I sat in on Sen. McCain’s blogger conference call this afternoon. Here are the highlights:
McCain called in from Michigan where he addressed a meeting of the Detroit Hispanic Business Community this morning. The Senator believes his campaign is moving along well (and voiced pleasure regarding the success of his “No Surrender” tour), but realizes that the road ahead may be long and difficult.
Jennifer Rubin remarked that while he has improved his showing in New Hampshire, that progress has not translated to Iowa yet and asked if he had considered reallocating funds to Iowa and Michigan. McCain answered that money has never been a factor in his campaigns and that he has enough resources to do well. He is not know as well in Iowa as he is in South Carolina and New Hampshire, but hopes to change that with addition visits to the state.
He was then asked about the approaching 40th anniversary of being taken as a prisoner of war. McCain joked that perhaps he should take to the skies of Vietnam again to see if they would like to take another shot at him. McCain stated that in all honesty, it will be just another day for him. If he marks it in any way, he will do so be speaking with some old friends.
Asked what should be done about Burma, he replied that pressure should be exerted on China to help resolve the situation, as they would have the greatest influence. We need to tell China they have to stop supporting this regime. Trade and economic sanctions have to be involved. Burma has a lousy economy because they have a lousy government. McCain said that firm, decisive action needs to be taken against the thugs who run that country. Human rights violations and the slaughter of monks is totally unacceptable.
Captain Ed then asked why he skipped last night’s minority issues debate, sponsored by the Covenant with Black America. McCain stated that he had a major event in New York City that was scheduled well in advance of receiving an invitation to the debate, but he would be open to attending such a debate in the future. Regarding his appeal to minorities, he stated that he would rest on his record of advocacy for greater opportunity and a better future for all Americans. He pointed out that military service has provided great opportunity, and that many of our military’s greatest hero’s are minorities. He has always fought for equal opportunity for all Americans, and fought for recognition of MLK day in AZ. Despite the fact that the vast majority of the leadership of African American community are Democrats, the Republican Party is the party of opportunity. Many African Americans think the Republicans do not care about their future, so hard work must be done to show them otherwise.
Jim Geraghty asked for his response to the starling development of the Democratic Top Tier’s refusal to commit to troop withdrawl from Iraq in their last debate. McCain attributes this to the “Petreaus Affect”. General Petreaus has done well in communicating the success of the new strategy to the American People.
Asked for his reaction to Hillary Clinton’s proposal to give $5000 to every child born in America, McCain quipped that he would like to give every kid $100,000 if we could find a way to responsible way to pay for it. Simply raising taxes and passing the responsibility to pay for such a program on to future generations is not in the best interest of our nation.
That’s it for this week. Sen. McCain stated he will try to do another blogger call next Friday.
