Repeat this mantra every day: McCain is not a moderate maverick

As John said right after the last election:

Besides picking our candidates and races, I think the most valuable thing most of could do is to help shape the conventional wisdom. We blog, we write letters to the editor, we talk up our relatives, neighbors, and co-workers. We should try to take down the straight talking St. McCain and the weak-on-defense Democrats narratives. It's never too soon to start casting doubt on the Republicans we plan to target; broken promises are the most effective critique. And, of course it's never too soon to start talking up the candidates we support.(bolding mine)

Yes, explaining that McCain is just as nutty wingnut as the rest of them is important because many liberals still believe that he is somehow a "moderate".

Amanda agrees this is an important media construct to demolish and gets started:

So, here's the action item on McCain, because, as Marc points out, spreading the truth about McCain is the big task for the next two years for genuine progressives. Find out who you know that is generally liberal and still has some weird affection for John McCain. And here's the three things to tell them to clarify what a nightmare he is:

1. John McCain is to the right of all Democrats in Congress and many of the Republicans.
2. He is an anti-choice extremist with a 0% rating from NARAL.
3. His campaign finance "reform" amounted to banning the money the parties get for raising awareness of issues, getting out the vote, and registering people to vote. In other words, McCain banned the money that made elections about the issues while protecting the right of lobbyists to buy individual politicians.

Three simple talking points that make is super-clear that John McCain's reputation as a "maverick" is a media myth that has no basis in reality. We've got two years to spread the word. (Read the whole excellent post for more detailed information)

Start spreading the word!