McCain Returns to Florida
ORLANDO, FLA. -- Back from a quick trip to New York where John McCain raised over a million dollars for his campaign last night, today he resumed his travels through Florida.
McCain toured the Baker Manufacturing Plant in Orlando and then met with various business and community leaders in an economic forum. The event was moderated by former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. McCain spoke about a range of issues from green technology, Hispanic small businesses, tourism, the subprime mortgage crisis and catastrophic insurance.
In New York last night McCain said he was confident that he would win the nomination of his party. Today, that confidence showed as McCain discussed his Democratic rivals.
"I did notice that the Democrats a couple nights ago did spend a great deal of time mentioning my name and discussing me and I was obviously very flattered. But the fact is, as the nominee of my party we will be discussing the profound differences I have between Senator Clinton or Senator Obama or Senator Edwards. Whether it's over higher spending verses lower spending, higher taxes verses lower taxes, whether we should withdraw and surrender in Iraq or not, whether healthcare should be run by the private sector or the federal government. I'll be looking forward to those debates with my Democrat friends."
Speaking to reporters, McCain also discussed Fred Thompson's withdrawal from the race.
"He ran an honorable campaign and he is a very good friend. We will continue to remain friends. I have not asked Fred for his endorsement because he is a close friend of mine. So he and I knew each other well enough that if he decides to do that, obviously he will make up his own mind. But we will remain friends," said McCain.
"He ran an honorable campaign and I'm proud to call him my friend and I will work with him in the future. Obviously, we're going after everybody's supporters. We want anybody who is still undecided and I think that's a large number of voters still here in the state of Florida and that's why we're working very hard," he said.