I sat in on Sen. McCain’s blogger conference call this afternoon hosted by Ankle Bitings Pundit’s Patrick Hynes.
Sen. McCain was in Iowa this afternoon on his multi-stop “No Surrender” tour. He will head out to New Hampshire later this evening.
Here are the highlights:
Sen. McCain began by calling out Sen. Hillary Clinton over her statements regarding Gen. Petraeus report to Congress and the “suspension of disbelief” and called on her to repudiate MoveOn.org’s attacks on the general. McCain believes that if you are not tough even to take on MoveOn.org, then you are not tough enough to be President of the United States.
The first question came from Townhall.com’s Matt Lewis, who asked in light of his skirmish with Gov. Mitt Romney during, does he feel that some of the GOP candidates are hedging their bets regarding the outcome of The Surge. McCain responded that the reason he reacted in that manner with Gov. Romney was due to his use of the words/phrases “apparently” and “seems to be” when talking about the success of The Surge so far. McCain wish to reminded us that he was the only candidate to repudiate the failed Rumsfeld Doctrine. He also stated that he would like to see his fellow candidates become more active in raising support among the America People for The Surge.
Jennifer Rubin asked if he sensed any “stiffening of the spine” among his Congressional peers after the general’s report this week. McCain stated that some of the success on the ground that is due to Gen. Petraeus and the hard work and sacrifice of the troops under his command has made it through the media filter and has served to strength some member’s resolve. President Bush’s attention to raising awareness of the success of the new strategy has helped as well.
Paul Mirengoff of Powerline asked if a committment to withdraw some troops is wise in light of Petraeus’s admission that parts of Baghdad have yet to be secured. The Senator responded that he is confident in Petreaus’s judgement and is certain that would not withdraw troops if it would effect our success in this conflict. McCain believes that a limited withdrawal of troops is likely indicative of Iraqi forces being able fulfill their responsibilities.
Betsy Newmark asked a question, posed by her students, which asked what he would do specifically as President to drum up support for the war. McCain stated that success on the ground is what is essential in this regard and candidly remarked that the next six-months are going to be critical. Restoring trust and confidence in the Presidency among the American People, Congress, and the Government in Washington is key. In a follow-up question, McCain stated that history will likely base its judgement on George W. Bush’s presidency on Iraq, but reminded us that President Truman left office with very low support among the American People, yet history has been kinder to him in hindsight.
Rob Bluey of Redstate asked if he was addressing the American People, as President Bush is tomorrow, what would he tell them? McCain stated he base his address on the Petreaus report and in as much detail as possible. He also stated that if he were President, he would be addressing the American Public on a weekly basis. Secondly, he would be much more open to admitting the military mistakes that have been made so far in the conflict.
Clear in this call is that fact Sen. McCain intends to make the case that he is the most qualified Republican in the field to be Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Military during this time of global conflict. He does have quite a stake to that claim in his past repudiation of Rumsfeld Doctrine, as well calling for the what has come to be called “The Surge” as early as 2003.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Mittbots beware, when Romney is accused of being to the left of Clinton and he was too spineless to deny it (soursed below). be afraid. be very afraid. Hillary Clinton declares that Petraeus is asking for “suspension of disbeliefâ€. WOW how much more offensive can left-of-clinton-on-iraq romney go?!
MR. GOLER: Governor Romney, you have suggested that U.S. troops in Iraq move to a support phase after the surge, which pretty much has to end in the spring, and a standby phase after that in Kuwait and Qatar. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems even Hillary Clinton is willing to commit troops to Iraq longer than that, sir.
MR. ROMNEY: I don’t have a time frame that I’ve announced. What I’ve indicated is that — is very consistent with what the president is speaking about and what we’re hearing from Iraq right now. And that is that the surge is apparently working. We’re going to get a full report on that from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker very soon. But the Center for Strategic and International Studies and Brookings have come back with positive reports.
If the surge is working, then we’re going to be able to start bringing back our troop levels, slowly but surely, and play more of a support role over time. Ultimately, down the road, I would anticipate that we’re not going to have a permanent presence in Iraq.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Not sure where he says anything about being in support mode by next summer?
His position doesn’t sound different than the president’s to me.
Also, he has never advocated pulling troops out before it is done as hillary has.
nice try though.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Not sure where he says anything about being in support mode by next summer?
His position doesn’t sound different than the president’s to me.
Also, he has never advocated pulling troops out before it is done as hillary has.
nice try though. your hate for romney seems to make you read into things that aren’t there.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
whoops, wrong thread. ignore the post above.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
“He [McCain] also stated that he would like to see his fellow candidates become more active in raising support among the America People for The Surge.”
Yeah, When Romney did just that a few months back “as surge of support for our troops” he was asked since he was supporting the surge, why his sons were not enlisted. Remember that? McCain certainly does not own the issue of troop support. He probably thinks he does, but he does not.
As important as the GWOT is, it is going to take more than a strong prosecutor of GWOT to win in November ‘08. I respect McCain for is past service in the military, but lets face it – McCain’s time has past. He’s done.
September 12th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
I think he is the best choice for Commander in Chief. The only thing is right now the public seems to think that they want the next president to get us out of the war in Iraq, so I’m not sure how much high they’re ranking “good commander in chief” in their list of priorities. It seems to me he should be talking more about Afghanistan which is someplace we’re going to be for a while even in we pull back from Iraq.
September 12th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
you need to start seeing thru the BS cwpete. just about every democrat alive will say they “support the troops” whether or not they support the surge is a separate thing entirely.. like when romney refused to support it in all of 2006. haven’t we been over that several times before?
September 12th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Sampo, I believe you have lost the majority of the readers here on why Mitt is to left of Hillary. Your quotaton above does not have any timeline, unlikely the democrats’ plans. And you claimed to have some discussion with cwpete about Romney’s 2006 Iraq position. I have been following this site for a long time, before you joined us, and I do not recall you sharing this claim. Please do refresh us on this point, and please clarify on what you see in the quotation to imply that Mitt is not the man for Iraq War. Thank you.
September 12th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Now back to the topic of this post, is it just me, or is that pretty all what McCain has been campaigning on, about how he is the best man for Iraqi War, with his being the best to hit the ground running as a Commander in Chief, and how he “owns” the surge? I know we just heard the reports from General and Ambassador as well as it being 9/11 anniversary, but that is all I knew him to talk about for many weeks now. Does he realize he is racing for the President of US, not for general to command the war in Iraq? I mean, there are a whole lot of issues the president needs to handle, and it is beginning to sound to me that McCain will be another “Bush” who only did well in Iraq (barely, and 3 years before doing something about failures).
September 12th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
One of the people who is considering a run, Sen. [John] McCain, has advocated sending up to 30,000 more troops to help stabilize Iraq. Do you support sending more troops into that country?
“[bla bla bla]…I’m not going to weigh in. I’m still a governor….[bla bla bla]…But fundamentally, we’re talking about a very different approach than the Iraqi Study Group concluded. Their approach suggested somehow we would pull out in a setting that was less than victorious…”"
Mitt Romney, December 28, 2006
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/romney_gaffes/article/0,28804,1621231_1621230_1621225,00.html
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems even Hillary Clinton is willing to commit troops to Iraq longer than that, sir.”
Honestly I was a little surprised to hear that question. I wasnt sure I even agreed with the premise, but the fact is Romney did not deny it. Shame. But tell me, how is Wendell Goler NOT asking if Mitt is to the left of Clinton?!
September 13th, 2007 at 11:25 am
Pure common sense should tell you that Romney is not to the left of Clinton. What a stupid question. I think that Romney is sick of all of the stupid questions and critisism. I’m sick of it also.
September 13th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Hello, all-
Just wanted to note that Kavon’s post has been put on the new Campaignia blog:
http://www.campaignia.blogspot.com
Well done summary, as I note in my post.
Reactions are welcome.