Ten more questions for John McCain

Jon Perr, of Perrspectives Blog, has prepared ten more questions for Sen. McCain, after Perr’s first ten questions were so well received around the blogsphere. Here’s a taste of the ten new questions for Sen. McCain:

12. Given your support for virtually the entire Bush foreign and domestic agenda, aren’t the American people correct in viewing a John McCain victory in November as a third term for George W. Bush?
Two weeks ago, you told the American people “I’m not running on the Bush presidency.” But on almost every issue, your positions are identical to those of President Bush. You reversed course to support making permanent the Bush tax cuts you twice opposed. Like President Bush, you opposed the expansion of the SCHIP program for children’s health care, while similarly calling for the wildly unpopular privatization of Social Security. You’ve called for overturning the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights while reaffirming your support for conservative Supreme Court justices like John Roberts and Samuel Alito. You and the President are in lockstep when its comes to Iran and Iraq, so much so that when you were told President Bush wants to stay in Iraq for 50 years, you said, “Make it a hundred.” Isn’t it fair for Americans to ask where Bush ends and you begin? Don’t those who call you “John McSame” have grounds for doing so? When over 80% of the American people think the country is on the wrong track, isn’t it fair for the American people to fear that President John McCain means a third term for George W. Bush?

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14. Don’t you owe Barack Obama an apology for attacking as “confused leadership” his proposal for unilateral strikes against Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan, a strategy which is now the policy of the Bush administration?
On August 1, 2007, Barack Obama announced that as President, “If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.” On February 19th, you attacked – and misrepresented - his position during a primary night victory speech by asking “will we risk the confused leadership of an inexperienced candidate who once suggested invading our ally, Pakistan?” As it turns out, President Bush endorsed the use of unilateral American strikes against Al Qaeda targets within Pakistan, including the January 29 covert Predator drone attack that killed Al Qaeda leader Abu Laith Al-Libi. Do you disagree with President Bush’s new policy of attacking Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan without the permission of the government in Islamabad? If not, don’t you owe Barack Obama an apology?

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17. Given that you’ve reversed yourself on so many long-held positions, why shouldn’t the American people view you as an opportunistic flip-flopper?
You have something of a reputation as a political maverick. Yet in your 2008 quest for the White House, you repeatedly reversed long-held positions and compromised core principles to seemingly curry favor with both the leading lights of the conservative movement and right-wing Republican primary voters. You’ve changed your positions on the Bush tax cuts, Jerry Falwell and the Christian right, immigration reform, overturning Roe v. Wade, whether Justice Samuel Alito is a model for the Supreme Court, France-bashing, just to name a few. What happened to the “courage of our convictions?” Did you read your own book, Why Courage Matters? After what happened to John Kerry in 2004, why shouldn’t the American people view you as an opportunistic flip-flopper?