Despite noting "flak" McCain got "for sort of flip-flopping and trying to court the right," John Harwood asserted that "maverick brand is intact"

Summary: On Morning Joe, John Harwood asserted that Sen. John McCain's speech on the economy "trying to go after ... corporate greed" demonstrated that his "maverick brand is intact," and that "this is a guy who has established a brand for himself that has endured ... despite that phase in 2007 when he was getting a lot of flak for sort of flip-flopping and trying to court the right." However, The Washington Post reported that "tax cuts, mostly for corporations and wealthy individuals, remain the centerpiece of McCain's economic agenda."

On the April 16 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, during a discussion of Sen. John McCain's April 15 speech on the economy, host Joe Scarborough asked CNBC's chief Washington correspondent John Harwood, "John, how is Senator McCain's act wearing on Americans?" Harwood responded: "John McCain's act is going to wear very well. Look, this is a guy who has established a brand for himself that has endured, Joe and Mika, despite that phase in 2007 when he was getting a lot of flak for sort of flip-flopping and trying to court the right." Harwood continued: "The maverick brand is intact for John McCain. We saw it yesterday, trying to go after corporate CEOs, corporate greed -- that's something you don't expect to hear from a Republican nominee. And I think John McCain is going to wear well." By contrast, in an April 16 article headlined "McCain's Plan for Working Class Offers Plenty for Corporate World," The Washington Post reported that "McCain played to his maverick image, taking corporate chieftains to task for their 'extravagant salaries and severance deals,' " but reporters Michael D. Shear and Jonathan Weisman also wrote that "much of what [McCain] detailed was a corporate special pleader's dream: a cut in the corporate income tax rate, from 35 percent to 25 percent, a proposal to allow businesses to write off the cost of new equipment and technology from their taxes, a ban on Internet and new cellphone taxes, and a permanent tax credit for research and development." The article also stated that "tax cuts, mostly for corporations and wealthy individuals, remain the centerpiece of McCain's economic agenda."

Harwood is not alone in the media in designating McCain a "maverick," despite what Harwood identified as his "sort of flip-flopping" and pandering to the right.

From the April 16 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

SCARBOROUGH: John, how is Senator McCain's act wearing on Americans?

HARWOOD: John McCain's act is going to wear very well. Look, this is a guy who has established a brand for himself that has endured, Joe and Mika, despite that phase in 2007 when he was getting a lot of flak for sort of flip-flopping and trying to court the right. The maverick brand is intact for John McCain. We saw it yesterday, trying to go after corporate CEOs, corporate greed -- that's something you don't expect to hear from a Republican nominee. And I think John McCain is going to wear well.

From the April 16 Washington Post article:

"In my administration, there will be no more subsidies for special pleaders, no more corporate welfare," McCain said.

But much of what he detailed was a corporate special pleader's dream: a cut in the corporate income tax rate, from 35 percent to 25 percent, a proposal to allow businesses to write off the cost of new equipment and technology from their taxes, a ban on Internet and new cellphone taxes, and a permanent tax credit for research and development.

[...]

But tax cuts, mostly for corporations and wealthy individuals, remain the centerpiece of McCain's economic agenda.

—T.A.