After being forced to respond to three separate incidents in recent weeks of conservatives alluding to Barack Obama's middle name, John McCain's campaign manager today sent a memo to top supporters urging them to stick to the campaign's preferred message -- and to avoid taking gratuitous shots at their Democratic rivals.

"Overheated rhetoric and personal attacks on our opponents distract from the big differences between John McCain's vision for the future of our nation and the Democrats," wrote Rick Davis in a document the campaign emailed to Republican officials and staffers this afternoon. "This campaign is about John McCain: his vision, leadership, experience, courage, service to his country and ability to lead as commander in chief from day one." - March 12, 2008

"One night after being mistreated as a POW, a guard loosened the ropes binding me, easing my pain. On Christmas, that same guard approached me. Without saying a word, he drew a cross in the sand. We stood wordlessly looking at the cross remembering the true light of Christmas..."

"Not long ago in Baghdad, Al Qaeda took two young women who were mentally disabled and put suicide vests on them, sent them into a marketplace, and by remote control, detonated those suicide vests," McCain told Rick Warren. "If that isn't evil, you have to tell me what is."

McCAIN: "I have a long record of that support of alternate energy. … I’ve always been for all of those and I have not missed any crucial vote. But my citizens in Arizona know that when I’m running for the President of the United States I have to be out campaigning."

ISAACSON: "But you called that the worst decision in history?"

MCCAIN: "No I didn’t. No, no– Sometimes I’m given to a little hyperbole."

• McCain adamantly opposed the Bush tax cuts the day before the invasion of Iraq on the grounds they were heavily tilted towards the wealthiest Americans.
• In an August 17, 2007 radio interview, Senator McCain pledged he "would do everything I can to make the Bush tax cuts permanent."
• During a town hall speech in Denver (7/7/08), Senator McCain stated, "The choice in this election is stark and simple. Senator Obama will raise your taxes. I won't,"
• In an interview on ABC's "This Week", Senator McCain said that "Everything is on the table" with regards to raising taxes.
• Forced to respond to outraged Conservatives over his comments on ABC, Senator McCain again pledged, "I want to look you in the eye... I will. Not. Raise your taxes, nor support a tax increase."

a) Last June, McCain had to abruptly reschedule a fundraiser at the home of Texas telecom millionaire Clayton Williams, who lost the 1990 Texas Governors race after comparing rape to "the weather".

b) Also in June, McCain responded to questions of why he refused to meet with Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons with a flubbed joke about wife-beating.

c) According to aides & reporters present at the time, in 1992, a suddenly enraged Senator McCain called his wife Cindy a "c*nt" on the Senator floor.

"...I'm proud of that record... from fighting for the recognition of Doctor Martin Luther King's birthday in my state, to sponsoring specific legislation that would prevent discrimination..."

LETTERMAN: "How are things going in Afghanistan now?"

MCCAIN: " I think we’re doing fine …. I think we’ll do fine. The second phase — if I could just make one, very quickly — the second phase is Iraq. There is some indication, and I don’t have the conclusions, but some of this anthrax may — and I emphasize may — have come from Iraq."

LETTERMAN: "Oh, is that right?"

McCain: "The choice in this election is stark & simple. Senator Obama will raise your taxes; I won't."

George S: "Is [sic] payroll tax increases on the table as well?"

McCain: "There’s nothing that’s off the table. I have my positions and I will articulate them, but nothing is off the table."

King: "If you were president and you knew that bin Laden was in Pakistan, and you knew where, would you have U.S. forces go in after him?"

McCain: "Larry, I'm not gonna go there and here's why: Pakistan is a sovereign nation. I think the Pakistanis want bin Laden out of their hair and out of their country, as causing great difficulties in Pakistan itself. But I want to assure you that I will get Osama bin Laden as President of the United States and I will bring him to justice no matter what it takes."

• During the January 30th, RNC Primary debate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney angrily responded to Senator McCain's charge that he advocated a "timetable" for withdrawal from Iraq: "I have never, ever supported a specific timetable" for withdrawing troops, Romney said. McCain's accusation on the eve of Tuesday's primary, he said, "sort of falls into the dirty tricks that I think Ronald Reagan would have found reprehensible."
• April 7, 2008 - ...criticized his Democratic competitors, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, for what he called a policy of "withdraw and re-invade" and for basing their positions on the war on political ambition.
• July 9, 2008 - Sen. John McCain Wednesday suggested Sen. Barack Obama may alter his promise to withdraw US troops from Iraq within 16 months after meeting with US. General David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Iraq.
  "I'm glad that he is, for the first time, asking for a sit down briefing with Gen. Petraeus and I'll be very interested in what his position on Iraq is when he returns," McCain said during a satellite interview with ABC News' Charlie Gibson Wednesday from Pittsburgh.
• July 17, 2008 - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Thursday ridiculed Democrat Barack Obama's vow to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq in 16 months as "a political tactic aimed at getting votes."

REPORTER: "We've learned that exports to Iran increased by tenfold during the Bush Administration, the biggest export was cigarettes. Given that the, yeah... supposedly that the..."

McCAIN: (interrupting) "Maybe that's the way of killing them. (chuckles) I meant that as a joke."

"Truth be told: Crocs weren't invented by "a couple of entrepreneurs" in Colorado, [...].They weren't even invented in America. They were invented in that Great Frozen Socialist Paradise to the north... Canada. The company that invented them was subsequently bought by Hansen and two other aforementioned Colorado entrepreneurs, who added the cute name and the marketing gloss. But the shoes are still made abroad, in the original factory in Quebec, where the employees come pre-equipped with their own health insurance. Or at least, they will be for a few more weeks: in April, the company announced that they will close down the Quebec City plant in July, sending the 670 jobs there to plants in Mexico, Brazil, and beyond. In other words: it's another Great American Business that does most of its business elsewhere. Six hundred U.S. jobs is a fine thing—but it could be twice that many if they were actually made here, too. It's also not a robust business, at least not at the moment. Following a solid IPO in 2006 and a strong 2007, their sales have been off dramatically this year. [...]"

"If you want to call it [his proposal to temporarily suspend the gas tax, decried by most economists] a gimmick, fine. You know the economists? They’re the same ones that didn’t predict this housing crisis we’re in." [video]

Senior Advisor Carly Fiorina: During an appearance on ABC’s This Week, Fiorina “scoffed at the lack of support from economic analysts” for McCain’s proposed gas-tax holiday, “‘I don’t think it matters,’ she said.”

Senior Advisor Douglas Holtz-Eaken: “You can stack all the economists end to end and still not find common sense.”

McCain: I appreciate his support. As you know, the lieutenant governor is our chairman.

Q: Why snub the governor?

McCain: I didn’t mean to snub him. I’ve known the lieutenant governor for 15 years and we’ve been good friends….I didn’t intend to snub him. There are other states where the governor is not the chairman.

Q: Maybe it’s the governor’s approval rating and you are running from him like you are from the president?

McCain: (Chuckling) And I stopped beating my wife just a couple of weeks ago…

At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, "You're getting a little thin up there." McCain's face reddened, and he responded, "At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c*nt."

"I'm happy to tell you that we probably agreed on an increase in educational benefits for our veterans..."

"I didn't really didn't love America until I was deprived of her company" (referring to his time as a Vietnam POW)

"I intend to wage this campaign and to govern this country in a way that they would be proud of me," ... McCain also said that if elected, he would attempt to govern in the same spirit...

“McCain’s top economic adviser, Doug Holtz-Eakin, blithely supposes that cuts in defense spending could make up for reducing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% and the subsequent shrinkage in federal revenues. Get that? The national security candidate wants to cut spending on our national security. Wait until the generals and the admirals hear that.”

Flip: On December 20, 2007, McCain suggested to Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Charles Savage that President Bush had clearly crossed the line with his violation of the FISA Act. As Wired’s Ryan Singel noted:

“I think that presidents have the obligation to obey and enforce laws that are passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, no matter what the situation is,” McCain said. The Globe’s Charlie Savage pushed further, asking , “So is that a no, in other words, federal statute trumps inherent power in that case, warrantless surveillance?” To which McCain answered, “I don’t think the president has the right to disobey any law.”

“[N]either the Administration nor the telecoms need apologize for actions that most people, except for the ACLU and the trial lawyers, understand were Constitutional and appropriate in the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001.”

Flop: Pressed to explain the glaring inconsistencies, John McCain on June 6 the New York Times reported McCain now believes the legality of Bush’s regime of NSA domestic surveillance is unclear and, in any event, is old news:

“It’s ambiguous as to whether the president acted within his authority or not,” he said, saying courts had ruled different ways on the matter. “I’m not interested in going back. I’m interested in addressing the challenge we face to day of trying to do everything we can to counter organizations and individuals that want to destroy this country. So there’s ambiguity about it. Let’s move forward.”

As for immunity for the telecommunications firms cooperating with the White House in what before August 2007 was doubtless illegal surveillance, there too McCain’s position has evolved. On May 23, campaign surrogate Chuck Fish announced that McCain would not back retroactive immunity “unless there were revealing Congressional hearings and heartfelt repentance from those telephone and internet companies.” Subsequently, the McCain campaign swiftly backtracked, claiming its man supports immunity unconditionally.

Flip: June 4, McCain tells a group of Florida newspaper editors, “I am in favor of doing whatever’s necessary to save the Everglades.”

Flop: McCain not only opposed $2 billion in funding for the restoration of the Everglades national park, he backed President Bush’s veto of the legislation in 2007. “I believe,” he said, “that we should be passing a bill that will authorize legitimate, needed projects without sacrificing fiscal responsibility.”

Despite voting to override President Reagan’s veto of a bill imposing economic sanctions against South Africa in 1986, McCain voted against sanctions on at least six other occasions.