McCain Denies the Obvious

From Liz Sidoti at HuffPo:

“We’re succeeding. I don’t care what anybody says. I’ve seen the facts on the ground,” the Arizona senator insisted a day after a roadside bomb in Baghdad killed four U.S. soldiers and rockets pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone there, and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide. The events transpired as bin Laden called on the people of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to “help in support of their mujahedeen brothers in Iraq, which is the greatest opportunity and the biggest task.”…

“I’m offering them the record of having objected strenuously to a failed strategy for nearly four years. That I argued against and fought against and said that the secretary of defense of my own party, and my own president, I had no confidence in. That’s how far I went in advocating the new strategy that is succeeding,” McCain told reporters.

From FOX News:

Among people who identified themselves as Hillary Clinton supporters, 28 percent said they would vote for McCain if Obama is his opponent, the March 7-22 Gallup Poll Daily election tracking survey found.

The same poll found that 19 percent of Obama supporters would switch sides and cast ballots for McCain if Clinton is the Democratic candidate.

I voted twice against Bill Clinton. I also voted against Al Gore and John Kerry. I may vote against John McCain.

From the NYT on a mortgage bailout:

“it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers.”…

“Rampant speculation” on both sides is the root cause of the crisis, Mr. McCain said. He placed part of the responsibility for the mortgage mess on lenders, who he said had grown “complacent” in a rising market and as a result acquired a “false sense of security” that caused them to “lower their lending standards.”…

“Some Americans bought homes they couldn’t afford, betting that rising prices would make it easier to refinance later at more affordable rates,” he said. Later he added that “any assistance must be temporary and must not reward people who were irresponsible at the expense of those who weren’t.”…

“They have been asking the government to help them out,” he said. “I’m now calling upon them to help their customers and their nation out.”

From Joel C. Rosenberg at NRO:

If the general election were held today, McCain would lose the Christian vote to the Democratic nominee — 36 percent to 45 percent — with 19 percent of Christian voters currently undecided.

Among Protestants, McCain pulls even with the Democrats at 40 percent. But the Democrats have a whopping 32-point lead over McCain among Catholics.

Among white evangelical Protestants, McCain is doing better (51 percent to 28 percent), but clearly they have not rallied behind him at this point.

From USA Today, quoting McCain’s upcoming foreign policy speech:

When nations seek to resolve their differences by force of arms, a million tragedies ensue. The lives of a nation’s finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer and die. … Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war. However heady the appeal of a call to arms, however just the cause, we should still shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us.

Bernard Chapin at Pajamas Media makes lemonade:

Only John McCain can forestall the country’s descent into a Lyndon Johnson netherworld wherein every expressed complaint equates with a “government solution.” He is no magic wand, but until conservatives find a means of cloning the cells of Ronald Reagan, we must acknowledge that the former aviator offers America the best hopes of averting a progressive — read: regressive — nightmare.

From FITS News on the VP choice:

“It won’t be Sanford,” said the McCain advisor, who showed FITSNews maps and excerpts from the memo, but would not provide us with a copy of the document. The advisor also confirmed that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham offered Sanford a spot on McCain’s shortlist in exchange for his endorsement of the Arizona Senator prior to the South Carolina presidential primary this January. Sanford obviously refused that offer, reportedly telling Graham that he could “get on the shortlist without McCain’s help,” and that the only way he would lend his endorsement prior to the primary (which McCain won without Sanford’s help), was if the No. 2 spot on the ticket was offered.

In addition to addressing the VP speculation, the memo also suggests that McCain abandon the conventional GOP campaign stategy of “securing the right” (i.e. the party’s evangelical base) prior to focusing on independent voters during a general election. Instead, the three-word strategic theme of McCain’s campaign, “Secure the Center,” is a radicial departure from the campaign strategy employed by every Republican candidate since Gerald Ford. The memo also anticipates – and in fact seeks to stoke – the inevitable outcry such a centrist strategy would bring from conservative talking heads like Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh, noting at one point that their “vocal indignation” would actually help attract the more moderate voters McCain is targeting.

Phil Gramm is a very bright man. Joe Lieberman is the obvious choice:

As members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the pair grew close while traveling together on congressional trips much like the one they took to Europe and the Middle East last week. Their friendship took root as they became regulars at the Wehrkunde conference, a Munich confab held every February that draws military and security experts from around the world.

From The JPost:

Lieberman and McCain view the current geopolitical reality and America’s role in it in the same way. They understand that we are at a critical juncture in history and that, like it or not, America is the only power on the planet in a position to lead the West in putting down the existential threat of Islamo-Fascism. Yes – existential threat – particularly when the self-proclaimed leader of this movement, the Islamic Republic of Iran is frantically pursuing a nuclear weapons program. It is not only Israel that has cause for concern; the Arab states of the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula, the emerging, newly liberated Iraq, the democratic regime in Turkey and the world at large is in Iran’s bomb-sites.

It’s the neocon ticket. With Texanomist Gramm as TreasSec, it’s also the neoliberal ticket. But it can be more elegantly described as the Bush III ticket.

From the Turkish Daily News:

Democrats will most likely win the United States presidential elections on Nov. 4. President George W. Bush will be out, and no Bush III will come in.

The Republican administration is bankrupted from bloody foreign politics, military investments have caused economic instability in the U.S., and Americans do not like war….

The government change will, of course, have repercussions around the world, positively influencing Turkey, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Kosovo and Islamic countries.

When Bill Clinton was president, for instance, Palestinians were free of Israeli pressures. Iraq and the Middle East lived in peace and calm for almost a decade.

But as the Republicans came to power, bloody scenarios began immediately. Let’s cross our fingers and hope the Republicans will never run the U.S. again.

Fox News has video of McCain’s admiration for Karl Rove. From the 11-1-02 CounterPunch:

The 2000 GOP primary was a chance for Rove to hone his skills in dirty tricks. His target then was Senator John McCain who appeared to be within striking distance of Dubya in South Carolina after the then-GOP maverick’s surprise upset victory in New Hampshire. Rove’s operation proceeded to target McCain with false stories: McCain was a stoolie for his captors in the Hanoi Hilton (this from a lunatic self-promoting Vietnam “veteran”); McCain fathered a black daughter out of wedlock (a despicable reference to McCain’s adopted Bangladeshi daughter); Cindy McCain’s drug “abuse”; and even McCain’s “homosexuality.”

From David Paul Kuhn at Politico:

Several big-name Bushies are lining up to boost McCain.

John McCain is getting much more than President Bush’s endorsement and fundraising help for his campaign. He’s getting Bush’s staff.

It’s no secret that Steve Schmidt, Bush’s attack dog in the 2004 election, and Mark McKinnon, the president’s media strategist, are performing similar functions for McCain now.

But other big-name Bushies are lining up to boost McCain, too.

Ken Mehlman, who ran Bush’s 2004 campaign, is now serving as an unpaid, outside adviser to the Arizona Republican. Karl Rove, the president’s top political hand since his Texas days, recently gave money to McCain and soon after had a private conversation with the senator. A top McCain adviser said both Mehlman and Rove are now informally advising the campaign. Rove refused to detail his conversation with McCain.

The list could grow longer. Dan Bartlett, formerly a top aide in the Bush White House, and Sara Taylor, the erstwhile Bush political adviser, said they are eager to provide any assistance and advice possible to McCain.