So not only do they deride his positions and then pivot to make them their own, but then claim Obama never took the position in the first place...

...and American's are stupid enough to eat this up?

You're confusing two issues.  Issue 1: *how* do we go after terrorists?  Issue 2: *where* do we go after terrorists?

Obama wants to waste taxpayer money looking for putative terrorists hidden in the mountains of Pakistan.  Talk about inefficient!  It probably costs several millions of dollars to find and kill a terrorist halfway across the world. Fortunately, we already know where a bunch of terrorists are, much closer to home: Guantanamo Bay!  Why not send the Predators there?   We could turn the camp into a giant hunting ground and allow trainees to practice their piloting skills.  

That's McCain, always on the lookout for cost cutting measures.

Oh, come on!  The obvious reason the GOP is doing this is to further try to solidify what I'm going to try to coin the "Alien vs Predator" presidential election.  McCain had tacked more toward the GOP's position of being tough on illegal immigration, and therefore painting the Democrats as the party of "(illegal) Aliens," while trying to say that McCain, as opposed to Obama is in favor of military force to deal with terrorists including "Predator (missiles)."

I never saw the movies.  Who wins?

You win, by not seeing the movie.

Obama really needs some surrogates to push the "flip-flopper" label onto McCain.  I have had quite a few people tell me that they don't know anything about Obama's positions and the policies that he would endorse and point to McCain as somebody who's been in public service long enough to know what you're getting.

McCain, like Kerry, has been for a lot of things before he was against it.  Immigration, torture, tax cuts...these are all areas that McCain has waffled back and forth on not on principled grounds, but for what appears to be politicial expediency.

"... and American's are stupid enough to eat this up?"

Swiftboat.

Sadly, the best way to fight terrorists IS with lawyers.  And forensic accountants.  Freeze or seize assets.

Incidentally, does anyone know if there is any substance to Jeff Klein's questions about McCain's record, in www.huffingtonpost.com/.../mccains-secret-questionab_b_107409.html ?  

It's a little irritating when people say they don't know what Obama's positions are when a mouse click to the campaign website, a look at C-SPAN, or a brief perusal of his recent speeches and interviews would help them out in that area.  I wonder if what they mean is that they don't *want* to know what Obama's positions are because if they did, they might have to think about voting for him.

ironyroad: Bingo.