It's hard not to appreciate the coincidence of Mike Peters' July 20 cartoon featuring John McCain in one panel calling Barack Obama a flip-flopper and then upside down denying he made the accusation in the next panel, placed beside Jack McVey's letter about Obama's flip-flopping.

The flip-flopper label is one that worked well for the Republicans in 2004, and those who haven't quite made it to 2008 are determined to make it work again.

Space does not permit addressing each of McVey's charges, but they're easily enough refuted with a minimum of research. A quick look through FactCheck.org will dispel most of them but I'll mention a few.

Those who accuse Sen. Obama of flip-flopping about withdrawing from Iraq weren't paying attention when he said repeatedly during the primaries, "We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were reckless going in."

Obama cut his ties with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright only after Wright threw him under the bus. Over the same period of time, Sen. McCain had to cut ties with two evangelical preachers whose support he actively courted. The difference is that neither of the evangelical preachers was McCain's actual pastor because, as far as anybody knows, he doesn't have one.

Controlling guns and banning guns are not the same things.

Sen. Obama supports free trade as long as it's fair trade.

My favorite part of McVey's letter is the ending where he advises us to look for new positions from Sen. Obama "on the Bush tax cuts, offshore and ANWR drilling and nuclear energy," the first two being among Sen. McCain's most notorious reversals.

If McVey wants to make this about flip-flopping, that's a discussion we're happy to have.

Kevin Smith, Aberdeen