McCain has long opposed quotas but his new support for ending affirmative action programs which stop short of quotas puts him at odds not only with Democratic rival Barack Obama but also with the Arizona senator’s own views in 1998.
Back then, when the legislature in McCain’s home state of Arizona considered sending the voters a measure to end affirmative action, McCain spoke out against it calling it “divisive.”
McCain’s campaign does not dispute that the Arizona senator spoke out against the 1998 effort to end affirmative action in his home state.
When asked about the apparent change in position, a McCain spokesman was not able to distinguish the two measures.
“I do not have a firm enough grasp on the historical and relevant context of McCain’s remark in 1998 to give you the pushback that this question deserves,” McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds told ABC News.
McCain’s critics on the left charge that he has changed his position on affirmative action in order to shore up his support among conservatives.
“This is clearly an election-year flip flop and a pander to a skeptical right-wing base,” said John Kraus, spokesman for the liberal Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. “He has put politics first on this issue. There is no other way around it.”
Our site takes a supportive view on affirmative action. But Senator McCain’s reflexive hostility does have its defenders. Thanks for adding your analysis to the blogging universe.