Tortured Reasoning
You'd think that of all the issues that John McCain could disagree with his party on, torture would be one that no one could really blame him for. Indeed, he himself was a prisoner of war and subjected to horrendous treatment while in captivity. Would anyone really question him for opposing "enhanced interrogation techniques," if only by principle? Unfortunately, this is one of the sadder flip-flops we've encountered, simply because we have to hope that Senator McCain is acting against his conscience.
Flip
John McCain has a long history of speaking out against prisoner torture, and there wouldn't be too many people who would argue with him on the point. He's been affected by it directly, and even has physical limitations today as a result. John McCain has legitimately spoken out against the Bush administration on the issue, claiming that it had no authority to approve techniques like waterboarding. John McCain must also question the efficacy of torture as an interrogation method considering that his own narrative includes feeding his captors false information. He was a leader in drafting legislation to forbid torture. You'd think that if John McCain was going to remain consistent on any single issue, it'd be this.
Flop
Unfortunately, something caused him to change his position. After going toe-to-toe with the Bush administration over legislation that would prohibit the kinds of interrogation techniques that could be used, he finally capitulated after the bill got veteoed. which also happened to be the time that McCain was locking up the Republican nomination. Can it be that he shelved this issue to appeal to the conservative base? Sure looks like it.
