Carl Cameron sat down with John McCain and talked about a wide range of issues including the financial bailout, Gov. Sarah Palin and PBS journalist and Vice Presidential Debate moderator, Gwen Ifil….
On Gov. Palin qualifications for the second highest position in the land, John McCain was unequivocal and utterly confident in her capabilities and dismissed the “press attacks” as not worth responding to.
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McCain also said he was not concerned about Gwen Ifil’s ability to have a fair and objective debate tomorrow between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin following reports that she was writing a book to be released on Inauguration day called “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.”
Obama calls criticism of spouses unfair, HRC says she will continue until there is a nominee, Major reports. Carl follows McCain as he accuses Obama of foreign policy inexperience.
John McCain came to Columbus, Ohio to outline his vision of America and the world after four years of his presidency. His campaign also launched a new web ad highlighting that expansive vision of:
The Middle East stabilized.
Nuclear terror threat reduced.
Border security strengthened.
Energy independence advanced.
Wasteful spending reformed.
Health care choice delivered.
Economic confidence restored.
“By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won.”
Internationally, McCain boldly predicts Al Qaeda in Iraq will have been defeated, Afghanistan will ALSO be stabilized and NO Major attack will have occured in the US since 9-11. He forecasts stunning diplomatic successes negotiating the elimination of stubborn rogue nuclear threats that have for yrs been unresolvable.
“Concerted action by the great democracies of the world has persuaded a reluctant Russia and China to cooperate in pressuring Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, and North Korea to discontinue its own.”
McCains economic forecast is all sunny skies too. He assumes implementation of aggressive tax and spending cuts and that congress will have adopted his domestic agenda.
“The United States has experienced several years of robust economic growth, and Americans again have confidence in their economic future.”
While Obama advocates hope, McCain predicts triumph: ever expanding global free trade will have made up for US job losses in manufacturing and other sectors
“New free trade agreements have been ratified and led to substantial increases in both exports and imports.”
McCain assumes cooperation with congress…on a host of long deadlocked issues, energy independence, revamping the tax code, public education, healthcare, medicare, even Social security.
“The reforms include some form of personal retirement accounts in safe and reliable index funds, such as have been available to government employees since their retirement plans were made solvent a quarter century ago.
Despite ardent opposition from his own party NOW to what many call amnesty for illegal immigrants McCain anticipates victory on comprehensive immigration reform which would include provisions for a guest worker program.
“the American people accepted the practical necessity to institute a temporary worker program and deal humanely with the millions of immigrants who have been in this country illegally. “
Only toward the end of his remarks does McCain acknowledge political opposition and how unlikely such wholesale success will be…he blames it on partisanship and the seemingly unending election cycle.
“This mindless, paralyzing rancor must come to an end. We belong to different parties, not different countries. We are rivals for the same power. But we are also compatriots. “
This almost idealistic and hopeful tone is sure to draw sharp reaction from the Dems!
Hillary Clinton vows to stay in the race even as political pundits call it all but over. Major takes a look at that story but first Carl sat down with Col. Bud Day and talked about his time sharing a cell with Republican presidential hopeful, John McCain in the Hanoi Hilton.
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.
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.
Pittsburgh, PA:
John McCain makes a populist economic pitch and offers some relief today at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
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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.”
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.
At his victory rally after handily winning Wisconsin, there was no confetti and little raucous music but McCain flanked the stage with young people following post Potomac Primary criticism of the image of him surrounded by old members of the party establishment.
In his victory speech he attacked Obama HARD.
See our own Embed producer, Mosheh Oinounou’s write-up on the predicted win.
Merger or No Bailout? Detroit’s Big 3 pitch corporate overhauls as they seek aid, but Congress could impose more-severe conditions | VIDEO• RAW DATA: GM Remarks | Chrysler | Ford• FOX Car Report: Is Bailout Buggy Worth It? | PHOTOS• FOX FORUM: Can We Trust Congress to Build a Better Car?
Treasury Eyeing Mortgage Plan Financial industry pushes program aimed at lowering rates on 30-year mortgage to 4.5%, reviving battered housing market
Report: Line-Cutting Dispute Led to Wal-Mart Trampling A line-cutting dispute among shoppers who waited for hours outside a New York Wal-Mart and those who stayed inside their cars led to the stampede that killed a worker for the store, Newsday reports.
Columbus, Ohio:
