The McCain campaign likes to have an enemy to fight (and blame things on), and the latest bogeyman is ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). First they attacked ACORN for alleged voter registration fraud. A Republican National Committee spokesman called ACORN a “quasi-criminal group”. They even compared ACORN to the KKK. But the nastiest attack was a TV ad that blamed ACORN for the mortgage crisis.

So what makes this all ironic (and pretty funny) is that in 2006, McCain himself was best friends with ACORN. Rather than trying to defend itself against the attacks, ACORN released a photo of McCain giving the keynote speech at at an ACORN-sponsored rally in Florida, telling the participants that they “are what makes America special.” Watch it yourself (at 1:53):

ACORN’s chief organizer released a statement saying:

It has deeply saddened us to see Senator McCain abandon his historic support for ACORN and our efforts to support the goals of low-income Americans. Maybe it is out of desperation that Senator McCain has forgotten that he was for ACORN before he was against ACORN; he was for immigration reform before he was against immigration reform; and he was a maverick before he became erratic. We were thrilled to partner with him to help reform the outdated immigration laws in this country, and were pleased to work closely with him on this issue.

So in attacking ACORN, all McCain as succeeded in doing is bringing attention to his former position on immigration reform, which is none too popular with the conservative base. McCain himself said he opposed his own immigration reform bill — once he started running for president and decided he needed those conservative votes.

McCain’s erratic and shifting positions have managed to anger both liberals and conservatives.



© Gary Varvel