If Republicans had a field day labeling John Kerry as a “flip-flopper,” then Democrats should have a bonanza with John McCain. After having been smeared by Bush with the assistance of the far right, McCain realized that he’d have to kowtow before the extremists if he wanted to be president, and has been busily prostrating himself before them, abandoning his prior “maverick” status. The Carpetbagger Report lists 15 significant McCain flip-flops over the past few years.

McCain used to support reproductive rights, gay marriage, campaign finance reform, and grassroots lobbying reform; now he’s against all those things. McCain used to be against torture, tax cuts for the rich, and ethanol subsides; now he’s for all of them. McCain used to disapprove of people like Jerry Falwell, Sam and Charles Wyly, Henry Kissenger, and Grover Norquist, but now he’s warming up to them for support. He has also flip-flopped on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a holiday, state support for the Confederate flag, and politicians visiting Bob Jones University. And he now claims that he always thought that the Iraq War would probably be “long and hard and tough,” even though he originally said that we would win the conflict easily.

Who knows, there might even be enough video material in there to make a good commercial. But one thing is for certain (and I’ve said this before), McCain is no longer someone who will appeal to Democrats or Independents like he did in 2000. He may now have the support of the far right and the religious extremists, but he has hobbled himself for the rest of us–and 2006 demonstrated that the extremist right is no longer what it used to be.