LAS CRUCES, N.M., Aug 21, 2008
No Single-term Pledge For McCain
Politico: Republican Rejects Suggestion Some Allies Believe Would Allay Questions About His Age
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In-Depth VP Hot Sheet: McCain CBSNews.com ranks the top contenders to be McCain's running mate.
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In-Depth VP Hot Sheet: Obama CBSNews.com ranks the top contenders to be Obama's running mate.
John McCain stated unequivocally in an interview with Politico Wednesday that he would not pledge to serve only a single four-year term, rejecting a suggestion that some allies believe would allay questions about his age and underscore his non-partisan message of putting country first.
“No,” McCain said flatly, “I’m not considering it.”
There has been speculation that McCain, 71, could couple a single term promise with a untraditional running mate such as Democrat-turned-Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman to make the case that he would shove political interests aside and run a consensus-oriented government with the Democratic-held Congress.
McCain did, though, sketch out in a half-hour conversation in this college town not far from the Mexican border what his presidency would look like, drawing implicit contrasts with President Bush in the process. Speaking to Politico just after finishing a town hall meeting, the Arizona senator vowed closer relations with Congress, a more open dialogue with the American people and a commitment to address some of the thorniest issues facing the country.
But he declined to outwardly criticize Bush and flatly stated that he wouldn’t do anything as president to underscore his difference with the unpopular incumbent.
“I don’t have any need to show that I’m different than President Bush,” McCain said when asked if he’d take any steps after being elected to demonstrate where he’d diverge from his predecessor.
McCain made plain, however, that he would aim to take a far more transparent and consensus-oriented approach than Bush, whose promise to be a uniter, not a divider, was unfulfilled.
“First thing I’d do [as president] is to go to see the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate - I assume that that would be Sen. Reid, I hope not, but I think that’s probably the reality of this election - and I would say let’s have an agenda, let’s work together, we know what the solutions are and we know what the options are - Social Security, on restraining spending, on Medicare, on all of these, energy independence, on all of these issues,” McCain said when asked how his approach to governance and politics would differ from Bush.
He promised he’d give the Democratic leaders “all the credit” and cast the bipartisanship as a win-win for all parties.
“Let’s show the American people…that there are opportunities for us to work together for the good of the country,” McCain said. “And I think that they would benefit as much or more as I would.”
McCain added: “I’m not being elected dictator - I’m being elected president. And you have to work with Congress. And they know the priorities as well as I do.”
As for those priorities, and specifically what the two parties could accomplish together in the first 100 days of a McCain presidency, he touched on spending cuts and entitlement reform before talking in more general terms.
After the interview, his traveling press secretary sent an email message clarifying what the Republican’s goals would be after being sworn in.
"Senator McCain's priorities during the first 100 days of his administration include ensuring a safe and secure nation, implementing a plan of action to get the economy moving, and reforming Social Security and Medicare for the sake of future generations,” said Brooke Buchanan.
McCain made no specific mention of the economy in his initial answer, only speaking of making “the country safer both from domestic and foreign challenges.”
Discussing the public image of his prospective administration, McCain promised to take a series of extraordinary steps to increase his access to citizens.
He said he’d do “Question Time” along the sme lines of the British Prime Minister’s regular appearances before Parliament in the House or Senate chamber “once every couple weeks.”
Further, he reiterated a campaign pledge he made during the primary to hold weekly press conferences and expanded upon that proposal.
McCain said he’d take to C-SPAN “all the time” to offer “a full and complete explanation of what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.”
It was something that would have been valuable in recent years, he noted.
“During the war in Iraq, once the surge started anyway, if I’d have been president, I would have gone on C-SPAN once a week,” McCain noted. “I’d say, ‘Here’s Iraq, now here’s what’s happening, here’s why Basra is so dangerous, here’s what’s going on in Ramadi.”
McCain has, however, severely limited access to reporters during this election campaign - a radical shift from his freewheeling, anything-goes approach to media relations in his 2000 presidential run and during the primary earlier this year.
Reminded that he had remarked unfavorably this year about the sort of guarded and on-message approach that he’s now taking - deriding as 'unfun' a campaign in which he was sequestered from the press behind a curtain on an airplane - McCain was tight-lipped.
“We’ll continue to try to get more access to the media,” he said, tightly.
As for where the “old McCain” was, the senator hinted that he preferred being competitive to offering the sort of open exposure that delights reporters but often drowns out the campaign’s preferred message of the day and can also lead to embarrassing gaffes.
“I think there’s a lot of excitement, particularly in the last couple of weeks as we’ve come up in the polls,” he said, reminding that “the object of it is winning.”
McCain also suggested that, had Obama taken him up on his proposal to hold joint town halls, the increasingly negative contest would have been more high-minded and journalists would not be frustrated with the well-packaged campaigns.
“You would have, as the media, been happier because you’d have seen us together,” McCain said. “And when you’re standing on a stage with somebody, this is my political experience, it’s hard to be quite as tough on them when you’re looking them in the eye. It’s when one of your surrogates is out there, et cetera.”
By Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen
Copyright 2008 POLITICO
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See all 27 CommentsPosted by midvale3 at 02:02 PM : Aug 22, 2008
50 is the new 40. Live with it, assclown. BTW, I''m sure it wouldn''t be an issue for you if it were a bedwetting democrat.
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Posted by caren3333 at 03:51 PM : Aug 21, 2008
Lets see 2 terms = 8 yrs + 71 = 79 at the end of his term. The only thin a 79 year old needs to be doing is a greeter at WalMart or watching the Weather channnel.
With the Democratic Convention in Denver just days away, Italian Vanity Fair magazine tracked George Hussein Onyango Obama to a 6ft by 9ft wooden shed in Kenya.
The difference in the men''s lifestyles could not be more dramatic. Mr Obama, 47, travels the world with an army of bodyguards, whilst his brother defends himself with his own bare hands on the rough streets of Haruma, a Nairobi shanty town.
%u201CIf anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed,%u201D George told the magazine.
"No-one knows who I am. I live here on less than a dollar a month.
"I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist."
George, at 25 the youngest of Obama%u2019s father%u2019s seven children, has met his famous big brother just twice.
He was just five when Mr Obama visited Kenya for the first time in 1988 and made a special trip out to his mother Jael%u2019s shanty home.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1047399/Barack-Obamas-half-brother-discovered-Kenya-living-dollar-month.html
With the Democratic Convention in Denver just days away, Italian Vanity Fair magazine tracked George Hussein Onyango Obama to a 6ft by 9ft wooden shed in Kenya.
The difference in the men''s lifestyles could not be more dramatic. Mr Obama, 47, travels the world with an army of bodyguards, whilst his brother defends himself with his own bare hands on the rough streets of Haruma, a Nairobi shanty town.
%u201CIf anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed,%u201D George told the magazine.
"No-one knows who I am. I live here on less than a dollar a month.
"I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist."
George, at 25 the youngest of Obama%u2019s father%u2019s seven children, has met his famous big brother just twice.
He was just five when Mr Obama visited Kenya for the first time in 1988 and made a special trip out to his mother Jael%u2019s shanty home.
How could anybody consider voting for this elitist who''s so far out of touch that he thinks one earning less that $5,000,000 a year is middle class and has so many houses that he doesn''t even know how many it is. His economic plan is to help the rich and big oil. The rest of us don''t matter to him.
Mainstream Media journalism is biased according to the special interests of the political and corporate sponsors attached to that particular media source. News reports are carefully groomed and edited to comply with those special interests. Our government has become the biggest political influence on the media, with strong funding and sponsorship ties.
Media bias can be and is used to alter the reality of the world around us, covertly shaping our opinions and decisions to fit into the status quo. Propaganda, cover-ups, skewed facts, manipulated polls %u2013 powerful tools used by corporate media to control and deceive the American public.
Today these machinations are working at a feverish pitch, focused on steering the presidential election to an outcome that will favor the corporate media, its special interests and the government forces controlling it.
Despite the facts that McCain does not know who is fighting who in Iraq, where Afghanistan is, that both Yugoslavia and Chechoslavakia no longer exist, and even how many houses he (and/or his wife) own, McCain intends on staying in the White House for as long as the Great Emperor Bush II has, if not longer, even if he must be embalmed in Geritol!
When asked that maybe his age would be a factor since it is becoming apparent that he is having trouble remembering how to tie his $500 shoe laces, McCain stated that his daily regimen of Geritol, almonds, and blueberries, has made his mind as sharp as the ex-Attorney General''s, Alberto (The Great Gonzo!) Gonzales.
He immediately launched into his memories of his days as a POW at the "Hanoi Hilton" stating that he was "tortured" 24/7 (and learned to LOVE IT!), fed mashed beetles and rotten uncooked rice (which are now standard meals in the USSA military thanks to KBR), given daily electric shocks (now provided to the USSA military free-of-charge by KBR!), and dreamt of how much money (from lobbyists, special interest groups, "donations" from BIG OIL, etc!) he would make when he went back home and became a US Senator who couldn''t remember how many luxury homes he had!!!!!
SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!!
sig heil, DADDY WARBUCKS, McCain!!!!!!!
You have
Pro-Life and Pro-Choice,
Republican, Independent and Democrat
Tax Cuts and Tax & Spend
100 years in Iraq and McCain''s ventriloquist
Southern Baptist and Jewish
West and East
Sounds like a perfect fit for McCain''s campaign strategy -- promise everyone everything they want to hear.
I say, no single term for John McCain!
Although this constitutes another Mcflip-flop it''s the wiest course of action. A President coming into office on the promise of serving only 1 term is an automatic lame duck who will accomplish nothing.
But then we all know he won''t make it 8 years.
http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s2i37624
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