McCain: Audacity watch
Posted: Friday, August 15, 2008 9:15 AM by Mark Murray
McCain has had the week -- and the specific issue of Georgia -- all to himself, the New York Times writes. "Only once, at the beginning of the week, did Mr. Obama discuss the fighting in public, when he emerged from his beachfront rental home to condemn Russia’s escalation, in a way that seemed timed for the evening television news. He took no questions whose answers might demonstrate command of the issue. Mr. McCain and his surrogates, however, have discussed the situation nearly every day on the campaign trail, often taking a hard line against Russia to the point of his declaring the other day, ‘We are all Georgians.’”
Interesting issue on the "presumptive" front. McCain's dispatching Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham to go to the region. Imagine the "audacity" emails that would be dispatched by the RNC if Obama made it clear he was "dispatching" two of his closest senate friends…
Actually, speaking of "audacity," check out this lead in the Washington Post this morning. "Standing behind a lectern in Michigan this week, with two trusted senators ready to do his bidding, John McCain seemed to forget for a moment that he was only running for president."
"Asked about his tough rhetoric on the ongoing conflict in Georgia, McCain began: ‘If I may be so bold, there was another president…’ He caught himself and started again: ‘At one time, there was a president named Ronald Reagan who spoke very strongly about America's advocacy for democracy and freedom.’”
“With his Democratic opponent on vacation in Hawaii, the senator from Arizona has been doing all he can in recent days to look like President McCain, particularly when it comes to the ongoing international crisis in Georgia. ‘We talk about how there's only one president at a time, so the idea that you would send your own emissaries and really interfere with the process is remarkable,’ said Lawrence Korb, a Reagan Defense Department official who now acts as an informal adviser to the Obama campaign. ‘It's very risky and can send mixed messages to foreign governments… They accused Obama of being presumptuous, but he didn't do anything close to this."
McCain was at an Aspen Institute event, and his traveling party drew some VP attention. It included Jon Huntsman, John Thune, and Mark Sanford. Also on the trail with McCain yesterday were Phil Gramm, Rick Davis, Steve Schmidt, and Charlie Black.
Meanwhile, the DNC was giddy at the Phil Gramm sighting.
And it also tries to capitalize on Ralph Reed helping McCain raise money with a Web video and a conference call at 10:00 am ET with Rep. Henry Waxman.
"McCain won a round against Democrats on Thursday when the Federal Election Commission rejected their contention that he violated campaign finance laws during the GOP primary. The FEC's draft opinion affirms McCain's right to bypass the public financing system and the strict spending limits that come with it. That was a rejection of the Democratic National Committee's complaint asserting that McCain's campaign had wrongly received loans based on his participation in public financing before later withdrawing from that system."
A liberal group releases a new video that hits McCain on his family’s personal wealth and his multi-million dollar homes.
One of McCain's sons from his first marriage draws some scrutiny in today's Wall Street Journal. "Andrew K. McCain, 46, was on the board of Silver State Bancorp for five months before he resigned on July 25 for unspecified ‘personal reasons,’ according to a news release issued by the bank at the time. A week after Mr. McCain's departure, the Henderson, Nev., company reported a loss of $62.7 million in the second quarter and said its capital -- the bank's cushion to absorb losses -- had eroded significantly. At the same time, Silver State announced the resignations of its chief executive and chairman."
More: "There is no evidence that the younger Mr. McCain committed any wrongdoing, or that Sen. McCain, the Republican presidential candidate from Arizona, had any knowledge or involvement in the bank's woes, which partly stemmed from troubled construction and land-development loans. But with banks across the country struggling amid the credit crunch and the economic slowdown, the Republican presidential candidate's family ties could emerge as an issue on the campaign trail. The younger Mr. McCain's associates had urged him to step down from the board of Silver State, saying it could become a liability in his father's White House bid, according to a person in the local banking industry familiar with the matter.”
