Jukebox John changes his tune every few minutes

Steve Benen
The Carpetbagger Report

Atrios mentioned yesterday, “…I don’t think the ‘Obama is a flip-flopper’ will be an especially useful line of attack for the McCain campaign, but it makes sense that they’re using it. The script is already written, making it easier for the barely literate cable newsers to run with it.”

Quite right. At first blush, the line of attack against Obama seems utterly ridiculous, but the McCain campaign seems to have settled on it anyway, in part because it’s the closest available, already-written Republican narrative, and in part because McCain staffers haven’t been able to think of anything else.

The irony, of course, is that the McCain campaign couldn’t have picked a more hypocritical line of attack. For John McCain to accuse anyone of excessively changing policy positions is a bit like George W. Bush attacking someone’s grammar. Or Dick Cheney whining about a political figure being overly secretive.

But if this is the game the McCain campaign wants to play, so be it. Let’s play. As the self-designated keeper of the Official List of McCain Flip-Flops, I’m pleased to report, thanks to reader contributions, we now have a whopping 61 policy reversals from the Republican nominee. If McCain wants to argue that flip-flops are an example of a political leader who can’t be trusted to keep his word or honor his commitments, McCain might as well drop out of the race now.

(Continued here.)