Is McCain flip-flopping? Of course he is. He is running, hard, for the presidency (though he says he will decide about that later), and he is taking the steps that are absolutely essential if he is to win the Republican nomination. But he is far from the first politician to have done so, and accusations of hypocrisy are a bit unfair. He has always had an independent streak, which is a key aspect of his personality. (As a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he refused early release as the son of an admiral.) Given his family's military background, his basic views are almost certainly conservative. Of course, how they might manifest themselves in the White House is problematic, and it may be relevant to note that he also has a famous temper.
To be sure, his current swing to the right on many issues may disenchant the liberal media and many of the independents and Democrats who have hitherto been among his strongest supporters. And it may not even convince the Republican conservatives he has so often disappointed, and whose support is essential to his nomination.
In addition, he faces a serious competitor in Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is enormously attractive on television and carries far less baggage than McCain in terms of liberal opinions. And if Romney's Mormonism proves more than the GOP's evangelical Christians can stomach, Virginia Sen. George Allen stands ready to offer an alternative whose 2004 rating by the American Conservative Union was 92 out of a possible 100.
But right now, by lining up squarely on the conservative side of so many issues, John McCain is making himself an even more formidable candidate for his party's nomination.