Jim Angle starts the reporting on the ongoing Rev. Wright saga. Rev. Wright appeared at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and by all accounts kept the controversy alive. Major and Carl report on how it is playing on the campaign trail for Democrats and John McCain.
New Orleans, LA:
Though Hillary Clinton’s big win over Barack Obama was THE story out of Pennsylvania, there were candidates on the GOP ballot too.
John McCain has long since clinched the Republican nomination so the Keystone primary results are basically irrelevant as evidenced by the 800 thousand votes that were cast in the Republican race, as compared to the more than 2.2 million Democratic ballots cast BUT….
McCain got 575,000K votes or 73 percent. Ron Paul, who did a little campaigning in Pennsylvania received 125,000 votes or 16 percent. And Mike Huckabee won 90,000 votes for 11 percent.
Huckabee endorsed McCain weeks ago and will campaign publicly for John McCain starting Friday in Little Rock.
Paul raised surprising amounts of money last year, and still has plenty to spend but has given no indication that he intends it.
McCain has used this uncontested time to work on GOP unity, self definition, and expanding his party with gutsy visits to Selma, Alabama to court black voters and Youngstown, Ohio to give unemployed blue-collar manufacturing workers some straight talk about the need to retrain for new jobs that will last and compete in the new economy.
The fact that McCain, without serious competition, only got 3/4ths of the GOP votes in a key general election bellweather swing state may cause some to speculate that he’s still having trouble unifying his party…but from the moment his major rivals dropped out major polls including Gallup have said more than of 80 percent of GOP voters are comfortable with McCain.
There is little doubt that Republicans will rally around McCain (and against Democrats) in the general election…if he is to win however it will require Independents and Reagan Democrats. It is his efforts to court THEM that may matter most…
Youngstown, Iowa:
The latest Gallup poll shows President Bush’s job approval has a hit a new low – 69 percent disapprove, the highest disapproval that Gallup has ever registered for any President, including Richard Nixon.
A tough environment for John McCain who acknowledged in Youngstown Ohio that all the attention to the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania has him just a wee bit overshadowed:
“It’s a big news day in politics, with the Pennsylvania primary and all. And I’ve been left recently in the unfamiliar position of facing no opposition within my own party. As you might recall, it was a different story last year, when I could claim the unqualified support of Cindy and my mother — and Mom was starting to keep her options open. Back then, there were some very impressive frontrunners … there was a very formidable second tier of contenders … and then there was me. As I recall, a few pollsters even declared my campaign a hopeless cause, and there was no margin of error to soften the blow.
But a person learns along the way that if you hold on — if you don’t quit no matter what the odds — sometimes life will surprise you. Sometimes you get a second chance, and opportunity turns back your way. And when it does, we are stronger and readier because of all that we had to overcome.
I bring up all this because the men and women of Youngstown know what it feels like to be counted out. You’ve been written off a few times yourselves, in the competition of the market. You know how it feels to hear that good things are happening in the American economy — they’re just not happening to you.”
Youngstown has been plagued by steel industry job losses and home mortgage foreclosures are the worst in the nation.
McCain called for aggressive job retraining programs & proposed reforming the unemployment system by creating new buffer accounts for each worker using unemployment insurance taxes in case of a sudden job loss.
McCain says tax cuts, less regulation, free trade and investment in new green technologies in the new economy will be a big part of the solution.
Per usual McCain blasted democrats Hillary Clintoin and Barack Obama as out of touch for wanting to raise taxes and curb free trade during a recession, which McCain says proves they don’t understand history or economics.
It’s here! If you missed Carl’s and Major’s stories of the day on Special Report with Brit Hume, you can now see it on Cameron’s Corner!
While Sen. Barack Obama sought to improve his relationship with the Jewish community today by meeting with leaders in Philadelphia, comments by a Hamas political adviser this weekend could potentially hurt the Democratic presidential candidate.
During an interview on WABC radio Sunday, top Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef said the terrorist group supports Obama’s foreign policy vision.
“We don’t mind–actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance,” Yousef said in response to a question about the group’s willingness to meet with either of the Democratic presidential candidates.
For his part, Obama criticized former President Jimmy Carter’s decision to meet with Hamas, telling Jewish leaders Wednesday that “Hamas is not a state, Hamas is a terrorist organization.”
“We must not negotiate with a terrorist group intent on Israel’s destruction,” Obama said. “We should only sit down with Hamas if they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel’s right to exist, and abide by past agreements.”
While the IL Democrat has condemned Hamas, an endorsement from a top leader in the group is probably the last thing Obama needs right now.
Pittsburgh, PA:
John McCain makes a populist economic pitch and offers some relief today at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
The gas tax holiday is part of the short term economic stimulus plan, he will push in Congress as a senator this year, but he has long term plans for his presidency too.
“I will send to Congress a reform to increase the exemption – with the goal of doubling it from 3,500 dollars to 7,000 dollars for every dependent, in every family in America”.
McCain would eliminate the alternative minimum tax entirely.
“I will also send to the Congress a middle-class tax cut – a complete phase-out of the Alternative Minimum Tax to save more than 25 million middle-class families more than 2,000 dollars every year.”
There is help on the way for small businesses too:
“I will send to Congress a proposal to cut the taxes these employers pay, from a rate of 35 to 25 percent”.
Young people can look forward to changes in the student loan program designed to make college more affordable.
To pay for it all McCain would freeze non-military & veteran discretionary spending and begin a “prompt and thorough review” of the budgets of every federal program, department and agency. McCain says it will save $100 billion a year.
He’d reform the Medicare Rx drug benefit by charging more to wealthier patients.
“Those who can afford to buy their own prescription drugs should be expected to do so.”
He’d form a Bipartisan commission on reforming social security and medicare and says all options including privatization are on the table.
He hit both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s plans to let the Bush tax cuts expire which he says would amount to the biggest tax hike since the Great Depression.
” All these tax increases are the fine print under the slogan of “hope”: They’re going to raise your taxes by thousands of $s per year – & they have the audacity to hope you don’t mind”.
He slammed both Democrats for opposing free trade and the Columbian Free Trade Agreement
“We can compete with anyone. Senators Obama and Clinton think we should hide behind walls, bury our heads and industries in the sand, and hope we have enough left to live on while the world passes us by”
But he also criticizes the GOP for congressional pork barrel spending and President Bush for not using his veto pen enough.
“For Republicans, it starts with reclaiming our good name as the party of spending restraint. Somewhere along the way, too many Republicans in Congress became indistinguishable from the big-spending Democrats they used to oppose. The only power of government that could stop them was the power of veto, and it was rarely used.”
More to come as Tax Day 2008 unfolds.
Sen. John McCain raised more than $15 million in March for his presidential campaign, more than any month since he started running. It’s way short of his democratic rivals.
He is returning $3 million in donations given for the General election but contributors are being asked to resend the money to his legal fund (see “McCain and the Money” April 4th post). A source says the money was raised primarily from large donors but he did receive $3.2 million from internet and small donations.
Obama raised $40 million for his primary race in March, the majority of which came from small donors. Clinton raised $20 million.
Taken together various steps and utterances from McCain insiders over the last few weeks make it clear he intends to accept taxpayer funded matching funds for the general election.
The FEC check will be about 85 million dollars.
Sorry Sean,
Some conservatives are working hard to kill the idea of a McCain/Mitt ticket.
A petition is circulating on line to squash the Romney for #2 notion.
The site is sponsored by “Government is not God, A Political Action Committee of Social Conservatives.”
You can find their webpage and a full page ad at Govnotgod.org
Barack Obama has raised 95 million dollars in the last 2 mos…McCain’s response? Get ready to accept public financing for the general and blast any democrat that doesn’t do the same as a hypocrit. Remember: Obama and McCain had the political equivalent of a handshake deal last year on this.
The MAC Camp has sent letters to thousands of donors and intends to RETURN about 3 million dollars in contributions made for the general election. The campaign is asking donors to SEND THE BUCKS BACK to McCain’s GLAC fund …a cool insider acronym for the legal and accounting expenses coffer which is actually tallied separately by the FEC.
The problem of course is that the general election matching fund, which is awarded to each candidate after their convention, is likely to be about 75-85 million dollars. The Dems convene in Denver 8/25-8/28. The GOP gather in St. Paul on 9/1. 85 million for each candidate to campaign the remaining two months to election day would seem plenty…but if you could bank twice that in advance would you disarm voluntarily?
Obama has a choice. McCain is preparing as though he does not.
Sorry for the brief hiatus…Camerons Corner is back in full swing 
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