John McCain A True Conservative

McCain Articles 12/20/07

ABC News’ Political Radar Blog: Kissinger: McCain Best For 'Difficult And Complicated' Times By Bret Hovell Henry
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/12/kissinger-mccai.html

New York Sun: In A Rare Move, Kissinger Endorses McCain By Seth Gitell
http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=68421&v=2408418911

Union Leader: Polls Show McCain Gains By Garry Rayno
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Polls+show+McCain+gains&articleId=3e6505e5-9ace-4844-afec-c09d34f03ea7

Arizona Republic’s McCain Central Blog: McCain On The Move In New Hampshire By Dan Nowicki
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/DanNowicki/13044

Boston Herald: Meanwhile, McCain Might Pull A Lazarus Act By Wayne Woodlief
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1054894

McCain Media 12/14/07

Salmon Press (NH): New Hampshire’s Salmon Press Endorses Sen. John McCain http://www.salmonpress.com/118241.112113body.lasso

John McCain Articles 12/12/07

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1212wed1-12.html

Arizona Republic: Listen To McCain

Editorial

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http://www.goupstate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20071212&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=712120353&SectionCat=NEWS01&Template=printart

Spartanburg Herald Journal (SC): Sticking To His Guns

McCain believes he's still GOP's best hope

By Jason Spencer

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http://www.greenvilleonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071212/NEWS01/712120376/1011&template=printart

Greenville News (SC): McCain Sets Veterans' Health Care As Priority

Candidate reiterates waterboarding opposition

By Dan Hoover

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http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/12/11/politics/fromtheroad/entry3606304.shtml

CBS News’ From The Road Blog: McCain Blasts MoveOn.org - Again

By Andante Higgins

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http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/12/mccain-vows-he.html

ABC News’ Political Radar Blog: McCain Vows He Won't Let Dems 'Lose This War'

By Bret Hovell

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Associated Press: Swift Says Democrats Will Brand Romney 'Flip-Flopper'

By Glen Johnson
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ Jane Swift, the acting governor whom Mitt Romney elbowed aside to make his own gubernatorial run in 2002, warned New Hampshire voters Tuesday it would be a mistake to nominate her fellow Republican for president because Democrats could eviscerate him as a ''flip-flopper'' in the general election campaign.

''Politics is a definition game. If candidates don't successfully define themselves, others will gladly do it for them. Being defined as a chronic flip-flopper will make Mitt Romney particularly vulnerable,'' Swift wrote in an op-ed piece for The Union Leader, the state's largest newspaper.

Swift, who has endorsed Romney rival John McCain in the nomination contest, said Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton would surely attack Romney for changing his views on abortion, and his emphasis on other issues, if she emerges as her party's nominee.

''In a Romney-Clinton matchup, Democrats need only take a page from the George W. Bush playbook: Undermine the voters' sense that Romney can be trusted by highlighting the number of times he's conveniently changed his mind. And don't forget: He will have to do some more flipping if he becomes the party's nominee. Romney would have to tack back toward the middle _ where most American voters comfortably sit _ in order to win. That might just be a flip-flop-flap,'' Swift wrote.

The Romney camp replied with a tart statement underscoring the enmity between the two former allies.

''You can tell the McCain campaign is in desperate straits when they look down their bench of surrogates and the only person sitting there is Jane Swift, who left the state in worse shape than she found it,'' Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said. ''Mitt Romney turned things around by cleaning up Jane Swift's budget mess, and he has the experience, the vision and the values to fix what's broken in Washington.''

Swift's column completes a trifecta for Massachusetts gubernatorial involvement in the New Hampshire campaign in recent weeks.

Swift's running mate, former Gov. Paul Cellucci, held a rally in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse late last month to accuse Romney of increasing spending and failing to deliver on promised tax cuts during his four years in office. Cellucci is backing former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Last week, the Romney campaign responded by inviting former Gov. William F. Weld to a day of campaign events, where he toasted Romney's fiscal stewardship and urged primary voters to back him. Weld has not only endorsed Romney, but worked vigorously to raise money for him.

In her op-ed, Swift recalls her own political history with Romney.

Swift, then lieutenant governor, succeeded Cellucci as acting governor in 2001 when he resigned to become U.S. ambassador to Canada. She planned to mount her own campaign for governor in 2002, but tearfully stepped aside after Romney returned from the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and made it clear he would challenge her for the nomination.

''As a Massachusetts state senator, I was one of Mitt's early supporters in his 1994 contested primary for the U.S Senate. As acting governor of Massachusetts in 2002, I ended my own campaign for the Republican nomination to give Romney the best opportunity to beat the Democratic candidate that November,'' Swift wrote.

''Once elected governor, however, Romney began his transformation of consciousness. His flip flops on social issues are well documented,'' she added. ''As his national ambitions grew larger, it seems Massachusetts grew smaller in Romney's rearview mirror. The governor who promised to be the salesman-in-chief for his state's economy instead toured the country using us as the butt of his jokes.''

Swift closed with a pitch for McCain that itself included jabs at Romney.

''I have great admiration for John McCain because he sticks to his beliefs, even when they are not politically popular,'' she wrote. ''We disagree on important social issues, but I know where he stands and why.''

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http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/DanNowicki/12401

Arizona Republic’s McCain Central Blog: Cindy McCain: My Husband Can Beat Hillary Clinton

By Dan Nowicki


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http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110010979

Wall Street Journal: That Does Not Compute

Mitt Romney Has A Passion For Data. A Great President Needs A Passion For Principle.

By Jeffery Lord

Mitt Romney loves data and lusts after process.

McCain Articles and Media 12/2/07

The Buzz - Fox News
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah5kEoTXVjg

Union Leader Endorsement - John McCain is the Man to Lead America
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=John+McCain+is+the+man+to+lead+America&articleId=dfca72c2-4a23-49e5-943f-1d85256f45cc

To know him is to, well, come to like him. Really. That is the untold story of John McCain. I should know... Granite Grok
http://granitegrok.com/blog/2007/12/to_know_him_is_to_well_come_to_like_him.html

Washington Post: Principles Amid The GOP Pack
By David Broder
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001788_pf.html

http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/FOX_NH_2008_release113007_web.pdf
Romney 29%
McCain 21%
Giuliani 19%
Huckabee 7%
Paul 4%
Thompson 4%

John McCain - Media and Articles 11/16/07

LOVE AMERICA ENOUGH TV AD
http://www.johnmccain.com/tvads/

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ABC News: Back From Iraq, McCain Focuses On New Hampshire
Republican Contender Attempts to Set Himself Apart From Pack in New Hampshire
By Ron Claiborne
http://www.abcnews.go.com/print?id=3905857

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Washington Post: Decency On Immigration
Apart from John McCain, it's hard to find that quality in the Republican presidential contest.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/23/AR2007112301493_pf.html

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Union Leader: Tom Kean: John McCain Is Best Prepared To Defend And Protect America
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Tom+Kean%3a+John+McCain+is+best+prepared+to+defend+and+protect+America&articleId=ff2d68e4-1808-4137-88e9-c0d369312eef

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Nashua Telegraph: McCain Looks To Rekindle '00 Vibe

By Kevin Landrigan

CONCORD – Republican presidential hopeful John McCain hopes to complete the resurrection of his 2008 candidacy in New Hampshire by starring in a new TV ad cast in an old role – fiery maverick.

The commercial is clearly meant to assure Republican primary voters that even after campaign stumbles, a messy fight over immigration and an unpopular war in Iraq, he remains the same patriot who makes the establishment angry.

McCain, Arizona's senior senator, speaks to the camera during the entire, 60-second ad scheduled to air today on New Hampshire television stations.

"I might not like the business-as-usual crowd in Washington. But I love America. I love her enough to make some people angry," McCain concludes.

The ad highlights McCain's unapologetic support for campaign finance reform and the latest troop surge in Iraq, while railing against pork-barrel spending and the Pentagon's early strategy in the war.

"I didn't go to Washington to win the Mr. Congeniality award," McCain said in the ad. "I went to Washington to serve my country."

McCain produced a similar commercial that aired about the same time as this one eight years ago during his first White House run.

"Sen. McCain is very comfortable communicating directly to the voters, whether it's in his town hall meetings or broadcast messages like this one," said Michael Dennehy, McCain's political director.

"He wants the citizens of New Hampshire to know he's the same guy they saw in 2000, someone who will stand up to the special interests and is no friend of the status quo."

In that 1999 commercial, McCain vowed to fight the special interests, reform campaign finance laws, cut taxes, reduce the federal deficit and save Social Security.

Today, McCain's critics publicly condemn him for joining liberal Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and President Bush to propose a pathway to citizenship for the nation's 12 million illegal aliens.

Those critics also privately question if McCain, 71, can offer a fresh change most voters say they want and if he can defeat a better-financed Democratic nominee in November 2008.

On one level, McCain's ranting at "business as usual" could be seen as a shot at an unpopular president who ignored his sharp criticism and his pleas for more American combat troops early on in Iraq.

"I made the Pentagon angry when I criticized Rumsfeld's Iraq strategy, and I upset the media when I supported the strategy that's now succeeding," McCain declared in the ad.

For McCain, the spot tries to bring him full circle back to the underdog role he played seven years ago against then-candidate George W. Bush and parlayed into a crowning victory in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.

Three weeks after the New Hampshire vote in 2000, Bush routed McCain in South Carolina and coasted to the Republican nomination.

This nostalgic ad ignores the reality that McCain was the early, wealthy front-runner through all of 2006 and nearly half of this year.

By June, however, that had all vanished, thanks to his campaign's own runaway spending, his unpopular stance on immigration with the conservative base and, at times, a more cautious candidate on the stump.

McCain nosed past former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani into second place in the latest independent poll of likely GOP primary voters from CNN/WMUR.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney still holds onto a healthy lead in the survey, though, 33 percent to 18 percent for McCain.

New McCain Clinton Giuliani Map

Updated Condensed Electorate Map Available - Click for larger image.

















Updated Original Electorate Map Available - Click for larger image.

John McCain Articles - 11/19/07

Politico: Tom Kean Endorsing McCain In New Push
By Mike Allen
http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=556BD59F-3048-5C12-001737676DC5411B

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Associated Press: McCain Says It's OK To Make People Mad, Challenges Clinton

By Philip Elliott

RINDGE, N.H. (AP) _ Making people mad is a good thing, presidential hopeful John McCain said Sunday in a speech aimed at playing up the Arizona senator's outsider reputation.

''I didn't seek public office to go along, to get along,'' McCain said, trying to remind voters of the ''maverick'' label that helped him defeat then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in New Hampshire in 2000. ''I went to Washington to get something done for the people who sent me there. And since then, I know I've made some people angry.''

McCain said Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has done everything she can to land on the popular side of most issues.

''On the one hand, Senator Clinton says we can't abandon Iraq to al-Qaida and the influence of Iran. On the other, she wants a firm deadline for withdrawal that would do just that,'' McCain said. ''Senator Clinton rejected unconditional talks with Iran, but now says she would negotiate with no preconditions.''

''I'm the conservative Republican with the best chance of defeating Senator Clinton, or whomever the Democrats nominate, and take on the challenges that confront us,'' the Arizona Republican said. ''I'm as committed today as when I first put on the uniform of our country to the cause that has been the work of my life: the interests and ideals of our country.''

McCain in recent days has urged a respectful debate with Clinton _ who he expects the Democratic party to nominate _ and challenged his rivals to stop taking cheap shots at the New York senator. He returned to that theme during his Sunday evening speech.

''She will be a formidable candidate and while our differences are many and profound, I intend this to be a respectful debate,'' McCain said. ''Senator Clinton and I disagree over America's direction, and it is a serious disagreement. But I don't doubt her ability to lead this country where she thinks it should go.''

A Clinton spokeswoman said McCain's record should give voters pause.

''Senator McCain is right: Voters have a clear choice between he and Senator Clinton,'' Kathleen Strand said. ''He wants to continue Bush's failed policies, and Hillary Clinton wants to change them. He wants to escalate the war, she will end it; she supports universal health care for every American and he opposes it.

McCain also challenged his Republican rivals, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who have played up their executive experience. McCain said character matters.

''There comes a time when a president can no longer rely on briefing books and PowerPoints, when the experts and advisers have all weighed in, when the sum total of one's life becomes the foundation from which he or she makes the decisions that determine the course of history,'' McCain said. ''No other candidate, no other candidate has my experience or the judgment it informs.''

McCain said he would take on special interests, reform the tax code and address entitlement programs that are projected to swell in the coming years. Clinton, he said, would consolidate power in Washington and raise taxes.

McCain ticked through defense contractors he exposed as corrupt, lobbyists whose influence he reduced and reporters he frustrated.

''Yes, I've made a lot of people angry. But I didn't go to Washington to win the Mr. Congeniality award. I went there to serve my country,'' McCain said. ''I might not like the business-as-usual crowd in Washington, and they might not like me. But I love America. I love her enough to make some people angry.''

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New York Times: McCain Takes On Clinton, With An Eye To Civility
By MARC SANTORA
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/us/politics/19mccain.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

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Concord Monitor: McCain Hasn't Lost The Gift Of Gab
He's chatty with press on campaign swing
By Margot Sanger-Katz

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Associated Press: McCain Finds Memories At Pizza Stop

By Philip Elliott

LANCASTER, N.H. (AP) _ A trip to a small-town pizza shop on Saturday became a journey into John McCain's past.

One woman brought out a silver prisoner of war bracelet she wore as a student at the University of Maine at Farmington to raise awareness of McCain's capture. Another man told McCain he served with the Arizona senator's grandfather in World War II.

Kathy Treamer, an independent voter who had never met the Republican presidential hopeful before Saturday, wore the bracelet starting in 1970 or 1971 _ she couldn't recall. She wore it until his release and since then, she's kept it in a jewelry box in her home.

''We would get up and watch the POWs come home on TV,'' she said.

Norman Sanaterre, meanwhile, said he knew McCain's grandfather and served on the same ship during World War II.

''I'm definitely voting for him. I voted for him 2000,'' he said.

McCain said he was surprised to find so many familiar people.

''He knew my grandfather in World War II. He told the story that he was at his post in the general quarters. It was the middle of the night and he was falling asleep. My grandfather, the admiral, told him he had better not go to sleep. That came as shock to him, I'm sure,'' McCain said.

Treamer said she plans to vote but hasn't yet settled on a candidate.

''I'm not a very political person so I have not made any decisions on anything,'' she said. ''I've been following him because of the memories it brought to me.''

The bracelet was engraved with Oct. 26, 1967, the date McCain was taken prisoner while serving in Vietnam.

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Time’s Swampland Blog: Romney Blames...McCain??
By Jay Carney

http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2007/11/romney_blamesmccain.html

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National Review: Did Mitt Romney Push Poll Himself?
A web of connections.
By Mark Hemingway
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2ZkMWNkZDkzOTk1YTM0NTNkNmJlZThmYjJmM2ZmOGE=

McCain from Around the Web

Reprinted from - http://mccain08olc.blogspot.com/2007/11/mccain-from-around-web.html

Halperin’s The Page: Poll: McCain Does Best Against Clinton
By Mark Halperin

Fox News: Fox News Poll: McCain Performs Best Against Clinton; Giuliani, Clinton Hold Double-Digit Leads In Nomination Races
By Dana Blanton

Sacramento Bee (CA): McCain Accepts Governor's Invitation To Debate Global Warming In N.H.By
Peter Hecht

New York Times: McCain Finds Sympathy On Torture Issue
By Marc Santora

Greenville News’ Hoover Blog: DeMint: Rebuke Not Aimed At McCain
By Dan Hoover

Pollster Blog: Poll: SurveyUSA GEs In OH, IA
By Eric Dienstfrey

The Pesky Rented Mule Returns
By The Illinois Review

John McCain Articles 11/16/07

http://thepage.time.com/2007/11/15/poll-mccain-does-best-against-clinton/
Halperin’s The Page: Poll: McCain Does Best Against Clinton
By Mark Halperin
Fox poll also shows McCain considered more trustworthy than Giuliani.
GOP: Giuliani– 33, McCain– 17, Thompson– 12, Huckabee– 8, Romney– 8
Dems: Clinton– 44, Obama– 23, Edwards– 1


http://www.sacbee.com/102/story/495694.html
Sacramento Bee (CA): McCain Accepts Governor's Invitation To Debate Global Warming In N.H. By Peter Hecht

Get Off the Couch for McCain

Reprint from http://mccain08olc.blogspot.com/2007/11/get-off-couch-for-mccain.html

I recieved this e-mail today from Joelle of the McCain Campain. I am taking a week off in (probably) early January to volunteer for the McCain Campaign in NH. If you have six weeks, great. If you have 6 hours, that probably works to.

Can you invest six weeks of your time to make history?

We need you at one of our offices in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan or South Carolina.
If you can relocate to one of the early primary or caucus states, please reply to this e-mail or send your contact information to: mccainvols@johnmccain.com

Thank-you!

Joelle Saliba

Please get back to Joelle if you can answer this call.

She can be reached at mccainvols (at) mccain08.com

John McCain - Articles and Media 11/14/07

Chicago Tribune: The GOP's Happy Warrior
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/chi-oped1114mccainnov14,1,1253569,print.story?ctrack=4&cset=true

Boston Globe: N.H. Poll: GOP Primary Stirring Independents
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/14/nh_poll_gop_primary_stirring_independents?mode=PF

Time’s Real Clear Politics Blog: A Moment For McCain?
Watch new McCain TV ad, called “Outrageous”
http://time-blog.com/real_clear_politics/2007/11/a_moment_for_mccain.html?xid=rss-rcp

McCain Ad - Outrageous
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TR5079To9Y

NYT John McCain - Character Factor

Reprinted from the New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/opinion/13brooks.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

November 13, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
The Character Factor
By DAVID BROOKS
Rochester, N.H.

About six months ago, I was having lunch with a political consultant and we were having a smart-alecky conversation about the presidential race. All of sudden, my friend interrupted the flow of gossip and said: “You know, there’s really only one great man running for president this year, and that’s McCain.”

The comment cut through the way we pundits normally talk about presidential candidates. We tend to view them like products and base our verdicts on their market share at the moment. We don’t so much evaluate their character; we analyze how effectively they are manipulating their image to appeal to voters, and in this way we buy into the artificiality of modern campaigning.

My friend’s remark pierced all that, and it had the added weight of truth.

Eight years ago, it was fashionable for us media types to wax rapturously about McCain. That vogue has passed, but I’m afraid my views are unchanged. I have seen McCain when his campaign was imploding, and now again when he’s rising in the polls. I have seen him shooting craps and negotiating in the Senate. I have seen him leading delegations like a statesman and bickering with his old Hanoi Hilton prison-mate Bud Day like a crotchety old lady.

And I can tell you there is nobody in politics remotely like him.

The first thing that still strikes one about McCain is his energy. In his book, “The Nightingale’s Song,” Robert Timberg runs through primal force metaphors to describe the young McCain. “Being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck,” Timberg wrote.

Prison in Vietnam gave him self-respect and a cause greater than himself, but it didn’t diminish his dynamism. His office in the Senate isn’t tucked away in a tranquil corner of his suite; it’s right in the vortex, and it’s always empty because he’s walking around. Campaigning last weekend in New Hampshire, he was his old restless self, never alone, craving contact, conversation and fun.

Timberg wrote that McCain fought against the system at the Naval Academy as if it were some hostile organism, “as if any compromise meant surrendering a part of himself that he might never retrieve.”

The years and the Senate have smoothed some of his rebelliousness, but he still fights a daily battle against the soul-destroying forms of modern politics.

If you cover him for a day, you’d better bring 2,500 questions because in the hours he spends with journalists, you will run through all of them. Last Saturday, we talked about Pervez Musharraf’s asceticism and Ted Williams’s hitting philosophy, the Korean War and Hispanic voting patterns.

He analyzed the debates he won and the times he was wooden. He talked about his failures as a fund-raiser and said he’d like to pick a running mate with formal economics training because he’s weak in that area. He won’t tell you everything, but there will never be a moment as the hours stretch by when you feel that he is spinning you, lying to himself or insulting your intelligence.

Telling the truth is a skill. Those who don’t do it habitually lose the ability, but McCain is well-practiced and has the capacity to face unpleasant truths. While other conservatives failed to see how corporations were insinuating themselves into their movement, McCain went after Boeing contracts. While others failed to see the rising tide of corruption around them, McCain led the charge against Jack Abramoff. While others ignored the spending binge, McCain was among the fiscal hawks.

There have been occasions when McCain compromised his principles for political gain, but he was so bad at it that it always backfired. More often, he is driven by an ancient sense of honor, which is different from fame and consists of the desire to be worthy of the esteem of posterity.

Other Republicans used to accuse him of kissing up to the news media. But when the Iraq war was at its worst, and other candidates were hiding in the grass waiting to see how things would turn out, McCain championed the surge, which the major Republican candidates now celebrate.

He did it knowing that it would cost him his media-darling status and probably the presidency. But for years he had hated the way the war was being fought. And when the opportunity to change it came, the only honorable course was to try.

And now he pushes ahead, building momentum, but desperately needing a miracle win in New Hampshire. Everyone will make their own political choices, and you might plausibly argue that the qualities John McCain possesses are not the ones the country now requires. But character is destiny, and you will never persuade me that he is not among the finest of men.

That human point seemed worth remembering, even amid the layers of campaign pretense.

McCain Articles 11/12/07

John McCain addresses Senator Hillary Clinton’s wasteful spending at a town hall meeting in Rochester this Saturday
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Multimedia/Player.aspx?guid=b75b3238-43a0-4a18-a897-adb6ef7c417d

Reports: Election 2008: Clinton Vs. McCain & Romney McCain Leads Clinton By Two While Clinton Tops Romney by Five
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_2008__1/2008_presidential_election/election_2008_clinton_vs_mccain_romney Rasmussen

Associated Press: McCain Says Kerik Reflects On Giuliani By Philip Elliott CONCORD, N.H.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/09/AR2007110900949_pf.html

Citizen (NH): McCain Gives, Receives Thanks At Ceremony By Gail Ober BOSCAWEN
http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20071112&Category=GJNEWS02&ArtNo=711120031&SectionCat=CITIZEN&Template=printart Laconia

John McCain Articles 11/09/07

ABC News: Get To Know John McCain
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3832668

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The Hill’s Pundit Blog: John McCain Is Hitting Stride At Right Time By Frank Donatelli
http://pundits.thehill.com/2007/11/08/john-mccain-is-hitting-stride-at-right-time/

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American Spectator: The Comeback Kid By Jennifer Rubin
http://www.spectator.org/util/print.asp?art_id=12282

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Associated Press: GOP Presidential Hopeful McCain Campaigns In Michigan JACKSON, Mich. (AP) _ Republican presidential candidate John McCain stressed Michigan's importance to the Republican party Thursday during a campaign stop. He also said he has the most knowledge, background and experience _ particularly on military matters _ to represent the GOP in the race for the White House. ''Michigan is the heartland of America _ and we can't ignore it,'' McCain said after speaking to an outdoor crowd of a few hundred people in a city that touts itself as the birthplace of the Republican party. ''The state is one that has to be carried by a Republican. ... It is a bellwether state.'' He used the rally to reiterate his long-held support for the military surge in Iraq, while maintaining the war has been ''badly mismanaged.'' McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam from 1967 to 1973, also denounced the interrogation technique of waterboarding as torture. Later, the four-term Arizona senator held a media briefing at the Coleman A. Young International Airport in Detroit and was to fly to New Hampshire Thursday evening. A day earlier, McCain was endorsed by Kansas conservative and former presidential rival Sam Brownback.

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Detroit News (MI): McCain, Campaigning In Michigan, Says No To Torture Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau
http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=McCain%2C+campaigning+in+Michigan%2C+says+no+to+torture&expire=&urlID=24840414&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.detnews.com%2Fapps%2Fpbcs.dll%2Farticle%3FAID%3D%2F20071108%2FUPDATE%2F711080487%2F1361&partnerID=162731

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Arizona Republic’s McCain Central Blog: Women: McCain, Clinton Best For Military Families
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/DanNowicki/10341

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Martin Blog: McCain Ups Buy In Boston Market
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/1107/McCain_ups_buy_in_Boston_market.html Politico’s John

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National Review’s Campaign Spot Blog: In Pennsylvania, McCain, Giuliani Close To Clinton
By Jim Geraghty Quinnipiac
http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OWU1YTlhNTI4M2MxM2JlYzAyMjgzNjlhNmJmODZhNmQ

John McCain Articles - 11/7/07

Associated Press: Former Candidate Brownback To Endorse Republican McCain For President
By Liz Sidoti

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) _ Sam Brownback, a Kansas conservative and favorite of evangelical Christians, will endorse his former Republican presidential rival John McCain, GOP officials said Wednesday. The nod could provide a much-needed boost, particularly in Iowa, for the Arizona senator and one-time presumed GOP front-runner whose bid faltered and is now looking for a comeback. Republican officials said Brownback will announce his support for McCain later Wednesday in Dubuque, Iowa, and then travel with the candidate to campaign in two other cities in the state. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid publicly pre-empting the announcement. It's uncertain how much weight the Brownback's backing will carry; the Kansas senator dropped out of the race last month with little money and little support. While he is a favorite of religious conservatives, he failed to persuade them to embrace him as the GOP's consensus conservative candidate. He spent months emphasizing his rock-solid opposition to abortion, gay marriage and other issues important to the party's right flank, but left the race ranking low in national polls and state surveys. Still, Brownback's backing could signal to evangelical Christians that they can trust McCain and could help solidify McCain's credentials on social issues. The endorsement could be especially important in Iowa, where McCain trails in polls.

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# Arizona Republic: McCain Rises To Second In 3 GOP Polls
By Dan Nowicki
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1107mccain-polls1107.html

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John McCain Unamused With Rudy Giuliani's 'Deprivation'
By David Saltonstall
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/11/07/2007-11-07_john_mccain_unamused_with_rudy_giulianis-3.html

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New York Sun: McCain Backer Chides Giuliani Over Torture
By Russell Berman
http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=65992&v=6413344911

McCain Articles 11/05/07

Watch Sen. John McCain On CNN’s “Late Edition” with Wolf Blitzer
Part 1
Part 2

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http://thepage.time.com/2007/11/04/wash-post-abc-poll-shows-jump-for-mccain/

On Halperin’s The Page: Wash Post-ABC Poll Shows Jump For McCain

Ariz. Sen. moves up one year before election.

GOP: Giuliani 33, McCain 19, Thompson 16, Romney 11, Huckabee 9
Dems: Clinton 49, Obama 26, Edwards 12

Read full results on Bush, Iraq, Congress, national mood here.

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http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/11/mccain_plays_foreign_policy_ex.html

Time’s Real Clear Politics Blog: McCain Plays Foreign Policy Experience Card

By Reid Wilson

Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani are eager to point out that they have the experience necessary to run for president. Both point out that leading Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama have not run a city, a state, or anything bigger than their Senate offices. And while both will not say so, they are indicting rivals John McCain and Fred Thompson with the same charge.

The argument may work for Thompson; he spent just eight years in the Senate and three years as a federal prosecutor. But McCain has spent the better part of thirty years in the Senate and House, serves as the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and has merited pundits floating his name for Secretary of Defense. In short, by any measure, no Republican candidate running for president has the foreign policy experience and credentials McCain boasts.

Watch any GOP debate and that experience gap becomes obvious. McCain "does not suffer fools lightly," said Rutgers political scientist Ross Baker. "He's experiencing a lot of frustration with the other Republicans when it comes to talking about Iraq." McCain's frustration portrays him as the only candidate who has finished the book, and who knows the ending; Giuliani and Romney are halfway through and forecasting an ending.

Other candidates, said Baker, "would just as soon not mention [Iraq], while [McCain] is much more committed to a military solution." McCain is willing, if not eager, to make Iraq the central issue to his campaign. "It's the issue around which, if we fail in Iraq, we fail every place else in the Middle East," McCain told Real Clear Politics. It's all the more important to the former Navy airman "because young Americans are in harm's way," he said.

After a summer in which McCain's campaign was rocked by internal turmoil, the senator saw his poll position improve as focus shifted back to Iraq in September. Many believed his association with the war in Iraq was the cause of that uptick, as he is the Republican who most credibly talks about the issue.

That credibility is something McCain plays up, primarily because he has long been critical of the war's execution. "I'm the only candidate who has enough knowledge and depth to have fought against the Rumsfeld strategy," he says, "even when other Republicans were accusing me" of disloyalty.

"He lives and dies on the, 'I'm more truthful,' and 'I've been there and done that,'" said Wake Forest University political communications expert Allan Louden. "McCain's not supporting [President] Bush, even as he is." McCain's support for the surge in Iraq is "laced with heavy criticisms," he said. To Republican voters tired of the war's mismanagement, "there is an appeal to that."

Contrast McCain's image on the war in Iraq with that of Romney, Giuliani or Thompson and McCain comes out ahead. Thompson, said Louden, seems inexperienced on foreign policy. Romney appears too slick and falsly optimistic. And Giuliani's emphasis on terrorism through the prism of September 11th is "one-note."

McCain's depth of knowledge and experience, from his time as a military man and in Congress, fosters a much stronger image. He takes issue with other candidates' lack of experience, most notably Romney's. "I'm frankly very encouraged by the events of the last seven or eight months," McCain says, speaking of the troop surge. "Governor Romney said, 'Apparently it's working.' It is working!"

Despite the bounce McCain received in September, he remains far behind front-runners in state and national polls. But, thanks to his prime target, Romney, McCain may have an opportunity to climb back into the race. Romney's big spending in Iowa has scared Giuliani into barely competing in the Hawkeye State, preferring instead to make his stand in much friendlier New Hampshire. Thompson has yet to make his presence felt in Iowa either.

Those absences leave a big void that McCain hopes to fill. His camp recently sent two mailings to Iowa caucus-goers, followed by automated telephone calls with a recorded message from McCain himself. "We're trying to compete everywhere," McCain said. "We recognize how important particularly the three early states are." McCain's Iowa state director, Jon Seaton, said he expects a "fairly aggressive" mail program to continue through the caucuses.

McCain would have a difficult time outpacing Romney in Iowa, but he might not have to. By simply placing second in a state many assume is impossibly hostile to him, McCain could benefit from a big boost going into his real target, New Hampshire. And while Romney and Giuliani are contesting the first primary state, McCain still sees the enthusiasm for his candidacy that existed in 2000. "I knew, on a Friday night when there was a Red Sox game in the [American League Championship] Series, and we still had a big turnout, that we were doing pretty well."

It also helps, in some ways, that Romney and Giuliani are aiming more at each other in New Hampshire. "Conventional wisdom, [McCain] has no chance," said Louden. But if Romney and Giuliani begin attacking each other, "he'll be what's left over." After this summer, "you'd think this collapse [of the campaign] will keep collapsing, but that hasn't happened."

Thanks to the war in Iraq, McCain is sticking around, and has even made something of a comeback. The campaign recognizes the success, and judging from McCain's attitude, he will continue, and likely sharpen, the distinctions. "I think I'm the most experienced and qualified, but I certainly respect the others," McCain told Real Clear Politics. "They just don't have the experience."

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Associated Press: McCain Takes Rivals To Task For Lack Of Military Experience

By Liz Sidoti

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) _ John McCain, a Vietnam war prisoner, argued Friday that his top rivals for the GOP nomination aren't qualified to deal with issues like torture _ or to be president in wartime _ because they never served in the military.

The Arizona senator's position on an interrogation technique that simulates drowning _ he says it constitutes torture and is illegal _ puts him at odds with Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson, who haven't taken such a hard line.

''There's a clear division between those who have a military background and experience in these issues and people like Giuliani, Romney and Thompson who don't _ who chose to do other things when this nation was fighting its wars,'' McCain told reporters after touring a shipyard in this military bastion.

He stood in a warehouse and focused on comments Giuliani made Thursday on CNBC. The former New York mayor said ''waterboarding'' should not be used in every circumstance, but he also left the door open to it.

''I'm very reluctant to take away presidential prerogatives and decision making, maybe because I've faced crisis more than the other ones have,'' said Giuliani, who was praised by many for his performance in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

McCain, a former Naval aviator who was tortured in his 5½ years in a North Vietnamese prison, responded: ''Mayor Giuliani just contradicted himself because anybody who has experience in warfare knows that waterboarding is by any definition torture and cannot be condoned. I do not know which crisis the mayor may have been talking about. My experience goes back to the Cuban missile crisis and every conflict we've been in since.''

Then, McCain broadened his broadside to also castigate Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and Thompson, the former Tennessee senator, as well as Giuliani on Iraq. He argued they were ''nowhere to be seen when we were fighting a war with the wrong strategy.''

''I never saw Romney, Giuliani or Thompson say a word about it, except supporting what I clearly pointed out was a failed strategy,'' McCain added. He said he has called for more troops in Iraq since 2003 and saw President Bush embrace that proposal earlier this year. ''I don't think there's any greater indication of experience and knowledge of how wars should be fought and how crisis should be handled.''

All three campaigns dismissed the criticism.

Giuliani's spokeswoman, Maria Comella, said her boss has clearly stated that ''if we're going to defeat the terrorists then we must use aggressive questioning. And in those extraordinary circumstances, the president needs all options available to ensure the safety and security of Americans.''

Romney's spokesman, Kevin Madden, said the ex-governor is focused on the future and has the vision and experience to be president. Madden added: ''We will leave it to other campaigns to make the mistake of merely assigning blame about the past.''

Said Thompson spokeswoman, Karen Hanretty: ''We all respect Senator McCain's military service, however, there are many great Americans who have served this country and not worn its uniform.''

None of the three enlisted. Draft deferments kept Giuliani out of Vietnam while he attended law school and worked for a federal judge; he had twice been eligible for the draft. Romney received a draft deferment while serving as a missionary in France during the war. He was eligible for the draft later, but was not selected. Thompson, with a wife and child, was deferred from service.

McCain assailed his rivals on torture even as he defended his decision to vote for Michael Mukasey's nomination to be attorney general despite being troubled by the nominee's initial answers about waterboarding. McCain said was confident that Mukasey would not allow the method because of answers to written questions in which Mukasey said he did not believe that the president had the authority to violate existing law and that he believed waterboarding was ''a repugnant practice.''

On a three-day tour of this early-voting state, McCain visited Detyen's Shipyard, located on Dry Dock Avenue, and held a question-and-answer session with shipyard employees wearing hard hats and blue jeans as they took a midmorning work break.

He was in the state just as a new Winthrop University/ETV poll showed McCain's support having slipped in South Carolina since August. He's now at 9 percent, trailing Thompson, Giuliani and Romney who are tightly bunched in a fight for the lead.

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http://www.redstate.com/stories/elections/2008/im_off_the_fence_and_for_mccain

Red State Blog: I'm Off The Fence And For McCain

By Charles Bird

This will be my only front-page post in support of a Republican candidate for the nomination. John McCain has little to no chance of getting nominated, but I'm supporting him anyway. My reasons are backing him are a combination of things, having to do with my agreement with him on key issues and for what I see as shortcomings in the other candidates. The slate of candidates is imperfect, so my rationale was to go with the least imperfect one. My three main criteria for picking a president in this election cycle are national security, the economy, and integrity. As I see it, McCain is the most solid of the candidates in those categories, so let me go through them.

More below the fold...

National security. McCain has been stronger than the other candidates on this issue, in my opinion. I believe he is the most right on Iraq and national security. He rightfully criticized Bush and Rumsfeld for undermanning the war effort in Iraq and for our failing strategy, going against most of the other Republican Senators in particular and Republicans in general. Now that we are seeing clearer signs of success via more troops and a more workable strategy, we should give McCain credit for speaking out. We should also recognize that it was Bush who came around to McCain, not the other way around.

I think McCain is also right on the matter of coercive interrogations. Waterboarding, to name one technique, is illegal and it is torture. I'm confident that these methods work, but they're morally wrong and we shouldn't be using them unless there is a ticking time-bomb situation. Less importantly, I don't know how much intelligence we've garnered through such coercion, but I would have a hard time believing that the intelligence benefits received have exceeded the political costs paid, both domestically and internationally. It's a problem. My take is that we can win this War Against Militant Islamism without lowering our standards.

McCain was prisoner of war in Vietnam, and he was tortured, so his opinion about the practice carries a lot of weight with me. What's more, to this day he feels the effects that his captors levied on him. From Vanity Fair:

Like his friend Bob Dole, he tries to minimize his disabilities, but they are serious. He suffered severe injuries when his plane was shot down over North Vietnam 40 years ago; his right knee was broken when his seat was ejected from the cockpit, and both arms were broken in the crash. These injuries were compounded by the profound abuse he endured during five and a half years in captivity.

McCain seldom talks about the details of his torture by the North Vietnamese, but he has written about them in clinical depth. Despite the injuries he had already suffered, upon capture he was promptly bayoneted in the ankle and then beaten senseless. The North Vietnamese never set either of his broken arms. The only treatment of his broken knee involved cutting all the ligaments and cartilage, so that he never had more than 5 to 10 percent flexion during the entire time he was in prison. In 1968 he was offered early release, and when he refused, because others had been there longer, his captors went at him again; he suffered cracked ribs, teeth broken off at the gum line, and torture with ropes that lashed his arms behind his back and that were progressively tightened all through the night. Ultimately he taped a coerced confession.

McCain's right knee still has limited flexibility. Most of the time this is not too noticeable, but McCain mounts the steps onto planes with a herky-jerky gait. A climb up dozens of steps at the New Hampshire International Speedway, in Loudon, leaves him badly winded and sweating profusely. Because his broken arms were allowed to heal without ever being properly set, to this day McCain cannot raise his arms above his shoulders. He cannot attend to his own hair. An aide is often nearby with a comb and small can of hair spray.

McCain has difficulty putting on his suit jacket unassisted. Once, as we prepared to get out of a cramped airplane cabin in Burlington, Vermont, where McCain would be greeted by the governor, I turned my back for a moment, only to find him struggling. He could sense that his collar was all bunched up, and asked me matter-of-factly to help him straighten it out. I felt the pang that those around McCain feel whenever they realize the extent of his injuries. "You comb someone's hair once," his 2000 communications director, Dan Schnur, says, "and you never forget it."

Personally, I don't we should ever forget the sacrifices he made for his country and the injuries he sustained in defending it. When a man has been in such circumstances and vehemently rejects those methods used against him, I think we should listen.

The economy. McCain has a solid record on fiscal restraint and freer trade, both of which are conservative positions. Mike Huckabee's tepid support of free trade agreements is why I can't support him, for example.

Integrity. McCain speaks his mind, and oft times it gets him in trouble. I strongly disapprove of McCain-Feingold, especially the gag order in the 60-day period prior to election day, but I think his intentions were in the right place. I wouldn't judge too harshly against McCain about the bill. After all, George W. Bush signed the damned legislation into law. McCain is conservative on social issues, but not boisterously so.

Why not the other candidates? Giuliani has public integrity, but I'm troubled by his personal integrity. I'd rather not have a president on his third marriage and I'd rather not have a president who personally donated money to Planned Parenthood. He made soothing noises about appointing conservative judges, but Giuliani is too left-leaning for my taste.

For Romney, I think he's weaker than McCain on national security. As for Fred Thompson, he's probably my number two choice. But last July, Thompson was bombarded with negative news stories and he barely answered any of the charges. For a media-familiar character, Thompson has not handled media situations well. Thompson has similar positions as McCain on national security, but McCain gets the nod because he has more experience.

Immigration. McCain turned off a good number of conservatives by his support of the immigration bill last summer (I was mildly in favor of it). McCain has said that he has learned his lesson and that he would support "enforcement first" provisions. I take him at his word, just as I take Giuliani at his word that he would appoint judges in mold of Roberts and Alito.

Gang of 14. Many conservatives were irked about the Gang of 14 (and still are), but I'm telling you, liberals hate it even more. The dKos crowd was neutralized by this agreement, and we have two new conservative judges on the bench today. The results speak for themselves.

McCain's drawbacks. If elected, he would be 73 on inauguration day. But hey, 73 is the new 63.

McCain's temper and temperament have been issues. In 2000, I sided with Bush because I thought he had a better temperament for the job than McCain. In retrospect, I think I overemphasized that attribute. Back then, I voted for Bush over McCain because Bush came across as the more conservative candidate. Boy, was I wrong. In the last seven years, the person who has clearly made more conservative choices was McCain, not Bush.

Anyway, I've been angry and irritated with McCain's various antics over the years, but I gave him a second look and found his positions on the important stuff more than acceptable. I think all other conservatives should take that second look as well.

McCain Articles Maps and Media 11/1/07

McCain more Competitive Against Clinton Than Giuliani - State stats and map
http://www.johnmccain.com/downloads/stratmemo103107.pdf

TV Ad - Guts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avYy40eD7H0

New McCain TV ad highlights corruption fight
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/DanNowicki/9829

Fox News: John McCain Stresses Opposition To Mandatory Health Insurance
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,307101,00.html

Politico’s Martin Blog: McCain Mail Hits SC
http://images.politico.com/global/mccain%20sc%20mail.jpg


National Review’s Campaign Spot Blog: Team McCain's Strategy Memo: Only Our Guy Keeps Conservatives AND Beats Hillary

By Jim Geraghty

Since this cycle began, Rudy Giuliani has promoted himself as the most electable Republican candidate against Hillary Clinton.

A little while back, we noted that GOP voters were starting to see Fred Thompson as almost as likely to beat Hillary. Of course, the suggestion that Hillary Clinton gets about 48 percent against all of the top candidates, including Ron Paul, might argue that electability is a fairly small distinction among the top GOP candidates this year.

The McCain camp is ready to make the case that their man is the one who is most electable where it counts. And they’ve got nifty colorful graphics to prove it in their latest Strategy Memo, found here.

Their argument relies on Survey USA polls from fourteen states matching Hillary Clinton up against Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, conducted since mid-October. Expecting the argument that other polls may show better head-to-head matchups for other candidates, the memo from Rick Davis argues, “It is important to use a single polling company to evaluate states across the country so that you do not pick and choose polls that might be favorable. For the purposes of this analysis we have standardized using the Survey USA Polling firm that has run the most state‐by‐state polls across the country.”

In a nutshell, they say that there are three states where McCain performs better than Giuliani where both lead Hillary significantly: Arkansas, Kansas and New Mexico.There are four states where McCain beats Hillary, but that Giuliani loses: Virginia, Washington, Ohio and Kentucky.

There are three states that McCain is trailing Hillary, but still matches up better than Giuliani does: Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Missouri. In two states they do equally lousy against Hillary: Iowa and Oregon.

And their central point is the states that Giuliani performs better than McCain – New York and California, are two states where Hillary is way ahead anyway.

Is the argument compelling? In its broadest outlines, yes. Some will quibble about using only SurveyUSA, but polls have generally shown McCain running fairly well head-to-head against Hillary nationally, and he’s always demonstrated a certain capacity to bring over independents. (The L.A. Times, polling registered voters instead of likely voters, put her up by 10. Among recent polls of likely voters, Hillary’s up 1, up 1, up 2, up 6, and up 2.)

There are a few results a little surprising in this mix – would McCain really perform better than Giuliani in Washington state? And they’re both are losing Missouri right now? If the Show-Me State is looking blue in 2008, it’s going to be a tough year for the GOP.

We can pick at the details, but I think this memo is the birth certificate of a new argument from the McCain camp that GOP primary voters ought to chew over: “Some of my rivals match up well against Hillary (Giuliani); some of my rivals won’t irk social conservative Republicans (Thompson). I’m the only one who can do both.”

(How did I get my hands on this McCain campaign strategy memo? I knifed one of his guys in an alley.)