This morning, failed Republican presidential candidate and former governor Mitt Romney was interviewed by CNN anchor John Roberts. During the interview, Mitt dutifully repeated the McCain campaign's latest anti-Obama smear, that he's "never been a part of a bipartisan group that came together to solve a controversial issue."
For Mittens, the interview went downhill from there.
When it was pointed out that Obama has worked with Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana on the Luger-Obama Nonproliferation legislation, signed into law by President Bush, and with Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Oregon, on increasing gas mileage efficience requirements, this was Romey's actual response:
"Actually, on both cases, you’re talking about two liberal positions, non-proliferation as well as the gasoline mileage."
That's right. Supporting the reduction of nuclear weapons around the world is now a "liberal position". Supporting increased mileage standards for our cars in order to help ease our demand for foreign oil is now a "liberal position".
Now, that's fine with me. Most rational people will support both of those policies, so I welcome them into our camp. But I don't know how this will play with McCain's base (not the media - his other base) given that McCain claims to support the same ideas.
McCain: The United States shares "an obligation with the world's other great powers to halt and reverse the proliferation of nuclear weapons,"
McCain goes on to state that we should:
"reduce nuclear arsenals all around the world, starting with our own." The United States does "not need all the weapons currently in our arsenal," he said.
John Roberts further hits the nail on the head:
It’s true that two of the biggest non-proliferation measures have been passed by Democrats – the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty and the 1978 Non-Proliferation Act (John Glenn D-Ohio), but every president since Eisenhower has sought to curb the spread of either nuclear weapons, or the missiles to deliver them.
On the issue of gas mileage, here's the headline from a Bloomberg News article THIS WEEK: McCain Proposes Incentives to Spur Fuel Efficiency
Of course, his "plans" are total crap, but the fact that he's pandering does show that these aren't liberal issues but in fact mainstream ones. And ones in which Obama has reached across the isle in order to provide real solutions for the American people.