Yup, and there is this chart, too, that presents what I think is the same information in a different manner.

Guantanamo detainees

Mr. McCain was a key backer of the 2006 legislation that allowed detainees to be tried in military courts and abolished habeas corpus rights for detainees labeled "enemy combatants" by the administration. He would close the Guant'anamo prison and move prisoners to a maximum-security military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Fucking hypocrite, you'd think his time as a POW would have made him a little more compassionate and reality-based on this issue.

Calling his wife the c-word is what tipped the scales for me. Any man that can't respect his own wife can't run my country, tyvm.

Running against GWB and then falling in line and putting on the leash willingly was enough for me: Torture, tax cuts, warwarwar.

That and "I was for campaign finance reform before I was against it."

The whole never-ending war should be enough to turn anyone off (except for immortal soldiers looking for work).

This NYRB article is great, and really highlights how McCain has not followed through on the issue that earned him his "maverick" label.

Such instances are numerous. He voted against the Bush tax cuts originally; he now supports extending them. On immigration reform—another issue on which his views were welcome in the press and among liberals—he has stopped talking about "comprehensive" reform that would include a path to citizenship for undocumented aliens, and begun emphasizing the border fence. In 1999, he said, "I would not support the repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations." By 2006, he said its repeal "wouldn't bother me any." And last month, McCain's campaign indicated that he would no longer continue his long-held support for adding rape-and-incest exceptions to the GOP platform plank that opposes abortion. This is as extreme a position on abortion as exists in American electoral politics.

Most strikingly of all, the man who was repeatedly tortured by the Vietnamese has backpedaled even on the issue of torture by American officials. In 2005, he inserted language into the Detainee Treatment Act that Bush disliked because it forbade the military to use some methods of interrogation. The next year, after the Supreme Court had rebuked the Bush administration positions on detention in its Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision, McCain fought the administration for long enough to receive favorable attention in the press. But he finally declared—in a much-discussed "compromise" with the administration—that he was satisfied with the infamous Military Commissions Act, which contained provisions that prevented prisoners from challenging the basis of their detention. The bill gave the White House the power to ignore the Geneva Conventions if it wished to.

Building on mullacc's point, here is a long, long list of policy reversals by McCain. A tiny excerpt (with linky substantiation at the post):

* McCain said before the war in Iraq, “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” Four years later, McCain said he knew all along that the war in Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough.”
* McCain said he was the “greatest critic” of Rumsfeld’s failed Iraq policy. In December 2003, McCain praised the same strategy as “a mission accomplished.” In March 2004, he said, “I’m confident we’re on the right course.” In December 2005, he said, “Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course.”
* McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.
* McCain went from saying gay marriage should be allowed, to saying gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed.
* McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but then decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks.
* McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.
* On a related note, he said 2005 that he opposed the tax cuts because they were “too tilted to the wealthy.” By 2007, he denied ever having said this, and insisted he opposed the cuts because of increased government spending.

I can't see that there's anything he wouldn't say or do to get to be president.

Senator McCain lost my respect when he sucked up to Bush after the unconscionable way the Bush campaign smeared McCain's family during the 2000 campaign. The guy that smacked Bush around in this debate in 2000 isn't the same guy running today.

Once again, the deciding issue for me is abortion. I had already decided months ago not to vote for either Clinton or Obama.

The next president will likely replace some Supreme Court justices and determine the balance of the court for decades. All of the liberal justices are over retirement age and Justice Stevens has death on speed dial. Roberts is 53. Alito is 58. Thomas is 59. Souter is 68. Breyer is 69. Kennedy is 71. Scalia is 72. Ginsburg is 75. Stevens is 88.

McCain says that Alito and Roberts "would serve as the model for my own nominees." McCain is Pro Life. Period. (Well, now anyway. In 1999 he said, "certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe vs. Wade.")

I was always pretty sure I didn't like McCain. But the real eye opener was when I realized he planned to stack the SCOTUS. His judicial nominees are terrible.

So if by chance he gets the presidency, I'll probably move out of this country after college. Hear that, McCain? I'll do it! I'll leave! Just you try me.

Basically, what kirkaracha said :x

"The whole never-ending war should be enough to turn anyone off (except for immortal soldiers looking for work)."

I am old enough to remember another war that the Democrats inherited and they managed to make matters worse. It took Nixon to stop it.

How to end the Iraq qar? Start secretly bombing Cambodia.

Ardiril, I don't really think that LBJ and Barack Obama are particularly similar, as leaders or in their contexts.

Also, Nixon was elected in 1968. He took quite a circuitous route to leaving Vietnam, as box points out.

Perhaps, but it's the same ol' Democratic party. Circuitous or not, Nixon ended what he had a hand in starting. The war machine now in Iraq is in place and chugging along, and without military experience, Obama will only just be learning to drive it on the job. That causes me, as a veteran, more worry for the enlisted than anything McCain is likely to do.

Beyond all that, whoever of the two is elected will be a damn sight better than what the US has endured these past 8 years. As long as the House stays Democrat and the Senate stays Republican, I will be satisfied. The federal government must learn to leverage its bureaucracy efficiently without the benefit of throwing easy money at the country's problems, and a president hamstrung by a split Congress is a good place to start.

It took Nixon to stop it.

There were a few soldiers who deserve a little credit, too.

Funny, the current president doesn't seem to be hamstrung by a Democratic Caucus-controlled congress.

It's interesting that you use the phrase, "the Senate stays Republican". The majority may be rather small, and Sen. Lieberman may vote increasingly conservative, but regardless he still caucuses with the Democratic Party.

Also see: pollution of US bureaucracy with political appointees. I agree that a well-oiled bureaucracy is the savior of US politics, but it's undoubtable that the character of the POTUS does play a rather large role in the efficient and non-political make-up of our bureaucracy.

One more thing: it didn't take a veteran to start the war, and I don't think it'll take a veteran to end it. That is the job of diplomats, not soldiers.

As long as the House stays Democrat and the Senate stays Republican, I will be satisfied.

Get used to disappointment. The Democratic Party already has majorities in the House and Senate, and they're going to extend those majorities in the fall (and hopefully kick Lieberman to the curb).

It took Nixon to stop it.

Yeah, his "secret plan to end the war" turned out to be "I don't have a plan."

Any positive impressions I had about McCain in the 90s were erased by what a brown-nosing toady he's been during this century.

but it's the same ol' Democratic party.

1968 was forty years ago; the party elders of that time are long gone.
The situation is not the same, either.

Obama is neither LBJ nor some anti-war hippie. My impression is that he will use the experience of our career military leaders to guide decisions. He's not an idiot lefty, though I'm sure we'll see a smear campaign to paint him that way.

This moderate, red-state independent is voting for Obama.
Even though McCain would have been much better than Bush, there's too many important issues at stake to let someone like him in charge now.