Now is the McCain campaign flip-floping, lying, or does it just not have its act together?

Not that it matters anyway.  Tax cuts are easy.  Spending cuts are hard.

Hey, where's Teplukhin to ask, "Will the real John McCain please stand up?"

Anyway, if anyone has friends or acquaintances who seem to take McCain's "promise" to balance the budget by any date seriously, please remind them that George W. Bush promised to _keep_ the budget balanced in 2000. I'm no spring chicken anymore, but every Republican president in my lifetime has come to office promising either to balance the budget, cut the deficit "in half", or maintain the balanced budget left him by the previous Democrat. So far, in my lifetime, no Republican president has even come close to fulfilling his campaign promises about budget-balancing. When a Republican looks you in the eye and tells you that he intends to balance the budget, or even reduce the deficit, he is lying to you.

(I hope there is a 527 in the works to hammer McCain on the particular point of his longtime support for Republican deficit spending and his current campaign rhetoric about "out of control spending" and "balancing the budget." This is not hypocrisy, or slipperiness, or even honest flip-flopping. It's simply John McCain lying to America.)

2nd term? now that is the true whopper, I don't know what is more frightening, McCain envisioning running for a second term at 76 (leaving office at 80!) or his belief that people would actually vote for him to have a second term. This is a crass thing to say but I would lay even money he doesn't live another 4 years.

Rhubs, I do not know that it is technically a lie if he has the best of intentions for balancing the budget; however, I do think he's gone senile if he thinks his commanders will let him do anything but cut social welfare programs or lower tax burdens, disproportionately affecting the wealthiest of course.

These would be the same commanders that helped McCain realize that Bush's tax cuts did not really offend his conscience, and that the McCain-Feingold bill is a bad idea.

GSpinks, McCain has not actually proposed changes to the budget that even conceivably get it close to balance. On the contrary, his spending promises are either just a smidgen below Obama's or a smidgen above, depending on who's doing the counting, while he is proposing tax cuts that dwarf even George W. Bush's. If you make specific promises to increase spending significantly, and also make specific promises to decrease income significantly, and then make a general promise to balance an already-in-deficit budget, then yes, the latter promise is in fact a lie. Not a misunderstanding, not a waffle, but a lie.

Well, it's either a lie, or it's evidence of clinical insanity, take your pick. I don't think John McCain is either crazy or mentally retarded, so I have no choice but to conclude that, with regard to his budget-balancing promise, the man is telling a deliberate, cynical lie.

I actually agree that he has done nothing but promise increased spending and decreased revenue; I'm just playing the "what-if" card regarding McCain's motives because I'm not sure he's actually smart enough regarding macro-economics to actually understand his policy positions. Hell, I'm not convinced he is all that good with micro-economics either; his wife is loaded, I bet he hasn't had to balance a checkbook in ages.