests - primarily one big corporation, ADM. Ethanol does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve air quality." [CNN]

AFTER

McCain 8/06: "I support ethanol and I think it is a vital, a vital alternative energy source not only because of our dependency on foreign oil but its greenhouse gas reduction effects." [CNN]

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