McCain/Palin have also promised a multi billion dollar INCREASE in funding for special education. See this Chicago Trib article.

McCain is constantly altering his stated positions. And it causes me to wonder why no one comments publicly on what are obvious symptoms of his progressive mental enfeeblement. Surely I am not the only person who has noticed repeated examples of this indisputable deterioration of McCain?

McCain just wants to spread the wealth around.

"A spending freeze that exempts health care, military and veterans programs, and entitlement spending has very little left to freeze."

Why would John McCain support the Ares rocket? That sounds suspiciously like a terrorist rocket. Can we trust John McCain?

"Hiring freeze" is tough talk bluster meant to win the current news cycle.

"Hiring Freeze" was never intended as thoughtful, long term, sustainable policy analysis. McCain has buried his long term policy goals under an avalanche of tough talk nonsense that obliterates message coherency.

Tough talk does not work when voters face real problems that demand real solutions.

More FEDERAL funding for "Special" Education? Sounds awfully SOCIALISTICAL and MARXISTIAN, spreading the wealth from the bright haves to the mental have-nots. Special education or special interests? You be the judge!!!

As hinted at in your last paragraph, the larger point is that a recession is the worst time to freeze spending.

I don't get it. Why can't our politicians learn from past mistakes? Is politics the only field of human endeavor where we forever have to worry about going backwards?

I am glad McCain isn't going to win because a spending freeze is exactly what we don't need right now.

McCain short: Everything is vital to me, if it will get me into the White House---but only until it gets me into the White House. Then, only I am vital to me.

I don't get it. Why can't our politicians learn from past mistakes? Is politics the only field of human endeavor where we forever have to worry about going backwards?

Posted by: Chris

What past mistakes? The guy got beaten in 2000 by someone who promised to be "a uniter, not a divider" and a "compassionate conservative" - and who then went on to set up the most partisan government in the nation's history and demonstrate his "compassion" with such actions as attempting to cut combat pay & family stipends for soldiers he sent overseas to fight and die in an unnecessary war and refusing to extend unemployment benefits for the millions left jobless by his shitty economic policies. And for all of this, he was rewarded with approval ratings as high as 92% and re-election to a second disastrous term in office. Lesson? Lying works. I'd say McCain learned it well; his problem is that you really can't fool all of the people all of the time and after 8 years, he's left with only the some of the people you can fool all of the time.

McCain -- continuing the Republican tradition of bringing poor government to Washington. If he would run the government like he has run this campaign, we would all be very understanding of the problems facing Latin America (if we don't have that feeling already!).

Maybe John would just be happy with a statue of himself somewhere in D.C.

McCain? Pandering? I am shocked to the deepest recesses of my psyche. Who could of imagined such a thing.

Should McCain somehow get elected, I expect him to replace the American eagle on the presidential seal with a 'pander' bear.

This guys positions and priorities change by the minute and are totally dependent on who he is standing in front of at any given moment.

This really has nothing to do with McCain, but rather is yet another reminder about what a sham conservatism really is. When conservatives talk about cutting spending, all they really talk about is a faceless bureaucracy and fat cats in Washington who usually belong to the other party. But when push comes to shove, modern society is expensive and voters want high spending.

McCain knows this, Bush knows this, Rove knows this, they ALL know it. But all the same, they have to throw that red meat to the base and as long as they do, they know they can get away with anything...at least in the short term. At this point, they're all convinced that McCain has a history of spending cuts and reforming Washington and he can finally do all those things that all the other Republicans promised but never did. And if McCain somehow won and was put in a position to do anything about it, we'd just be hearing this same noise eight years from now about how they are finally getting the true conservative who will cut spending. But it ain't never going to happen.

Conservativism is a fantasy. Even a few days before the election, McCain can't pretend he's going to truly cut spending. And in office, he'd find it even harder. Voters want government spending.

This is sort of like saying no one is uninsured if we just start saying emergency rooms count as insurance. McCain plan is to eliminate unnecessary spending by saying all of our current spending is vital.

McCain subscribes to "The Jerk" method of budgeting. Don't forget the chair.

"Small dent" indeed! I've been waiting for someone to ask McCain "If you cut out ALL the Pork what would you use the money for." The amount of "Pork" is reputed to be around $18 Billion. Not too much these days.

As a huge Obama fan, I have to say that this item isn't completely fair. *Neither* candidate has been forthcoming (during the three debates, for instance) about the fact that deficits will almost certainly continue in the near future. Indeed, imposing austerity measures in a downturn would only exacerbate the recession.

Conservative political success depends entirely on the ignorance of their supporters about how government actually works. A large chunk of conservatives have been shown in surveys to hold bizarre beliefs like that 25% of the federal budget goes to foreign aid, and they're constantly hammered with the idea that taxes are illegitimate because most of the money is wasted.

Actually dealing realistically with spending cuts during a campaign would risk breaking through that bubble. If they get into office, they just blame their failure to find those savings on free-spending liberals.