Straight Talk

Lurking at the end of this Reuters article on potential vulnerabilities in McCain's alleged strong suit of foreign policy is this intriguing remark about McCain's idiotic plan to kick Russia out of the G8:

He also dismissed McCain's comment last October on Russia and the G-8 as "a holdover from an earlier period," adding: "It doesn't reflect where he is right now."

Matt Corley points out that this isn't quite right. As recently as March, McCain told the Los Angeles World Affairs Council that "We should start by ensuring that the G-8, the group of eight highly industrialized states, becomes again a club of leading market democracies: it should include Brazil and India but exclude Russia."

My guess is that the McCain adviser here is mistaken -- he knows this is a bad idea, so he'd like to think that McCain has flip-flopped away from it. But thought McCain has changed positions on a lot of issues over the years, he's been pretty consistent ever since 1999 or so on foreign policy questions -- taking the most hawkish line on every issue, seeking to ratchet-up tensions with every potential rival, etc. But if McCain has changed his mind about this, and I hope he has, he should say so clearly rather than through an anonymous quote.