Thursday, February 28, 2008

JOHN MCCAIN

McCain: 'Chris carries on the spirit of his dad with a great sense of humor.'

John McCain, in between fund-raisers and events in Texas, held another conference call with bloggers. Selected highlights:

McCain: My one opening comment is on Senator Obama’s comment that he would consider going back to Iraq militarily if al-Qaeda was establishing a base there. Al-Qaeda has a base there. In the words of patreaus, it is now the central battleground in the fight with the radical Islamic jihadists, and we are winning.

Also, I’m pleased with national polls showing us three points ahead. We’ll have a spirited debate – we’re looking to work hard to win in Texas and Ohio. I respect Gov. Huckabee’s commitment to stay in the race. We’re doing well and are going to continue to work hard.

Matt Lewis: What should conservatives be asking President Bush to do in his final months?

McCain: Keep doing what he’s doing on Iraq and stay the course... Try to work towards energy independence – the price of oil went over $100… They may override a veto, but he should say, ‘we’re not going to allow a single earmark to be allowed again.’

Paul at Powerline: George Will’s column – very critical on campaign finance “towering moral vanity.”

McCain: Will has a bimonthly custom, or maybe now at least twice a month that he has to beat up on campaign finance reform. I understand that and that will be an area of disagreement. I admire and respect him as a voice of conservatism, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. We have taken soft money out of the game. The 527s have nothing to do with campaign finance reform, they have to do with parts of federal law that the FEC will not enforce. I hope there are some areas we agree on.

Paul at Powerline: Will wrote that you refused to shake Brad Smith’s hand?

McCain: It’s true. This individual savaged me and my character and my integrity, on many written and spoken occasions. There was no reason for me to shake his hand. I’m not embarrassed. If someone attacks my character and integrity, I’m not going to shake his hand.

(Reaction from Jim: This is not his finest answer.)

Michael Goldfarb of the Weekly Standard: Any thoughts on the NY Philharmonic going to North Korea?

McCain: The shipments to Syria had marks of North Korean involvement. I hope the starving people in the world’s largest remaining gulag get a chance to see the philharmonic perform. Only a chosen 1400 got to see them perform. It’s okay, but let’s not delude ourselves. The Dear Leader didn’t show up and he’s going to do whatever it takes to remain in power. I’m disappointed in the Chinese on not bringing more pressure to bear.

Q: [After a monologue on the importance of emerging technology] Can you tell the difference and YouTube and MySpace?

McCain: MySpace is social network that people can focused on social networking and establishing relationships… YouTube carries various videos. It includes anything that has ever been embarrassing to someone. Senator Edwards attests to that. I can attest to that.

[I think that’s a great answer for a 72 year old guy.]

Jen Rubin: Eroding bipartisan support for free trade? And any thoughts on William F. Buckley?

McCain: On Buckley, I agree with everything that’s been said. National Review had an impact that has lasted for decades. He was one of the nicest people, one of the most decent people…Chris carries on the spirit of his dad with a great sense of humor…

My mother and father were friends of the Buckleys they stayed with him when he visited Hawaii. They knew him well, I didn’t, unfortunately.

On NAFTA: The far-left is driving this debate in Ohio. We need new education and training for workers.

Me: By the time this general election is done, we’re going to be sick of hearing Democrats quoting your comment about staying in Iraq for 100 years out of context, and using it to hit you over the head. Realizing you don’t want timelines, can you give us a sense of your thoughts on how long should the American people be prepared to have troops in Iraq at these numbers? And how when do we know we’ve reached a turning point?

McCain: Well, we reached a turning point when the surge started succeeding. They will continue to pound that drum. Life isn’t fair. After the war is completed – just like after Gulf War or Korean War we will establish a presence or not establish a presence. We did in Kuwait, where we have a large base. We have one in Turkey, etc., etc. Postwar it’s very possible that we have a military presence. When we can declare victory, I’m not sure when that happens. Iraqis will be struggling with al-Qaeda for a long time. But we are progressing extraordinarily rapidly. In Mosul you’re seeing Iraqi troops going in there. I can envision an operation in the not so distant future where all Americans provide is air support.

We saw another turning point on New Year’s Eve – thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of Baghdad to celebrate [without fear of attacks].

I can’t give you an exact date or time frame, but if we can continue same progress – there will be ups and downs - confident of success, and I am confident we can continue to see a dramatic reduction of American casualties.

Q: Can you be confident that we would reach that point of completing major combat operations in your first, or hypothetically, second term?

McCain: Absolutely. Oh yeah. Absolutely. I understand the frustration of American people. The war was mishandled. But I was pleased to see the USA Today poll up to 43 percent believe surge is succeeding, and a lower number believe it is not succeeding.

RedCounty Magazine: Hillary Clinton hasn’t really succeeded in contrasting her experience with Barack's; will you be able to?

McCain: I will portray stark differences in our positions. By the way, I would not count senator Clinton out. Anybody who has counted the Clintons out in the past has seen otherwise. But if it is Senator Obama, I will be expressing my experience, background and knowledge. We’ll be arguing higher lower taxes vs. higher taxes, bigger government vs. smaller government, a government run health care system or a system based on consumer choice.

He said he would sit down, without conditions, with Raul Castro. People know Raul Castro was the executioner. He’s the bad guy. I will discuss my qualifications but I will not talk down his qualifications.

He used an old joke to sign off, but it still makes me chuckle: “Thank you bloggers. If we don’t have another one of these calls in a week, please complain to my incompetent staff, which is made up mostly of folks we got through a prison work-release program.”

02/28 03:28 PMShare