McMaverick Gets Snippy Over Taxes As Second NH Debate Looms [Video Added: Mitt Wins Huge]

I suggested on Thursday that Romney ought to spend the weekend (and the debates) doing little other than bashing McCain on this issue, and McCain's discomfort in discussing it only lays barer his vulnerability here.

McCain's tax record is the perfect specimen of the arbitrarily ankle-biting maverickdom that makes him so far out of the Republican mainstream and such a frequent party pariah.  And his double-speak about standing by his opposition to the 2003 tax cuts, while simultaneously supporting their extension, becalms whatever wind he had in his "Mitt's a flip-flopper" sails.

John McCain forgot to take his debate game face off when he testily engaged a New Hampshire voter at a campaign event today.

The voter, a registered independent who didn’t identify himself, asked McCain why the Arizona senator changed his position on President Bush’s first-term tax cuts and said McCain was in “purgatory” with independents for not being fiscally responsible enough. McCain voted against the tax cuts when they were passed in 2001 and 2003, but now thinks they should not be rolled back. “I don’t believe increasing taxes is anything that we can do for the American economy right now,” he said.

The senator then bristled at the notion that he changed his position — a charge he zinged at Mitt Romney at Saturday’s debate. McCain interrupted the questioner at least twice.

The soft-spoken man, who said he has supported McCain since the senator was “at 3% in the polls” said, “it was just a huge disappointment to see you change your position. I’m just,” then the senator cut him off.

“First of all I didn’t change my position,” McCain said. “But go ahead. You can say it, but it’s not true. But go ahead.”

I'll be watching (but not live-blogging) tonight, so I'll point you to the usual haunts.  Michelle's debate thread is up and running and Hot Air will likely have a series of video posts in addition to the primary thread.  And I presume that Mary Katharine Ham will once again be blogging at the scene.

Update:  That's the stuff.  Highly effective contrast offered by Romney tonight, not only on the tax issue, but executive leadership and general class warfare, all of which served him well against Huckabee and McCain.  The post-debate segment with pollster Frank Luntz and a roomful of New Hampshire undecided voters suggests Mitt hit it out of the park.  The overwhelming majority of them changed from undecideds to eager Romney supporters by the end of the night.