Blogger conference call with John McCain

I had the opportunity to participate in a blogger call with John McCain in anticipation of a speech he gave last night in Michigan on economic and domestic issues. Here are my notes that I took while the call was going on. I apologize in advance to any of my fellow bloggers whose names I missed.

He spoke of his support for a line item veto and how he would veto pork barrel spending and his support for free trade along with job training programs for displaced workers.

He spoke derisively of the publicity stunt of Harry Reid's all-nighter on Iraq last week and how that PR move by the Democrats was really about the Defense authorization bill. He criticized the Democrats for taking down the bill for taking down the Defense bill and not addressing the needs and concerns for our troops. He called their behavior disgraceful for not providing the military what they need to fight and win and their "abrogation of their responsibilities" to our troops.

Robert Bluey asked about Obama's commitment to meet with leaders of Iran, Cuba, Venezuela. McCain called it a mistake and naive. He called the phrase "face-to-face" an overrated term. He wondered what the first topic would be with Iran - their commitment to destroying Israel.

Jennifer Rubin asked if he though that his GOP rivals are softening on Iraq. He said that he wasn't aware of their proposals and then said that Romney said that there should be a secret plan for withdrawl which McCain didn't think much of. He said that he's the one candidate who is "in the arena."

Philip Klein asked about Newt Gingrich had said that McCain was on the verge of dropping out once he collected his FEC money. McCain denied that he had any plans of dropping out and that Gingrich didn't know McCain's plans are unless he has a recording device inthe McCain campaign. He didn't commit yet to whether he'd take the matching funds from the FEC. He maintains that he'll still win.

Ed Morrissey asked about McCain's plan to eliminate the AMT and asked if McCain had plans to introduce a bill in the Senate. McCain said he would introduce a bill.

Skip Murphy asked if McCain would consider lower corporate taxes and asked if McCain thought lowering corporate taxes was the way to go. Although McCain said he supported lowering taxes, he would leave corporate taxes where they are and that he opposed the Democrats' plan to raise those taxes. He called for a commission headed by someone like Alan Greenspan to develop a plan to simplify the tax code to be presented for an up or down vote.

Jim Geraghty asked about Obama's comment that preventing a genocide in Iraq is not worth our staying in Iraq. McCain asked what Plan B would be if we leave and genocide takes place. He said how we can advocate stopping genocide in Darfur and then act in such a way that would lead to genocide in Rwanda. How can we be in favor of stopping genocide in one part of the world and facilitate in another part. He siad that foreign policy takes years of study to understand all the ramifications. Was that a crack at Obama? McCain said he would need to do a better job of explaining the ramifications of leaving Iraq and that he viewed Obama's statement was not a very sophisticated approach to a complicated situation.

I asked him about the Supreme Court's Kelo decision and why efforts in the Senate had died out to stop federal funding for taking private property for economic development. He said that he thought it was an outrageous decision and that he was disappointed that efforts to stop this had died down. He said that he would be giving a speech in the next few weeks about eminent domain. He feels that it is a sleeper issue that he'd like to bring attention to and suggest some ways to stop such efforts. I'll look forward to hearing his proposals.

He was next asked (I missed who asked, sorry) about energy independence. He said that he considered it a crucial issue and that he'd been speaking about energy and climate change.

Ryan Sager asked if he was still planning to focus on the early states. He said that was still his plan and that was still his plan and maybe adding in other early states such as Michigan where he is today.

Ed Morrissey got another question to follow up on McCain's plans for tax simplification and if he'd consider some sort of change to sales tax. McCain said he was interested in such plans and that it was more complex and that is why he preferred a commission that could act like the base closing commission. He said that we needed to get the code simplified so that people don't spend collectively billions in tax preparation. McCain praised Estonia's 22% flat tax. He said that if a little country like Estonia could do that, couldn't the U.S. also simplify our tax code.

Paul Mirengoff asked about whether McCain supported reforming Sarbanes Oxley to help companies get out of having to do double audits. McCain said that he did but that it is a little more difficult to do than DeMint's proposal. McCain would like to start over from scratch because Sarbanes Oxley had had a detrimental effect on business. He admitted that he voted for it, but that whenever Congress acts in haste, they make mistakes. He wants to preserve accountablitiy but reduce the burdens on small businesses.

Conclusion: This was my first opportunity to participate in a blogger conference call with a candidate. I've received invitations before, but they were always in school hours. It was partly for my students that I wanted to participate so I could tell them a bit more about how candidates are reaching out to new media. My hope is that in the school year, I will get a chance to do so again and would be able to poll my students about which question they'd like to ask a candidate.

Not to pat bloggers collectively on our backs, but I did hear a lot more substance and focus on policy in this call than with any half hour interview you might see with Senator McCain in TV. There, we all know that about half the time would be taken up with a horserace question focusing on "how come you won't admit that you're losing this race and just give up now?" I noted only two out of eleven questions that were on the specifics of his campaign rather than on policy. And bloggers do ask better questions than Youtube contributors. Perhaps CNN's next innovation would be a blogger debate. Let bloggers from both sides of the ideological divide ask the questions. That would be interesting.

Overall, while I still have some strong disagreements with Senator McCain on some issues, particularly his campaign finance reform provisions that I feel abridged freedom of speech, I do appreciate his firm stand on Iraq so much that I have been willing to cut him slack on some other issues. He seems to be sounding more conservative than in the past on issues like tax reform. I'm always skeptical, however, of trying to solve tough political issues through commissions; it seems an abrogation of the responsibilities of our representatives, but it seems that that is tending to be the only way to get things done now on Capitol Hill and I would certainly like to see a reform of our tax system.

I appreciate the opportunity to participate and look forward to more. This was fun.