McCain on economy, Dems
Posted: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 12:37 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC's Bethany Thomas
PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The rally at Pensacola Junior College felt more like a pep rally than the usual campaign rally on the McCain campaign trail. The almost-filled gymnasium of people was entertained to a drum corps and cheerleaders, yes, cheerleaders. The crowd (or maybe the press corps) was a bit confused at their first cheer of GO BLUE AND GREEN. But, the audience warmed up when the next cheers featured the Arizona Senator. “WHO ARE YOU ROOTING FOR? JOHN MCCAIN!”
Sen. John Warner introduced McCain, “This is a good, tough political fight and he’s in there duking it out with all the rest of them.”
Today’s federal interest rate cut came up on the stump when he hit his economy points. McCain said, “I’m sure you noticed that the Fed cut interest rates today, and I hope that that has a beneficial effect.”
Some select excerpts from McCain:
ON THE ECONOMY/ FED INTEREST RATE CUT:
"It’s obvious that we are facing challenges, which will require actions like the Federal Reserve took today- low taxes, low interest rates, are obviously an important part of any long-term formula for getting the economy back and moving in the right direction."
HOW DO YOU SWAY EVANGELICAL VOTERS?
"Well the major concern that we found out in NH and SC of evangelical voters is the threat of radical Islamic extremists. That’s why we were able to do almost as well as Governor Huckabee in the upstate of South Carolina. That’s a major concern of radical Islamic extremism. There are many that are concerned about the condition of our planet and feel they have an obligation to be good stewards of our planet. In other words, involvement in climate change.
"Another very influential group of evangelicals are committed to the state of Israel and obviously I have been a very strong proponent to the state of Israel. Im pleased with the broad portion of the vote that we received from all conservatives as well as other parts of the party."
YOU’RE GOING TO NY TODAY TO RAISE MONEY- IN GUILIANI’S HOME TURF- SHOULD WE TAKE THAT TO MEAN SOMETHING?
No, it’s the Willy Sutton syndrome. When they asked him why he robbed bank, he said it’s because that’s where the money is.
ON THE DEMOCRATS MENTIONING MCCAIN OFTEN LAST NIGHT IN THE DEBATE
I noticed that they mentioned my name with amazing frequence. I was flattered. I did not know that I was motivated by some of the- that my behavior was dictated by some of the motivations that they attributed to me. (laughs) But, I did notice that my name was frequently mentioned in the debate last night amongst the Democrats. ... And clearly on national security policy, they wanted us out months ago. I said we could succeed, they said we had lost. I look forward to having that debate.
