He was talking this junk before. For some unexplainable reason, Republicans still voted for him, and even try and suggest that he's for small government.
McCain owes the Huckster big time for his nomination. The 'abortion is the only issue we care about period end of story' social conservative voters went for the Huckster, while the rest of the base was split between Romney, Rudy, Fred, etc.
That left the moderates in mostly blue states to decide our nominee. In a nutshell, that's how we got here: couple that with the Drive-Bys constantly shilling for their 'maverick' buddy McCain, and it seems pretty obvious.