David Jackson, USA Today
- Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Sunday that he favors a proposed referendum in Arizona that would ban affirmative action, reversing a position he took a decade ago.
It’s the latest example of McCain changing positions that had once put him at odds with conservative Republicans, including his new proposals to extend President Bush’s tax cuts and expand offshore oil drilling.
In 1998, McCain described an anti-affirmative action effort in his home state as “divisive.” On Sunday, McCain backed a proposed amendment to the Arizona Constitution that would ban “preferential treatment” on the basis of “race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.”
