McCain is often thought to be a maverick, but over the past few years his positions on key issues have shifted dramatically, usually to fall in line with the Republican party.

McCain FIRST:
Opposed Bush's $10.3 trillion tax cuts that gave payouts to the rich at the expense of the poor. He said in 2001, "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." In 2005, he reiterated, "I just thought it was too tilted to the wealthy, and I still do."
McCain NOW:
Supports the Bush tax cuts.

McCain THEN:
Co-sponsored an Immigration Bill with Ted Kennedy.
McCain NOW:
Says he would vote against his own bill if it was possible.
(Carpetbagger Report On McCain's Flip-Flops)

McCain and ETHANOL:
He said "I do not support subsidies for ethanol and I have not supported it and I will not." He also said "Ethanol does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase our energy independence, nothing to improve our air quality."
McCain NOW:
McCain currently supports ethanol fuel.

McCain THEN:
In 2000, McCain said "Personally, I see the flag as a symbol of heritage."
McCain NOW:
McCain then said on CBS' The Early Show that he lied in an "act of political cowardice," because "everybody said, 'Oh, look out, you can't win in South Carolina if you say that.'"

McCain FIRST:
Co-sponsored the DREAM Act in 2003, 2005, 2007 (which would help illegal immigrant college students become legal citizens).
McCain THEN:
In 2007 McCain said he would vote against the bill he had co-sponsored.
McCain TODAY:
Told a young Latina woman at La Raza that he would support it.
(John McCain's DREAM Act Flip)

McCain SAID:
He supported "every investigation" into the Katrina disaster.
BUT REALLY:
He twice voted against creating a commission to look further into what went wrong.
(FactCheck.Org's version of McCain's Katrina Work)

BEFORE THE COMMERCIAL BREAK:
McCain said on Hardball, "I think that gay marriage should be allowed."
AFTER BREAK:
He decided: "I do not believe that gay marriages should be legal."

Despite his claims that he fights lobbyist interest in Washington, McCain has strong bonds to many lobbyists. Here are a few:

RICK DAVIS -- Davis founded his own lobbying firm, Davis, Manafort Inc., which has made over $2.8 million since 1998 representing people like Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. In 1999, while serving as McCain's campaign manager, Davis' firm represented SBC Communications and Comsat Corp, which both had mergers pending at the FCC. The Senate Commerce Committee has authority over the FCC, and McCain was chairman of that committee; both mergers were approved.
In 2003, Davis was McCain's chief political advisor as well as president of The Reform Institute, a nonprofit which claimed to work for campaign finance reform. The supposed non-partisan organization had its offices next to Davis' firm as well as McCain's PAC and reelection committee-- McCain served on the institute's board. Davis lobbied communications companies for contributions to the institute, oftentimes companies which had favors to request of McCain as Commerce Committee chairman. TRI was set up as a 501(c) (3) nonprofit so it could accept unlimited tax-deductible contributions, and these contributions in turn were rewarded with McCain's ear as the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee. Davis asked for and received two $100,000 donations from Cablevision, one before and one after McCain penned a letter to the FCC requesting Cablevision's desired pricing scheme. The NY Times reported the scandal and the public was horrified. Rick Davis stepped down as president and McCain stepped down as a member of the board, citing "negative publicity." Davis was later hired as McCain's 2008 presidential campaign manager, but was cut for his embarrassing lobbyist record.

Christian Ferry -- Ferry, a lobbyist in Davis' firm, serves as McCain's deputy campaign manager.

Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr. -- Culvahouse heads McCain's VP vetting committee and used to lobby for Fannie Mae, Lockheed Martin, and Occidental Petroleum, the U.S.'s fourth-largest oil and gas firm.

Charlie Black -- Black serves as a senior advisor to the campaign. He used to be one of the top Republican lobbyists in Washington, and worked for several unsavory characters, such as "Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi, mercenary contractor Blackwater and Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos." Now he lobbies part-time, clients including GTech, AT&T and General Motors.

Wayne Berman -- Berman serves as McCain's deputy finance chairman. His lobbying history includes corporate America as well as Trinidad, Tobago and Cyprus' governments.

Tom Loeffler, ex-campaign co-chairman, founded the Loeffler Group, a lobbying firm whose clients list included Saudi Arabia. Loeffler quit the campaign after the campaign put a "conflict-of-interest" policy into place, but has raised over half-a-million dollars for McCain.

Susan Nelson -- Nelson came on as finance director just after taking a leave from the Loeffler Group, a lobbying firm for companies who have come before McCain on the Commerce Committee.

Carlos Bonilla -- Bonilla works as an economic advisor, and is a registered lobbyist.

Mark Buse -- Buse heads McCain's Senate office, and used to lobby for financial, pharmaceutical, telecommunication and oil and gas companies.

Christopher Koch -- Koch was chief of staff of McCain's Senate offices before lobbying for the shipping industry. He then took a leave of absense to work as a policy coordinator for McCain's campaign.

MONEY -- McCain's most recent list of fundraisers shows that nearly a fifth of fundraisers who have raised more than half-a-million dollars each are either registered lobbyists or employees of lobbying firms.

A few of McCain's top fundraisers include Wayne L. Berman, employed by Ogilvy Government Relations, which represents Fannie Mae, the National Rifle Association and Verizon; Jack Oliver, who works for Bryan Cave Strategies, a company which recently lobbied for Shell Oil and Anheuser-Busch; and Peter Terpeluk Jr., who lobbied with the American Continental Group firm.

In January 2008, Public Citizen reported that 59 lobbyists were raising money for McCain, the most of any presidential candidate running at the tine.

(Note: McCain is not the only American politician with ties to lobbyists and firms; lobbyists are often experts in their fields and are knowledgeable, hard-working people who can make excellent additions to a campaign staff. However, McCain's ties to lobbyists suggest muddled agendas and political favors, and a different story than the anti-lobbyist reform he tells on his website.)

McCain and RESPECT FOR WOMEN
McCain left his first wife Carol after she was critically injured in a car accident and left heavier and four to five inches shorter for a much younger and then prettier beer heiress, Cindy Hensley (now McCain). McCain's relationship with Cindy began when he was still very much married to Carol. Although he denies it, McCain was reported to have called Cindy a four-letter-word that begins with c, and has told off-color jokes involving rape and Chelsea Clinton's physical appearance when the White House daughter had just turned 18.

McCain and BIRTH CONTROL
McCain voted against requiring health insurance companies to match coverage for Viagra with birth control coverage, because it would "make health care more expensive."

McCain and CONDOMS
When asked "Do condoms stop sexually transmitted diseases?"
A long pause . . . and then "I've never gotten into these issues or thought much about them."

McCain and ABORTION
Despite implying that his own daughter would be able to choose abortion if pregnant, McCain wants to criminalize abortion. McCain has said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."

McCain and EQUAL PAY
McCain opposed the Lilly Ledbetter Act that sought equal pay for women because he believed it would bring about too many "unnecessary lawsuits." The bill would have given women more time to file lawsuits alleging pay discrimination, but McCain said the reason women make less is because they need more education and training.

McCain and CHILDREN
McCain opposed health care for uninsured children, and The Children's Defense Fund rated him as Congress's worst senator for children.

McCain clearly doesn't understand the war in Iraq -- not only does he constantly confuse the Sunni and Shiites, he thinks that setting a timeline for withdrawal would be disastrous, yet envisions that our troops would leave within a few years of his inauguration . . . unless, of course, he decides to follow up on his 100 Years (threat?)/promise.

"This is a Mission Accomplished. They know how much influence Saddam Hussein had on the Iraqi people, how much more difficult it made to get their cooperation." -- McCain in 2003.

McCain used to at least be honest about his economic knowledge:

"I'm going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." McCain said in November 2007.

Later in November, he said, "I think I understand the fundamentals . . . they are complicated . . . . and I freely admit I am not an economist."

"The issue of economics is something that I've really never understood as well as I should. I understand the basics, the fundamentals, the vision, all that kind of stuff," McCain said in December 2007. "But I would like to have someone I'm close to that really is a good economist."

But in July 2008, McCain answered the statement "You have admitted that you're not exactly an expert when it comes to the economy" with "I have not. I have not. Actually, I have not . . . I'm very strong on the economy. I understand it."

Unfortunately, Carly Fiorina, a top advisor, admitted, "He did say it one time, no question, maybe twice."

It isn't just that the economy isn't a strong point -- McCain doesn't understand that you can't lower taxes further without seriously slashing spending! As of now, he has no way of paying for the war AND permanent tax breaks for the rich.

McCain was born to a family of navy admirals. After a childhood spent following his father's moves to further his navy career, McCain attended the U.S. Naval Academy, and graduated 894th out of 899 students. He graduated in 1958, entered the navy, and married model Carol Shepp. He adopted her two children, and then fathered a third. Senator McCain left Shepp to McCain's aircraft was shot down in service during the Vietnam war, at which time he was imprisoned as a POW for five-and-a-half years.
As she faught for his release, his wife Carol broke her legs, pelvis, and arm in a horrific car accident. She spent six months in the hospital and underwent 23 surgeries, but kept the news from her imprisoned husband as requested by the State Department. In 1973, when McCain was released, he was surprised to see his wife's terrible condition, and when he moved to Florida to serve as a commanding officer he had multiple extramarital affairs. He soon met the glamorous beer heiress Cindy Hensley at a party, and now claims that "by the evening's end, [he] was in love" with the blonde woman 17 years his junior. Carol, McCain's wife, was served with divorce papers a year after he began dating Cindy, and McCain married Cindy just a month after the divorce to his first wife was finalized. McCain now attributes the failure of his marriage to Carol Shepp to "[his] own selfishness and immaturity," and today Ms. Shepp is unable to walk without difficulty.
McCain retired from the navy in 1981 and moved to Arizona. After working for his new wife's father's beer company, he ran for Representative of Arizona. He won reelection after doing very little but voting in-line with then-president Reagan; notably, he opposed the creation of an MLK Jr. holiday.
McCain was elected as a Senator, and joined the Armed Forces, Commerce and Indian Affairs Committees. He was an advocate for legislation that automatically required spending cuts to counteract budget deficits. McCain's good reputation was soon tarnished with the Keating Five scandal, in which he had been given over a hundred thousand dollars in illegal campaign contributions from Charles Keating Jr. McCain also twice met with federal regulators to request the investigation of Keating's association. McCain has since admitted that "It was the wrong thing to do." McCain was reelected to office, attempted but failed to pass legislation limiting "soft money" in politics, and pushed through the Line Item Veto act which was later ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Elected chairman of the Commerce Committee in 1997, McCain was criticized for accepting money from companies and businesses with business in front of the committee, but McCain claimed that the money he received was not related to the soft-money, influential problems of campaign finance. He attempted but failed to pass legislation to fight the tobacco industry. McCain was reelected to the Senate and decided to run for president. After winning the 2000 New Hampshire primary against Bush, McCain ran negative ads in South Carolina and was slandered in retaliation. After losing the nomination to Bush, McCain returned to the Senate. During Bush's presidency McCain voted against Bush's tax cuts, supported Bush's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and voted against the second round of Bush's tax cuts. In his fourth Senate term, McCain supported the Bush tax cuts, supported immigration reform, and added the McCain Detainee Amendment to the 2005 Defense Appropriations Bill, which prohibited torture, only to vote against a bill containing a ban on waterboarding. McCain decided to run again for president in 2007, and today is the presidential nominee for the Republican Party.