McCain: pork, his sons, and health care
Posted: Thursday, April 03, 2008 9:16 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
2008, McCain
In advance of McCain’s speech at Cecil Field, Hotline On Call reports that Cecil Field is a big beneficiary of pork. “Between 2001 and 2005, Cecil Field received almost $10M in earmarked funds, according to Citizens Against Government Waste… In all fairness, McCain doesn't hail from the Sunshine State, of course, and he wasn't responsible for these particular earmarks. But he did vote for the 2004 and 2005 Defense Appropriation Conference Reports that contained the earmarks. The other three years, McCain either didn't vote or voted no on the reports.”
Could both of McCain's sons be serving in Iraq in the fall? It's possible. The Hill: "Democrats have claimed that a McCain White House would be tantamount to a third term of President Bush’s Iraq strategy. But the dynamic of criticizing McCain on Iraq will be different than for the president, who did not serve in a war and does not have children serving abroad. GOP strategists say that McCain stands to gain more by keeping his sons’ military credentials off-limits than by drawing on them for political gain.”
“‘He is playing it right. He is not going for the cheap political lines,’ said John Feehery, who worked for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and is a contributor to The Hill’s PunditsBlog. McCain has yet to mention his sons’ military credentials on his ongoing biographical tour. McCain spoke at his own alma mater, the Naval Academy, on Wednesday, and then traveled to his old flight school in Pensacola, Fla.”
The Boston Globe looks at McCain's health care philosophy. "McCain unveiled his healthcare proposal last fall, a journalist asked whether the Arizona senator's battle against skin cancer would make him sympathetic to the idea of requiring that insurance companies provide coverage to people with preexisting conditions. McCain flatly rejected the idea. ‘That would be mandating what the free enterprise system does,’ McCain said.”
“McCain's response highlights the challenge he faces as he prepares to try to sell his healthcare plan in the fall campaign. He says the country must provide access to healthcare for all our citizens, and that ‘we need to help people who need it.’ But McCain also wants to shrink government's role in healthcare and doesn't want to impose regulations on insurance companies. As a result, McCain's aides have been scrambling to come up with ways to satisfy those who want more coverage without violating what they call McCain's conservative principles on the issue."
Staying on the domestic front, GOP analyst Jennifer Rubin wonders how McCain can deliver an economic message that will sell. "[H]is first hurdle: avoid sounding like Marie Antoinette when delivering hard truths to voters. McCain will face another challenge in convincing voters that he is not a one-trick pony. If Mitt Romney could pull out McCain’s old quotes professing a relative lack of expertise about the economy, the Democrats certainly can. Hillary Clinton has conceded that McCain has impressive national security experience, but either of the Democratic contenders can argue that Americans are selecting a president, not a secretary of defense…
