Democrats have been tying themselves in knots trying to saddle John McCain with the unpopularity of George Bush. Most recently, they've argued that John McCain has voted with George Bush "94% of the time."
As Dick Morris notes, it's not hard to vote with the president over congratulating a baseball team on its victory and other nonsense that takes up most of the Senate's time. Indeed, even HopeNChange voted with the president 40 percent of the time. How can The One vote with Satan at all?
Morris argues that McCain can use the argument to show how different he is from George Bush on a host of issues. There simply is no other Republican who can make the claim:
* McCain fought for campaign finance reform — McCain-Feingold — that Bush resisted and ultimately signed because he had no choice.
* McCain led the battle to restrict interrogation techniques of terror suspects and to ban torture.
* McCain went with Joe Lieberman on a tough measure to curb climate change, something Bush denies is going on.
* McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts when they passed.
* McCain urged the Iraq surge, a posture Bush rejected for years before conceding its wisdom.
* McCain favors FDA regulation of tobacco and sponsored legislation to that effect, a position all but a handful of Republican senators oppose.
* McCain’s energy bill, also with Lieberman, is a virtual blueprint for energy independence and development of alternate sources.
* After the Enron scandal, McCain introduced sweeping reforms in corporate governance and legislation to guarantee pensions and prohibit golden parachutes for executives. Bush opposed McCain’s changes and the watered-down Sarbanes-Oxley bill eventuated.
* McCain has been harshly critical of congressional overspending, particularly of budgetary earmarks, a position Bush only lately adopted (after the Democrats took over Congress).
The Obama campaign tries to argue that electing John McCain is just a "third Bush term." But the facts show otherwise.
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