John McCain

That's what Bob Novak is saying...  From his latest:

Sources close to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign are suggesting he will reveal the name of his vice presidential selection this week while Sen. Barack Obama is getting the headlines on his foreign trip. The name of McCain's running mate has not been disclosed, but Mitt Romney has led the speculation recently.

I hate to predict against Novak, but I'm a little doubtful.  This is about the biggest PR arrow McCain has in his quiver right now, and I think it's much better used either to step on Obama's convention bounce next month, (ie. announce it the day after Obama's convention speech)...or during the week of the GOP convention, to increase the attention paid to his own nomination.  But we'll see.

More: Next Right

Well, they do say "Politics make strange bedfellows"!

According to The Wall Street Journal, Carly Fiorina - one of the top financial and economics advisors to John McCain - met with 25 prominent Hillary Clinton supporters on Tuesday.  Apparently, the meeting was initiated by the former backers of the Clinton campaign and not by John McCain's staff.

The Westchester meeting came at the behest of former Clinton
supporters, some of whom have said – adamantly – that they won’t
support Obama. Polls show Obama winning the majority of support from
women voters while about a quarter of ex-Clinton supporters are leaning
toward McCain. The meeting wasn’t stocked with typical voters, however.
These were prominent activists and fund-raisers, including several
known as “Hillraisers,’’ who raised more than $100,000 for Clinton
during the primary season. “I didn’t ask how many of them were
Hillraisers but certainly a number of them were,’’ Fiorina said.

It's apparent these Hillary backers are looking for a viable alternative to having to vote for Barack Obama after that hard-fought primary they just went through.  I personally don't think it will be difficult for them to find some common-ground with McCain on several issues.  The story goes on to detail some of their interest in doing just that:

Fiorina and participants said the town-hall style meeting covered a
variety of issues, from health care to foreign policy to workplace
rights. While many of the subjects could be described as of particular
interest to women, many were not. One topic that got little attention:
abortion rights. “John McCain has a very strong record of being
pro-life, as do I,’’ Fiorina said. “They knew that. This was not a
one-issue crowd.’’

Siskind said Fiorina agreed to provide details regarding McCain’s
stances on mandating health insurance coverage for birth control pills,
federal mandates for paid maternity leave and a reinvigoration of
federal legislation aimed at giving women equal pay for comparable work.

Siskind said the group told Fiorina that if McCain would give some
concrete assurances of support on such issues, the people in the room
and the organizations they represented could help deliver “hundreds of
thousands and maybe millions of votes” to the presumptive Republican
nominee.

At the end of the day, I'm sure Hillary Clinton is going to tow the party line and maintain her verbal support for the nominee.  But, this sort of migration to McCain by her supporters, especially with its financial implications, is the kind of thing that could help level the playing field to compete toe-to-toe with Obama and his '50 States' campaign strategy he's going to employ to try to bleed McCain of his funds.

It seems 'Nothin's easy" these days as far as Obama is concerned.

Read the full story here

If there is one area of focus that John McCain should be given undeniable praise on, it would be his push for the surge strategy in Iraq.  It was upon adopting his proposed military strategy that we were, finally, able to begin taking control of the situation on the ground. 

Today, McCain called for a similar strategy to be undertaken in Afghanistan.  In doing so, he took the opportunity to also take some swipes at Barack Obama's military strategies, or lack thereof, in the region.  Read more here.

McCain has described Obama's call for withdrawal from Iraq as tantamount to declaring defeat and points to the lower levels of violence in Iraq as evidence that sending additional U.S. troops there has been a successful strategy.

"Sen. Obama will tell you we can't win in Afghanistan without losing in Iraq. In fact, he has it exactly backwards," McCain told a town hall meeting. "It is precisely the success of the surge in Iraq that shows us the way to succeed in Afghanistan."

McCain added: "I know how to win wars. And if I'm elected president, I will turn around the war in Afghanistan, just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory."

McCain laid out a blueprint for intensified military efforts in Afghanistan, where nine U.S. soldiers were killed and 14 injured in a militant attack Sunday, the U.S. military's highest death toll there in three years.

As part of his reasoning for this needed change in strategy in Afghanistan, McCain noted the recent regrouping of our enemies in the region - much of which can be attributed to the seasonal nature of their abilities to fight improving following the bitterly cold months where they have been forced to hold up.

"The status quo is not acceptable. Security in Afghanistan has deteriorated, and our enemies are on the offensive," he said. "From the moment the next president walks into the Oval Office, he will face critical decisions and crucial decisions about Afghanistan."

Three more brigades should be sent to Afghanistan, McCain said, as well as a presidential envoy to deal with countries vying for power in the region.

I have little doubt that the present increase of violence in Afghanistan will once again be quelled to a large degree once the harsher, colder months once again arrive.  The question that remains to be seen, however, is who will be our Commander-in-Chief come next January?  Who will determine the strategy our military leadership should employ come May, 2009 when that next wave of barbarians emerge from their caves?

Suddenly the guy who wants the "new" kind of politics...they guy who the mainstream media tells us is "post partisan"...has decided to play, well, politics.  In this case, it's his subtle attempt to play the "age card" in his soon-to-be campaign against John McCain.

Sen. Barack Obama yesterday accused presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of "losing his bearings," prompting the Arizona senator's campaign to say the younger man was attacking Mr. McCain's age.

Mr. Obama was asked in an appearance on CNN to respond to Mr. McCain's saying on the campaign trail that Hamas favors the Democrat for president.

"This is offensive and I think it's disappointing, because John McCain always says, well, I'm not going to run that kind of politics," Mr. Obama said yesterday, adding that "that kind of smear I think is unfortunate, particularly since my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his.

"For him to toss out comments like that I think is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination. We don't need name-calling in this debate."

Pay no mind to the fact that the good folks over at Hamas have indeed said Obama is their favorite among the current candidates for President.

Hamas' top political adviser, Ahmed Yousef, embraced the Obama campaign Sunday in an interview on WABC radio, saying, "We like Mr. Obama. We hope he will [win] the election."

He compared the Illinois senator to President John F. Kennedy, saying he was a "great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance."

Could it be because they know Barry went to a church which reprinted a copy of their manifesto on their website??

So, as far as this goes, it seems McCain's bearings are just fine.

There are some new polling numbers out in the presidential derby, and it's looking better for John McCain.  From the Associated Press:

Republican Sen. John McCain has erased Sen. Barack Obama's 10-point advantage in a head-to-head matchup, leaving him essentially tied with both Democratic candidates in an Associated Press-Ipsos national poll released Thursday.

The survey showed the extended Democratic primary campaign creating divisions among supporters of Obama and rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and suggests a tight race for the presidency in November no matter which Democrat becomes the nominee.

McCain is benefiting from a bounce since he clinched the GOP nomination a month ago. The four-term Arizona senator has moved up in matchups with each of the Democratic candidates, particularly Obama.

An AP-Ipsos poll taken in late February had Obama leading McCain 51-41 percent. The current survey, conducted April 7-9, had them at 45 percent each. McCain leads Obama among men, whites, Southerners, married women and independents.

Clinton led McCain, 48-43 percent, in February. The latest survey showed the New York senator with 48 percent support to McCain's 45 percent. Factoring in the poll's margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, Clinton and McCain are statistically tied.

On a different note, McCain is suggesting a boycott of the opening ceremonies of the coming summer Olympics in Beijing.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee joined his potential Democratic opponents in saying China has not earned leaders' attendance because of its human rights record, thus answering a question that has become a major test for world leaders.

"I believe President Bush should evaluate his participation in the ceremonies surrounding the Olympics and, based on Chinese actions, decide whether it is appropriate to attend," the Arizona Republican said in a statement issued after he discussed the boycott on ABC's "The View" program.

"If Chinese policies and practices do not change, I would not attend the opening ceremonies."

He's absolutely right.  In fact, I'd go a step further and say we shouldn't go anyway.  National Review has it right.  Giving the Chinese the games was a mistake from the start.  It was political.  All they wanted (and still want) is an opportunity to showcase a "new" China...when they're still playing from the same old sheet of music when it comes to democracy and human rights.  The bigger a PR disaster this thing turns out to be, (the torch business is just the beginning), the better.

On Wednesday, John McCain, in his first major policy speech since securing the GOP nomination, called upon the democratic nations of the world to join the United States in the formation of new and improved "global alliance" - what he called the "League of Democracies".

McCain stated, "We have to strengthen our global alliance as the core of a new global compact, a league of democracies that can harness the vast influence of the more than 100 democratic nations around the world to advance our values and defend our shared interests."

“It’s not just [a commitment of] mine. President Sarkozy of France is talking about the same thing; Prime Minister Brown of England, Chancellor Merkel is another talking about the same thing,” McCain said in response to a question about containing an Iranian nuclear program, arguing that a coalition of democratic countries could be more effective in pressuring the Iranians to abandon their nuclear ambitions.

It was pointed out on Wednesday evening's Special Report with Brit Hume by Charles Krauthammer that he had proposed the same idea about six years ago.  A highly appealing aspect of such an organization - what he called a "hidden agenda" of such an idea - would be that it would it would "essentially kill the U.N.".

Krauthammer: How do you kill it? You establish a parallel institution of democracies that actually does stuff, that actually acts in the world, and that is not acting either against our interests or doing nothing, as the U.N. almost all the time does. And that's a good idea.

Krauthammer's caveat to the "League" - which seemed to be in parallel to McCain's idea as well, considering he did not include nations such as Russia or Venezuela in his proposal - is that it must consist of "real democracies".

Krauthammer: The problem is if you include everyone, Cuba, Chavez and all these guys, it's going to end up either useless or bad, as we've learned in the U.N. experience, so the new idea, which is 50 years late, but I think is coming now, is establish institutions of real democracies and act together with them in that structure.

It's ironic that, just yesterday, there were several words of praise for Krauthammer's great conservative mind here at Conservative Outpost - the same day in which Sen. McCain was taking one of his great ideas and introducing it into his foreign policy vision for his future presidency.  Like I said in my comment yesterday, "'Of all the great minds in the conservative movement, he's the one that I constantly keep telling myself, "I'm glad he's on OUR side!'"

At least in the state of Pennsylvania, a new poll suggests that the divisive primary season for the Dems may bode well for the fortunes of Republican hopeful John McCain.

And as many negatives are raised and as much dirt is brought to the surface in this race, are those on the political fence going to be able to vote for either of these potential nominees when that time comes, if they see McCain as an attractive, viable alternative?

Time tells all.

In
1968, while serving as an interrogator with the USMC, I was assigned to
the 11th ITT (Interrogation/Translation Team), 3rd Marine Division at
the prisoner-of-war (PW) compound in DaNang, Republic of Vietnam. One
of dozens of interrogations I conducted during my 13-month tour of duty
was with a rather interesting NVA (North Vietnamese Army)
prisoner-of-war who provided some unusual information. As part of our
procedures, our interrogation team members routinely asked PW's if they
had ever seen an American held prisoner anywhere. Occasionally, they
would answer they had seen Americans, sometimes in captivity, and once,
one was seen fighting alongside the enemy Viet Cong. We kept an album
with photographs of all our military personnel who were missing in
action and asked those who said they had seen an American to go through
the album. Only once, in all my interrogations, was a PW able to
identify a person from the photos. He said that he had witnessed an
American pilot who had been shot down over Hanoi being manhandled by
his captors while a crowd was cursing and spitting at him. He told me
that the pilot was held with others who had been captured and gave me a
description of the prison compound and its approximate location. The
American he identified from the photo was a US Navy Lt. Commander named
John McCain. For me, at that time, John McCain was just another Navy
pilot missing in action who had his photo in the album. I had never
heard of the man. I submitted my interrogation report and thought
little more about it. However, a year or two later, after I had
returned home to the States, I heard a radio news story about an
attempted rescue of American prisoners-of-war from a compound in
Vietnam. The location of the compound was not identified.
Unfortunately, everyone had been moved so there was no one at the site.
The news story reminded me of the interrogation I had conducted in
DaNang concerning the captured Navy pilot, Lt. Cmdr. McCain.

It
was 1973 when I first saw John McCain on television as one of the
returning prisoners-of-war from Vietnam. There he was - the American
from the photo that had been picked out by the PW I had interrogated
several years earlier. For those who may not know, John McCain was held
as a prisoner-of-war for five and a half years (1967-1973), much of the
time in solitary confinement. He retired from the Navy as a Captain in
1981. His naval honors include the Distinguished Flying Cross, Silver
Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, and Purple Heart. John McCain's
first person account of his time in captivity can be found here: John McCain, Prisoner of War.
Since that time, I have recounted this story to very few people,
however, a short time ago, I decided to send an email message to now
Senator McCain briefly telling him about my interrogation report of
1968. I have never received a response but I suspect his email is
screened and he has possibly never seen the message I sent.

John
McCain is now a candidate for President of the United States. The
senator is an honorable and patriotic man who has sacrificed much for
his country. I respect him greatly for his military service. As a
former trained military interrogator, I disagree with his views on
passive interrogation techniques for enemy combatants. I also disagree
with his positions regarding illegal aliens, President Bush's tax cuts,
oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, climate change
regulation, drug re-importation from Canada, and campaign-finance
legislation. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to win the
fight in Iraq, on finding and eliminating Islamic militants and
eradicating al-Qaeda and other terrorist factions. These are the most
dangerous threats to our country today. I will vote for Senator McCain
because we cannot elect someone as the next President of the United
States who will retreat in the face of evil. I know that John McCain
loves his country and I trust that he will never retreat. He will be an
outstanding Commander-in-Chief of our military.

Mitt Romney officially ended his campaign yesterday and endorsed John McCain for the GOP nomination:

Sen. John McCain earned the endorsement of one-time rival Mitt Romney yesterday, further securing his grasp on the Republican nomination, even as the Democratic contest grows more heated and polls show the candidates preparing to split upcoming primaries.

The Republicans said they want to use the ongoing Democratic battle to their advantage.

"Let us come together and make progress while they're fighting," Mr. Romney said at a press conference in Boston in which he also urged the about 280 delegates he won to instead support Mr. McCain in September's nominating convention. "There's no question in my mind this individual should be the next president of the United States, not Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton."

Mr. Romney's endorsement signals the Republican race is nearing its end, and those delegates allowed by state and party rules to change their support likely will, said Clark Stith, one of the eight pledged delegates Mr. Romney earned in Wyoming's caucuses earlier this year.

While Romney "suspended" his campaign last week, (keeping control over his delegates), his endorsement of McCain essentially brings an end to the contest, as those delegates would put McCain just under the magic number of 1191...and make it mathematically impossible for Huckabee to win.  Time to fold the tent.

***

Wizbang Politics points out the importance of delegate allocation rules...

Right Wing News has a VP poll...

More: WaPo - The Fix - Michelle Malkin - Wizbang

Consider this. If George Bush were running against Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, how would you vote? What are Bush's positions in the following areas? Are they much different than those of John McCain or, perhaps, are McCain's positions more conservative than those of George Bush?

What McCain has promised to do, if elected:

1. Taxes: "I will start by making the Bush tax cuts permanent. I will cut corporate tax rates from 35 to 25% to keep industries and jobs in this country. I will end the Alternate Minimum Tax. And I won't let a Democratic Congress raise your taxes and choke the growth of our economy."

2. Health care insurance coverage: "I intend to address the problem with free market solutions and with respect for the freedom of individuals to make important choices for themselves."

3. Federal Judges: "I intend to nominate judges who have proven themselves worthy of our trust that they take as their sole responsibility the enforcement of laws made by the people's elected representatives, judges of the character and quality of Justices Roberts and Alito, judges who can be relied upon to respect the values of the people whose rights, laws and property they are sworn to defend."

4. Iraq: "I intend to win the war, and trust in the proven judgment of our commanders there and the courage and selflessness of the Americans they have the honor to command. I share the grief over the terrible losses we have suffered in its prosecution. There is no other candidate for this office who appreciates more than I do just how awful war is. But I know that the costs in lives and treasure we would incur should we fail in Iraq will be far greater than the heartbreaking losses we have suffered to date. And I will not allow that to happen."

5. Iran: "I intend to make unmistakably clear to Iran we will not permit a government that espouses the destruction of the State of Israel as its fondest wish and pledges undying enmity to the United States to possess the weapons to advance their malevolent ambitions."

6. Radical Islamic extremism: "I intend to defeat that threat by staying on offense and by marshaling every relevant agency of our government, and our allies, in the urgent necessity of defending the values, virtues and security of free people against those who despise all that is good about us."

7. Second Amendment rights: "I have defended my position on protecting our Second Amendment rights, including my votes against waiting periods, bans on the so-called "assault weapons," and illegitimate lawsuits targeting gun manufacturers."

8. Life: "I have proudly defended my twenty-four year pro-life record."

9. Illegal immigration: "It would be among my highest priorities to secure our borders first, and only after we achieved widespread consensus that our borders are secure, would we address other aspects of the problem in a way that defends the rule of law and does not encourage another wave of illegal immigration."

Summation: "I believe today, as I believed twenty-five years ago, in small government; fiscal discipline; low taxes; a strong defense, judges who enforce, and not make, our laws; the social values that are the true source of our strength; and, generally, the steadfast defense of our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which I have defended my entire career as God-given to the born and unborn". (John McCain, Feb. 7, 2008 at CPAC Convention) Now that you have considered all of this, ask yourself, what are Clinton or Obama's positions on these issues?