Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Blogger Conference Call with John McCain

 

I had the opportunity to participate in a blogger call with John McCain this afternoon as he was on the bus campaigning in Iowa with some of his POW buddies.

He started out by calling on the Democrats to repudiate the Moveon.org ad that impugned the honor of General Petraeus. McCain added that he had also criticized attacks on John Kerry and Max Cleland. [It is moments like this when McCain's reputation for honor in his campaigns really comes to his benefit. Democrats are pointing to the Swift Boad ads and Saxby Chambliss's ads against Max Cleland as somehow excusing Moveon's ad. Whatever you think of such a response, the Moveon.org's defenders can't point to anything that McCain had done in the past that would bear any similar taint.]

Matt Lewis of Townhall.com asked about the dispute that McCain had with Mitt Romney during the Fox debate about whether the surge is working. Lewis asked if McCain thinks the other GOP candidates are hedging their bets about the success of the surge. McCain said that he doesn't pay that much attention to the other campaigns, but he stressed that he is the only GOP candidate who had come out against Rumsfeld's strategy as long ago as 2003 and outlined his advocacy of the surge strategy at that time. Lewis followed up to see if McCain thought that Republican politicians should be more forthright in their support for General Petraeus's strategy in Iraq. [Once again McCain's record comes to support him at this moment]

Jennifer Rubin of Human Events asked if McCain sensed any stiffening of the spine among fellow senators after Petraeus's and Ambassador Crocker's testimony. McCain wishes that more Americans had heard their testimony and seen their treatment from the Democrats. He thinks that their appearance and the facts on the ground are helpful. He is proud of the President's determination and his visit to Baghdad, but he knows that more needs to be done politically in Iraq. Regarding Jennifer's question, however, he didn't know if any Republican waverers have strengthened their support since the testimony.

Paul Mirengoff of Powerline asked about questions from Senators Levin and Reed when Petraeus acknowledged that there are neighborhoods in Baghdad which were still out of our control and if we should still commit to withdrawl plans from Iraq. McCain said that he trusted that General Petraeus would say if he needed more troops. McCain thinks that Petraeus believes that the Iraqi army may take more responsibility. He has confidence in the general and knows that, if the general says we can withdraw some troops, that he is giving that as his firm opinion and would not be responding to political winds.

[I had asked my students if they had any questions to ask Senator McCain and many students had questions, particularly about McCain's stand on immigration. I chose this question from a student who is part of the group that is following McCain's candidacy for a class project - they are working in groups all semester to follow the top Democratic and Republican campaigns.] This student wanted to know what the Senator could do to garner more public support if, when he became president the situation was the same as it is now in Iraq and the public is just as disillusioned and disheartened about staying in Iraq. The senator said that we have to show more success on the ground. He is confident that we are going to see such success in Iraq and that that will increase support. He also thinks that he can restore more trust by working with both sides of the aisle and speaking forthrightly with the American people about the progress of our efforts in Iraq.

I also asked how do he thinks that history will regard George W. Bush's presidency. He thinks that historians will base their opinion mostly on foreign policy and so Bush's legacy will rely on how the war on Iraq turned out. He pointed to the way that historians have changed their opinion of Harry Truman who left office quite unpopular because of the war in Korea but how, since then, historians have reassessed Truman's presidency. He thinks that something similar might happen for President Bush. [I thought that it was notable that he passed up the opportunity to issue any criticism of the President. Perhaps he thinks that this would play poorly among Republican primary voters or perhaps this was just his honest opinion. He sure isn't allowing himself to show any bitterness from the 2000 campaign.]

Robert Bluey of Redstate asked what McCain would say if he were, as Bush is, addressing the American people tomorrow. He said he would tell them what Petraeus had said. He said that, as president, he would be addressing the American people once a week to brief them in detail exactly what was going on on the ground. Even if no one but a few C-Span viewers were watching him, he'd keep giving these regular briefings. But he stressed that he would admit mistakes that had been made but let them know that we were now on the right track. If we admit mistakes and share the nation's sorrow and frustration, we can keep support. The important thing is to let people know, from the president, where are troops are fighting and what progress had been made or what setbacks there had been. Bluey asked if the administration is doing enough to highlight Iran's involvement in attacks on Iraq. McCain said he would highlight more. He would be more visible in expressing his concern over Iran's increasing actions.

Jim Addison of Wizbang asked about Democratic senators and if they are so blind to what is going on or are too indebted to their leftist base to show any support for our efforts in Iraq. McCain said he didn't want to impugn the honor of his fellow senators but was disappointed in their failure to repudiate Moveon's ad, however he still wanted to maintain a respectful dialogue with the other party.

Philip Klein of the American Spectator asked about the legislative process about the surge and what the deadline was to get funding for the troops. October 1 is the deadline. As McCain said, we have a long history of getting a Defense Authorization bill on time to fund the troops. It should disturb all Americans that Harry Reid has been putting controversial legislation into the Defense Authorization bill. McCain doesn't know what Reid has in mind but he's heard that Reid is trying to negotiate with some Republicans to get some pseudo-pull out provision. McCain doesn't know whether they will have debate next week on the authorization bill since the Democrats are trying to get some Republicans like Senators Alexander and Warner to get some "compromise" procedure that would talk about pulling out troops even if it didn't mention a date. McCain is committed to staying in Washington to fight such a "compromise" bill to set a date for withdrawl even though McCain knows that he should be out campaigning and raising money. [That's one of the big drawbacks for all the sitting senators running now. They have to keep on campaigning while taking care of their day job. And that is going to include some real knockdown dragout fights since they haven't passed any of the authorization bills for the budget. There will be fights aplenty and McCain, alone of the top GOP candidates, will need to be dividing his time between the campaign and Capitol Hill]

Doug Lambert of Granite Grok asked why we don't just take Sadr out when we had a chance. Would this be viewed as a nice little victory? McCain said that he'd been advising since 2003 that we should go get this guy. Now, it's very tough and we aren't sure of his whereabouts and he's usually in heavily populated areas. McCain isn't tactically aware of the facts on the ground but he thinks that it is one of the several mistakes that were made early on that we didn't go get this guy. Lambert asked if the fact that we don't know about people going in and out of the country indicates that we don't have control of the Iraq-Iran border. McCain agrees that we don't have control and we may have to deploy more troops to the border. McCain noted that Sadr was forced to announce a six-month moratorium on military operations is a sign that he's weakening. As we gain greater and greater control over Baghdad, we will be able to clear out the Mahdi Army.

Jim Geraghty of NRO asked if he thought Democrats should return donations from Moveon.org. McCain agreed but said that first of all, they absolutely need to denounce it. Geraghty also asked if Petraeus's and Crocker's testimony swayed any wavering Republicans. McCain didn't know.

Another blogger [I missed the name] asked about Republicans in Iowa who aren't interested in the surge and want to get out. McCain said that he recognizes that people are tired and wanted to get out. McCain said that he also wants to get out but recognizes that we can't. McCain thinks that Americans, however, don't want to lose.

Matt Lewis noted that McCain has been moving up in polls and asked if the ol' McCain mojo is back. McCain thinks he does; he acknowledges those problems, but that he loves the campaign and the bus. He loves townhall meetings and that helps him make progress. He thinks that Americans are just starting to focus on the campaign and don't realize how quick the process is going to be. He is heartened by support but he knows that he has a long way to go and needs to raise more money. He says that New Hampshire is even more anti-war than Iowa. But he loves the thrill and is looking forward to getting down to South Carolina next week.

In conclusion, I think McCain sounded even more pumped in this call than in the two previous calls. It was leaked last week that he has decided to "own" the surge and stake his candidacy on that. That's an honorable position and will earn him respect among Republican voters. If people are focused on voting for the next commander in chief, McCain will be a serious choice. If people are focused on other issues such as immigration, then McCain will suffer among GOP primary voters. And I love his idea that, as president, he would do weekly briefings about the progress of the troops. I've long thought that the Bush administration has really fallen down in not having Bush talk about what is going on. Senator McCain would certainly be the most plausible of anyone running from either party to play the role of Briefer-in-Chief. And I think that it would be a great way to speak to the American people over the heads of the media. McCain would also benefit because of his reputation for being a straight shooter. He is exactly right that it would be most important that he is up front with the American people about successes and failures and taking the blame for mistakes. Bush has given some strong speeches on the war throughout the presidency but he's mostly delegated this "briefing" role to the Pentagon. While that is appropriate, it would still help to maintain support if people were hearing such information from the president himself. And, with perhaps the exception of Rudy Giuliani, there is no one other than McCain that I can envision doing so.

Labels: John McCain

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