McCain: Mayors, Governors Lack Leadership, National Security Experience

Senator McCain's people had fun last month running a campaign ad showing Senator Joe Biden at an August 2007 debate saying "I think that I stand by the statement" that he made previously during his own Presidential campaign that Obama wasn't ready to be President.

Fine, fine. Biden has changed his mind since August 2007.

Evidently he's not the only one who said things during the primary season that he couldn't possibly believe are true now....

The fact is, I'm running on my record as a reliable conservative of 24 years. And the indicators of that, obviously, is that I've fought wasteful spending, I have had a strong and a long relationship on national security, I've been involved in every national crisis that this nation has faced since Beirut, I understand the issues, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face from radical Islamic extremism.

I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training.

I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time. For 20-some years, including leading the largest squadron in the United States Navy, I led. I didn't manage for profit, I led for patriotism. [Senator John McCain, Republican debate, Orlando FL, broadcast by Fox News, 2007.10.21]

Historical note: Senator McCain was responding to a question comparing himself and Mitt Romney, who served as governor of Massachusetts, population 6.5 million, for four years. He spoke immediately after Rudy Giuliani, who served as mayor of New York City, population 8.3 million, for eight years.

Far be it from me to hold a guy too hard to things he said to win the primaries. Heck, when McCain made the above statement, I was planning to vote for Dennis Kucinich again. My guy dropped out; so did Biden's. We both looked at who was left and said, "Obama's our best choice." Things change.

McCain needed to beat candidates with more buzz and bucks. He attacked their strengths and tried to make them look like weaknesses. And now, with a running mate whom his campaign admits will be getting four years of on-the-job training in national security...

...Boy—sometimes things really change.