I haven’t been able to find him actually saying “I’m a maverick” but here’s a campaign ad where the announcer describes John McCain as a Maverick and then we hear McCain’s voice immediately afterwards saying “I’m John McCain and I approve this message.” Pretty damning. 
This Huffington Post article links to several examples of McCain himself or his campaign ads using the word.
I’m somewhat kidding. His running mate said it of him very often, so obviously he was fine with the description.
And that’ll do it.
YES!!
Arizona citizens are pretty stupid. They live in Arizona.
What I don’t get, if I consider this at all seriously (and that’s a painful prospect unworthy of much effort) is why? What good does it do him to disavow his former mantle of mavericky maverickness? What does he think he gains by this disavowal?
He’s trying to position himself as a party loyalist and a dependable conservative. He’s basically saying he can be relied upon not to cross the picket line and work with Obama.
He was lying both times. During the last election, he was saying he was a maverick, while pretty much toeing the party line. The Maverick thing was just to get the independents.
But now he’s saying he never was a maverick, which is also false. Prior to the last election, he was considered a fairly liberal Republican. In fact, that’s why he picked a staunch conservative for his running mate: to balance it out. I don’t know how many Republicans told me that they were voting between two “socialists”, just that McCain wanted to be more gradual.
And, yes, Dio explains why he’s doing it now. And I think he could actually convince people who’d never heard of him before the past election, as remember, his policies were 90% the same as Bush.
Huh. What he comes across as, given Dio’s explanation, is a desperate man Romneyfying himself to save his political ass.
He’s doing the Reverse Maverick! 
Seriously though, this is pathetic. The guy has a lot of money, 7 houses according to the last election campaign, and married to a multimillionaire. Why do people who seem to be decent people outside of politics became these irritating shit stains when in politics? McCain should simply tell AZ voters that he’s going to work with the other side like it or not, because America can’t afford having one party as completely obstructionist. If he gets voted out, fine, but at least he’ll have some dignity left
I like my own favorite Jack McCoy quote better: “Are you stupid? Or do you just think we are?”
Are you talking about the time the GOP said that the health care bill was awful because federal involvement in health care was the worst thing imaginable and because it would weaken medicare?
The GOP isn’t known for being entirely honest, but this Orwellian doublethink seems to be a recent development.
“We’re at war with East Asia. We’ve ALWAYS been at war with East Asia.” 
Isn’t a maverick a freaking COW, anyway?
I tend to think of it as a card player, myself. Grandpa and his stupid westerns…
Hey!
…Fuck it, I can’t deny it. 
I’ve often said I would have voted for McCain had he won the 2000 primaries over Gore, but he seemed a different man back then than he did in 2008 and after.
McCain and Hayworth are really competing for that Republican nomination. The way this race has been going it appears lying to your base polls really well in the GOP.
*“Grandpa”!? * Get off my LAN!
Unbranded range animal-steer, calf or cow.
I’ll bet he is branded-The Frozen C.
On the bright side, Arizona is no Texas!
He’ll announce that he’s suspending his campaign any day now.