In 2008, John McCain works hard to convince people he’s not just like George W. Bush. In 2005, John McCain worked hard to convince people of the exact opposite.

Looking over the transcript from the June 19, 2005, episode of “Meet the Press,” the context of the video is actually slightly worse for McCain. Tim Russert read off a list of issues on which McCain and Bush appear to disagree and told the senator, “The fact is you are different than George Bush.” McCain responded, “No. No.”

One could argue, I suppose, that this was in 2005, and McCain has reinvented himself since then, but then again, looking at his Senate voting record, McCain voted with Bush’s position 95% of the time in 2007 and 100% of the time in 2008.

McCain gets pretty annoyed when his critics talk about a “third Bush term,” but it’s hard to deny that McCain has already made the argument for us. He not only shares Bush’s agenda and platform, but McCain spent years telling national audiences that no one agrees with Bush more than he does.