Sen. John McCain says he is a “straight talker,” but he isn’t. For example:

He criticizes government entitlement programs and health care, but he has been receiving $58,000 a year in disability payments, and has had government health care his entire life.

He touts his foreign policy experience and yet is pathetically ignorant of the world. While being interviewed on national television recently, he was asked if he believed “the situation in Afghanistan is precarious and urgent.” His priceless response: “We have a lot of work to do, and I’m afraid that it’s a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border.” Iraq and Pakistan are 1,500 miles apart.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said his belief is that Barack Obama’s withdrawal policy “would be the right time frame for a withdrawal,” and is more realistic than McCain’s plan, which extends the stay of U.S. troops. In 2004, McCain said that if the Iraqi government asked the U.S. to leave, we should leave. So will McCain be adopting Sen. Obama’s time frame for withdrawal?

These are but a few of the inconsistencies in McCain’s words and actions, but I suppose we shouldn’t expect much from a guy who graduated fifth from the bottom of his class.

Any wonder Obama already holds a 10 percent lead over McCain in Maine? That number will only continue to grow each time McCain opens his mouth.

Dave Chirayath, Lewiston