OTTAWA, June 21, 2008
Analysis: McCain Hampered By Missteps
Controversy Dogs GOP Candidate As Campaign Pushes Towards General Election
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Photo
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., boards his campaign jet before leaving Ottawa, Canada, Friday, June 20, 2008. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
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Photo Essay
John McCain
Some call him a hero, some a maverick. Will Americans call him Mr. President?
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In-Depth
VP Hot Sheet: McCain
CBSNews.com ranks the top contenders to be McCain's running mate.
Call it campaign growing pains. Or bad luck. Or a combination of the two.
By any name, Sen. John McCain is hampered by missteps and self-generated controversy in the early days of the general election campaign for the White House.
Take his most recent trip through several states and the Canadian capital, a five-day span during which he courted conservatives and independents alike, raised more than $10 million and began detailing his considerable differences with Sen. Barack Obama on energy policy.
Still, on Tuesday, he criticized his rival for proposing a windfall profits tax on the oil industry. The attack was complicated by McCain's earlier statement that he would consider the same thing.
The following day, he met with a group of Hispanics in Chicago. Aides who had kept word of the event secret were placed on the defensive within hours after one participant criticized some of McCain's comments.
On Thursday, the Arizona senator flew to Iowa, a likely battleground state in the November election, where he expressed sympathy with victims of severe flooding and pledged support for federal recovery aid. The event was overshadowed by President George W. Bush's appearance elsewhere in the same state on the same day.
Friday's trip to Canada brought more controversy.
McCain arrived aboard his chartered campaign jet, yet told reporters at a news conference, "this is not a political campaign trip." The senator added he did not feel it was appropriate to have the government pay "while I am the nominee of my party."
The centerpiece of the six-hour visit was a speech to the Economic Club of Canada that amounted to a cross-border political attack. McCain criticized Obama, without mentioning him by name, for his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"Demanding unilateral changes and threatening to abrogate an agreement that has increased trade and prosperity is nothing more than retreating behind protectionist walls," he said.
McCain's schedule also included mention of an unspecified "finance event." While that is customarily campaign jargon for a fundraiser, foreigners may not donate to U.S. candidates, and one aide was quoted in advance as saying that money from $100-per-person event would simply defray the cost of the earlier luncheon.
The non-fundraiser, which may or may not have cost $100 to attend, was held on the top floor of a building with a commanding view of the city skyline. McCain said he knew some of those in attendance had homes in Arizona in the cold weather, and at one point, referred to his campaign themes of "reform, peace and prosperity."
Even some Republicans have cringed in recent weeks at the campaign's efforts to ramp up for the fall campaign, although they will speak only privately.
McCain's aides minimize the difficulties.
One top aide, Mark Salter, said if McCain had not gone to Iowa, he would have looked indifferent to "a great natural calamity and the suffering it has caused." The senator has frequently criticized President Bush for his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.
Salter also said McCain had told the Hispanic audience nothing about immigration that he hasn't told dozens of town hall audiences. He blamed the dustup on a member of the Minuteman organization that opposes giving illegal immigrants any path to legal status.
Salter noted that the speech in Canada contained no overt mention of Obama.
McCain himself told reporters late in the week he remains opposed to the windfall profits tax.
Not that Obama and the Democrats weren't trying to stir controversy at every step.
By the time the sun fell on the day of the Iowa trip, an aide to Gov. Chet Culver said the Democrat had privately relayed a request to McCain to cancel his plans to avoid diverting law enforcement personnel from recovery efforts. Salter said the visit had been cleared in advance by local officials.
And McCain was still on Canadian soil when the Democratic National Committee announced it was filing a Freedom of Information Act request for State Department records detailing the involvement of Ambassador David Wilkins during the trip.
That sort of guerrilla tactic is routine in any presidential campaign. Republicans spent much of the week, for example, drawing attention to Obama's announcement that he would reject public campaign funding for the general election, a major reversal.
And in truth, no candidate can expect to make it through a grueling presidential campaign without suffering one or two self-inflicted wounds - the most grievous of which are far worse than anything that has happened to McCain.
Republican President Gerald Ford's declaration in 1976, at the height of the Cold War, that there was "no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe" was a memorable one.
Or more recently Democratic Sen. John Kerry's decision to go windsurfing in 2004, an event that Republicans turned into a metaphor for a politician who shifts with the wind.
Obama himself spent days in the Democratic primary race trying to explain away remarks he made at a closed-door fundraiser that small-town Americans who were bitter over their economic plight turned to religion.
Republicans took notice of that one, and Obama can expect to hear more about that moment in the fall.
Arguably, McCain has yet to make that kind of gaffe despite enduring a candidacy of remarkable adversity in which he went from front-runner to the campaign cellar and back again.
And for all the talk his critics like to stir about his temper, he never betrayed a hint of displeasure as he made his campaign rounds during the week.
Not even when one man at a Minnesota fundraiser upbraided him for opposing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"Thank you for that question," McCain replied.
David Espo covers presidential politics for The Associated Press.
© MMVIII, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 250 CommentsAt this time in the 1988 Presidential Election, Mike Dukakis was leading George H W but about the same margins Barack is currently leading. And if memory serves me, Mike lost.
So all McCain has to do is wait for the Democrats to pass this FISA bill. Then, McCain can just sit back and watch as the DNC collapses - yet again.
Pelosi and Clyburn have once again proven they are frauds. Now We the People wait on Reid and Obama.
If you learned to read English, thank a soldier.
If you learned the Koran during your first 7 years of schooling, you must be named Obama.
Want to talk about fraternizing - just look at Bush/McCain they''re the ones that were buddies with Hussein!
Posted by king_quest at 03:31 PM : Jun 21, 2008
Yeah, Why should I be afraid of Muslims?? It''s not like they have killed over 7,000 Americans just in the last 7 years or anything! Oh, wait, yes they have.
There, I communicated in a way that all the young Obama supporters can understand
Like OMG, Like stop bugging me, like I''''m only 12
If you are 20 years old and not a liberal, you have no heart!
If you are 40 years old and not a conservative, you have no brain!
If you are 14 years old, drinking red bulls in your Spiderman under roos, then you must be an Obama supporter posting on this blog!
Democrats voting against lowering gas prices:
Chair: Norman D. ***** (WA)
James P. Moran (VA)
Maurice D. Hinchey (NY)
John W. Olver (MA)
Alan B. Mollohan (WV)
Tom Udall (NM)
Ben Chandler (KY)
Ed Pastor (AZ)
Dave Obey (WI), Ex Officio
Republicans voting for lowering gas prices:
Ranking Member:
Todd Tiahrt (KS)
John E. Peterson (PA)
Jo Ann Emerson (MO)
Virgil H. Goode, Jr. (VA)
Ken Calvert (CA)
Jerry Lewis (CA), Ex Officio
From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That%u2019s how many days the Senate was actually in session and working. Of course he has the highest "Not Voting" moral cowardice statistics in Senat history but...
After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World, and fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan.
143 days
%u2014 I keep leftovers in my refrigerator longer than that.
My friends we do not need health care, we need to Bomb the the sick with Naplam! It worked well in Vetinam.
My friends my wife is a "C"!
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McFeeble can''t even remember his own positions, poor thing....
Now, however, he has lost most of that respect (from both parties) because of his constant flip-flopping on almost every thing he once stood for.
He sometimes appears to be unaware of the fact that much of what he says today plainly contradicts what he had said previously.
Anyone can, and indeed should, change their mind/opinion when confronted with new information that disproves or contradicts their previously held position on a given subject, but McCain has changed, back and forth, on too many things, just during this campaign, to be attributable to new enlightenment.
The sheer number of incidents can only be attributed to deliberate dishonesty or mental infirmity (senility) and either one should be considered disqualifying for a presidential candidate.
Posted by ShawnHussey at 04:39 PM : Jun 21, 2008
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LOL Yeah right!! LOL I have a chance of becoming the King of England too... About as much chance as John McBush has of becoming President! SIEG HEIL BUSH!!
Posted by von_marko at 04:15 PM : Jun 21, 2008
SO YOU think this is a bad thing?? I''ve had enough of the Politician''s like McSame who have been bought and paid for by Lobbiest. It''s time we put one of our OWN in office... someone who''s been out here in the real world and knows what it''s about. Nope sparky! You give the VERY best reason of all, the VERY reason the Government was designed by our Liberal Founders.. to be governed by one of THE PEOPLE!! Sieg Heil Bush
%u201CThere%u2019s one big difference between me and the others%u2014I won%u2019t take every last dime of the surplus and spend it on tax cuts that mostly benefit the wealthy. I%u2019ll use the bulk of the surplus to secure Social Security far into the future to keep our promise to the greatest generation.%u201D
%u2014McCain campaign commercial, January 2000.
%u201CMr. President, the principle that guides my judgment of a tax reconciliation bill is tax relief for those who need it the most%u2014lower- and middle-income working families. I am in favor of a tax cut, but a responsible one that provides significant tax relief for lower- and middle-income families. And I commend Sen. Grassley for moving in that direction. But I am concerned that debt will overwhelm many American households. That is why tax relief should be targeted to middle-income Americans. The more fortunate among us have less concern about debt. It is the parents struggling to make ends meet who are most in need of tax relief.
%u201CI had expressed hope that when the reconciliation bill was reported out of the Senate Finance Committee, the tax cuts outlined would provide more tax relief to working, middle-income Americans. However, I am disappointed that the Senate Finance Committee preferred instead to cut the top tax rate of 39.6% to 36%, thereby granting generous tax relief to the wealthiest individuals of our country at the expense of lower- and middle-income American taxpayers.%u201D
%u2014Senate floor statement during debate over President Bush%u2019s tax relief package, May 21, 2001.
"...Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and a few Washington leaders of the pro-life movement call me an unacceptable presidential candidate. They distort my pro- life positions and smear the reputations of my supporters.
Why? Because I don%u2019t pander to them, because I don%u2019t ascribe to their failed philosophy that money is our message."
McCain - 2/28/2000
Webb said that he had been considering changing his bill to include a transferability option. But instead of working with him, McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) went ahead and introduced an opposing bill. While it did have transferability, it also had less generous educational benefits.
This was never the real reason Bush and McCain opposed the legislation. Their constant complaint was that Webb%u2019s version was too generous and would lead to a drop in military retention:
McCain: %u201CI want to make sure that we have incentives for people to remain in the military as well as for people to join the military.%u201D
Bush administration: %u201CThe last thing we want to do is provide a benefit %u2014 or the last thing we want to do is create a situation in which we are losing our men and women who we have worked so hard to train.%u201D
As the CBO concluded, these claims about retention were inaccurate. The Pentagon also argued that it was too generous to confer benefits on troops after %u201Conly%u201D two years of service, and legislation offered by McCain and his Senate allies would have reserved the most generous benefits for those who have served at least 12 years, excluding most servicemembers.
Yesterday, House leaders in both parties struck a deal on a war supplemental bill that includes expanded college benefits for veterans. The GI Bill is Sen. Jim Webb%u2019s (D-VA) version, as well as a provision allowing troops to transfer the benefits to family members. President Bush has promised to sign the legislation.
Now, however, Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) %u2014 the two most vocal opponents of Webb%u2019s bill %u2014 are trying to take credit for it. They are claiming that they always supported the generous benefits %u2014 their main concern was just ensuring the benefits%u2019 transferability:
McCain: That has always been my primary concern with respect to the Webb bill. %u2026 With the addition of the transferability provisions sought by Senators Graham, Burr, myself and others to give service members the right to transfer earned G.I. Bill benefits to spouses and children, we will have achieved in offering vastly improved educational benefit.
Bush: Throughout the past five months, President Bush and members of his Administration have worked hard to ensure that an expansion of GI benefits includes transferability. %u2026 The President is pleased that Congress answered his call.
(CONT)
Posted by cbscrash07 at 06:48 PM : Jun 21, 2008
+ report abuse
Well tell all of us here WHERE exactly does McSame differ from Bush! If there is ONE thing MOST American''s can agree on it''s that we need to take this nation in a different direction. "Trickle Down" and the Bush Economic Plan was a complete FAILURE!! McSame want''s to continue that! What about Social Security. Since the PEOPLE completely REJECTED the attempt by Bush the whole thing has been dropped. McSame agrees with Bush on "Fixing" Social Security. Then there''s Medicare.. Same thing there... as is the case with Health Care, Iraq and so on! Please do not say the PERSON who IS proposing a CLEAR path out of Trickle Down and Bush''s policies when McSame want''s to keep selling the same tired old lines. IF I hear ONE more Fascist say they are going to Cut Taxes, Cut Spending and Balance the Budget, I''m going to HURT someone. THEY HAVE NEVER DONE IT YET!! Sieg Heil Bush
McCain, March 2003
%u201CI%u2019m not for, quote, privatizing Social Security. I never have been. I never will be.%u201D
McCain, June 2006
Riigght! That''s how Obama graduated from Harvard law school, editor of law review, because he''s like Paris Hilton.
The only reason McCain was not thrown out of the Naval Academy is that his daddy was a rich admiral and the Naval Academy knows which side its bread is buttered on.
In fact, McCain''s rich admiral daddy may have been the only reason that McCain got into the Naval Academy in the first place.
While Paris Hilton is Republican material--born to an ultra-rich family, never accomplished a thing in her life, graduated from the University of ********.
%u201C...the estate tax is one of the most unfair tax laws on the books.%u201D
John McCain
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