No Straight Talk

John McCain has carefully framed himself as a straight talker. His campaign bus is called the "Straight Talk Express." In the Rovian sense, we know that anyone who claims that they are a straight talker is the exact opposite. With McCain, that certainly seems to be the case.

Campaign finance is a perfect example. McCain has been an alleged champion of campaign finance reform. He even has the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act (Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002) to his credit. The most noteworthy part of that bill, from the layperson's perspective, is the requirement of "I approve of this message," language. That restrains third parties from running ads in support of a candidate.

McCain, however, recently engaged in activity which played fast and loose with campaign finance laws. He borrowed money from a bank in Maryland in December of 2007 and pledged as collateral for that loan Federal funds he would receive if he remained in the race. In other words, even if his campaign had tanked in late December and early January and he had lost New Hampshire to Guiliani with no hope of resurrection, he would have had to stay in the race to get the Federal money to pay back the Maryland bank. That entire episode is being investigated but the chance that anyone will notice is unlikely. And, at that point, no one knew that Cindy McCain was extremely wealthy.

The evidence of McCain's absence of straight talk is overwhelming. They include his position on Bush tax cuts, staying in Iraq, Pat Robertson, Reverend Hagee and a host of others.

The Straight Talk Express is a fraud. It is nothing other that clever framing designed to mislead the American voting public.