The Wonk Room

While Media Hails McCain’s Foreign Policy ‘Pivot’ From Bush, Lindsey Graham Says There’s No Difference

Responding to John McCain’s foreign policy address yesterday, the country’s three biggest newspapers appear to have accepted at face value McCain’s newfound commitment to international cooperation.

New York Times:

McCain, in Foreign Policy Talk, Turns His Back on Unilateralism

The Washington Post:

McCain Outlines Foreign Policy: In Speech, He Vows Collaborative Approach

LA Times:

McCain stresses cooperation in L.A. speech on foreign policy

Last night, in an interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), CNN host Campbell Brown claimed McCain’s world view was “very different” from President Bush on a lot of issues.

But even Graham wouldn’t go so far as Brown. When asked how McCain’s worldview differs from Bush’s, Graham offered that there was no difference. “I don’t think I can describe it different than a person,” he said. Watch it:

Here are a few recent McCain quotes that didn’t fit the press’s narrative and therefore didn’t make it into the stories: “I’m sorry to tell you, there’s going to be other wars. We will never surrender but there will be other wars.” “Make it a hundred [years in Iraq]…We’ve been in South Korea …That would be fine with me.” “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.”

Contrary to yesterday’s attempt to recast himself as a responsible multilateralist, John McCain has consistently defended the Bush Doctrine. He has surrounded himself with the same people who advocated that doctrine. His foreign policy approach has been called “more hawkish than Bush.” His record speaks for itself, and it’s a shame that America’s most popular newspapers would allow one speech to divert them from McCain’s career-long advocacy of militaristic foreign policy.