John McCain's "talk" is a lot more crooked than straight.

• 7/08: One thing I, in all my travels here -- Americans want a respectful campaign. They do, they want it. Now, people say, well, negative ads move numbers. They may. But do we have to go to the lowest common denominator? I don't think so. 
• "Why not 100?" That was McCain's reply to a voter when asked about keeping U.S. troops in Iraq for 50 years. McCain said it more than once, even proposing 1,000, 10,000, and a million years. A straight-talker would admit it - only a crooked talker would deny it.
• 5/2/08: "I will have an energy policy... which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East." That means the current war in Iraq is about oil, doesn't it?  A straight-talker would admit it - only a crooked talker would deny it.
• 5/1/08: McCain said Bush's "Mission Accomplished" banner was "wrong at the time." On 6/11/03, McCain told FOX's Neil Cavuto, " "the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished." On 6/12/03, McCain told Salon's Jake Tapper, "the mission is 'accomplished'."
• 5/1/08: McCain said only that earmarks divert money from necessary projects toward unneeded pork-barrel ones. The day before, McCain said: "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects."
• 4/24/08: McCain said he didn’t know what his plans would be. "That’s why we need to go back," he said, "to have a conversation about what to do about it. Rebuild it? Tear it down? Ya know, whatever it is." From North Carolina, Clinton seized the opportunity to attack. "Sen. McCain said he might want to tear down the Ninth Ward instead of rebuilding it," she said. "But I went to the Ninth Ward after Katrina and met with people there and saw the destruction and I saw the resilience in their eyes and they deserve our help to rebuild and regain their lives and their homes." Steve Schmidt, a senior McCain aide, said Clinton’s attack was "inaccurate." "Sen. McCain has said the levees must be strengthened on time so people can make a decision on whether to return based on safety," he said, adding that he would like to see a "safe, vibrant community emerge" after the appropriate flood plan. Even before Clinton made her comments, McCain had been asked to clarify. "I don’t remember ever saying it," he said Thursday afternoon on his way from Xavier University to the New Orleans airport.
• 3/18/08 "Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are are coming back into Iraq from Iran... I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not Al Qaeda." McCain mistakenly said Iran was training Al Qaeda Sunnis on 3 occasions.
• 2/3/08: RUSSERT: Senator McCain, you have said repeatedly, "I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated." Is it a problem for your campaign that the economy is now the most important issue, one that, by your own acknowledgement, you're not well-versed on?    McCAIN: Actually, I don't know where you got that quote from. I'm very well-versed in economics.
• 3/28/07: Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told CNN that that President Bush’s escalation in Iraq is going so well, "General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee." On Monday, he told radio host Bill Bennett that there "are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today." This morning, during an interview with McCain, CNN’s John Roberts rebutted McCain’s assertions, stating, "I checked with General Petraeus’s people overnight and they said he never goes out in anything less than an up-armored humvee." He added that a new report by retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey "said no Iraqi government official, coalition soldier, diplomat reporter could walk the streets of Baghdad without heavily armed protection." Faced with overwhelming evidence that he was wrong, McCain denied he’d ever said it: "Well, I’m not saying they could go without protection. The President goes around America with protection. So, certainly I didn’t say that."
• 3/16/07: "Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?" McCain: (Long pause) "You've stumped me."
• 9/17/03: "I believe that Saddam Hussein presents clear and present danger to the United States of America with his continued pursuit of...to acquire weapons of mass destruction." [CNN Late Edition, 3/3/02] "I never said that it was a, quote, clear and present danger because of weapons of mass destruction."

Watch these Youtubes:

• 5/13/07 Flip-flops on tax cuts
• 1/26/07 Flip-flops on Iraq, the Confederate flag, Agents of Intolerance (Falwell), Gay marriage