From an article about John McCain in The New Republic (1/27/00) entitled, "This Man is Not a Republican."
...At a GOP debate in Grand Rapids, Michigan, McCain confronted the class-warfare charge head-on. "I am deeply concerned about a kind of class warfare that is going on right now-- it's unfortunate--there's a growing gap between the haves and have-nots in America, and that gap is growing and it is unfortunately divided up along ethnic lines." In the right-wing mind, class warfare, by definition, is committed against the rich; it cannot be committed by them. McCain's use of the term to describe the opposite phenomenon shows just how perverse his thinking has become.McCain's own tax-cut plan, while giving nearly all its benefits to the wealthiest two-fifths of taxpayers, is radically progressive for a Republican proposal; Bush would give almost 37 percent of his tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent of Americans, while McCain would grant them almost nothing. And even this understates the difference, because McCain would offset at least half the cost of his tax cuts by eliminating corporate tax subsidies. (This is not just populist but also good economics, since most of those subsidies represent inefficient government intervention in the market.) Since the subsidies McCain targets mainly benefit the very wealthy--who own the bulk of stock--his plan genuinely redistributes wealth from the rich to the middle- and upper-middle classes.
Today, McCain rails against "spreading the wealth," something he advocated (and voted for) most of his career.
What happened to the 2000 edition of John McCain, the "straight talk" candidate who believed in progressive taxation and redistributing wealth, to change him into a rigidly lockstep Bush/Cheney "supply side" believer? Eight words: He. Wants. To. Be. President. Before. He. Dies.
A few more words: John McCain "did a 180" on taxes when he realized that this was the only way he'd get the Republican nomination in 2008 was to appease Rush Limbaugh, the "Club for Growth", and other elements of the hard-right "base." In short, McCain made a Faustian bargain, sold his soul, and now is in the last gasp of trying to be someone that he wasn't for most of his career.
Who is the REAL John McCain? The scary thing is, we don't have any idea.