John McCain Tells Bill O’Reilly That He’s Still “The Same Guy,” Critiques Obama

During his presidential campaign in 2008, Sen. John McCain was criticized for changing his persona and message whenever it was advantageous (he certainly changed more frequently than his running mate changed her jacket). These criticisms have followed him into his current bid for reelection as he’s strangely disavowed his old “maverick” nickname. However, he appeared on The O’Reilly Factor last night to assure people that under it all, he’s still “the same guy”. That claim would have hit harder though, had it not followed a five minute conversation about how he’s completely reversed his stance on troops on the Mexican border.

Of course, we’re being a little facetious. His former opinions, stated on O’Reilly’s show, were from nine whole years ago and one doesn’t have to be a wild maverick to change their mind over a decade. And this reversal does lead to a pretty interesting conversation on the topic. While the two are both on the same side now (that side being that it is the fed’s responsibility to send troops to the border to stop Mexican cartel violence from spilling into the good US of A), O’Reilly does a good job of playing devil’s advocate by pointing out the fears that many have that stricter laws proposed in Arizona may lead to racial profiling. There’s even a good stat brought up about the massive amounts of marijuana that is coming over the border that’ll help all you crazy college kids enjoy today’s “holiday”.

One of the most interesting parts of the talk though comes before the border conversation as McCain gets some punches in towards the Obama administration. McCain claims that there has been no attempts for any bipartisanship and when O’Reilly asks him to compare it to Clinton, McCain says that he was a veritable poster boy for cooperation in comparison.

“Listen, we had some very spirited discussions and disputes with President Clinton but, when the time came, he sat down…we did welfare reform, we did a number of other reforms, we had balanced budget agreements, we had a number of other agreements that we were able to reach. This administration has decided again, on financial regulatory reform, just drive it through and see if the Republicans go along. And there has not been real negotiation.”

That would, of course, make the Obama administration the first administration ever to be lacking at negotiation skills since we, like O’Reilly and McCain, can’t think of anyone else who might have come between them and Clinton…

All in all though, it was an interesting talk.

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