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John McCain 2008 Presidential Campaign

2008-11-24T15:57:04Z

RobertPressley: /* Budget */ changed tense MOAR HITER!!!

<small>For more information on the details of the Presidential race between McCain and Obama see [[United States Presidential Election, 2008]].</small>

[[Image:McCain_nomination.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Senator John McCain accepting his party's presidential nomination, 09/04/08]] [[Arizona]] [[Senator]] [[John McCain]] formally announced his candidacy for the [[Republican]] nomination for [[President of the United States]] in Portsmouth, [[New Hampshire]] on April 25, 2007, and became the GOP nominee in September 3, 2008, after the longest primary season in history.

While his campaign's success was once considered unlikely, McCain won several early primaries and went on to win enough delegates to secure the nomination. McCain had gained national prominence during his surprisingly strong presidential campaign in 2000. He eventually lost out to now-President [[George W. Bush]].

McCain ran as the outsider, the maverick who went his own ways and opposed corruption and the same-old-politics. He electrified the nation and solidified his base among conservatives by naming Alaska governor [[Sarah Palin]] as his running mate. One of his TV commercials summed it up:
:"The original mavericks. He fights pork barrel spending. She stopped the Bridge to Nowhere. He took on the drug industry. She took on big oil. He battled Republicans and reformed Washington. She battled Republicans and reformed Alaska. They'll make history. They'll change Washington. McCain. Palin. Real change."<ref> See [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVIaqCjvLpU for YouTube version, Sept. 8, 2008 ]</ref>
He lost the election to his opponent, the Democratic nominee, [[Barrack Obama]].

==Campaign development==
Based on his longevity in the Senate and his previous race in 2000, McCain already had name recognition coming up to the 2008 election. He informally stated he would be a candidate for the [[2008 Presidential Election]] on the ''Late Show with [[David Letterman]]'' on February 28, 2007, and officially announced his candidacy in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, two months later. A few weeks prior to making his announcement on ''Letterman'', he was beginning to trail behind former Mayor of [[New York City]] [[Rudy Giuliani]] in the polls. McCain supported the 2007 proposal by President George W. Bush for a "surge", an increase in the number of U.S. troops deployed in the [[Iraq War]], which thankfully for McCain was a success. He started a series of campaign events entitled the "No Surrender Tour." His campaign became far more prominent with his wins in the [[New Hampshire primary]] and on [[Super Tuesday]], and since [[Mitt Romney]] endorsed him was considered a virtual certainty to win the nomination. He finally reached the 1,191 delegates to win the nomination on the [[Super Tuesday II]] contests on March 4th.

==Fund raising issues==
McCain's fund raising results and campaign financials were poor. After first-quarter 2007 fundraising totals were released in early April 2007, totals showed McCain's $13.6 million lagging behind rivals in the race. During the second quarter he did worse, raising $11.2 million. In early July 2007, the McCain campaign let go fifty to a hundred staffers and forced others to accept pay cuts or switch to no pay.

McCain accepted nearly $70,000 for his presidential campaign from the top donors to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and their family. The SBVT were condemned at the time by McCain when they ran ads questioning [[John Kerry|John Kerry's]] military service and his reception of the Purple Heart. The money raised was four times the amount McCain raised from those donors in the 14 years prior to launching his campaign.<ref>http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-06-30-swiftboat_N.htm Price of Power: McCain accepts ex-Swift Boaters' Donations</ref>

In June 2008, McCain had his best fundraising month to date, bringing in $21 million in donations for his campaign. In the same month, though, Senator Barack Obama's campaign reported bringing in $52 million.

Senator McCain announced that he would accept public financing for the general election. After his party's nominating convention, the Federal Elections Commission provided him with a check for $85 million. His opponent, Senator Obama, chose to opt-out of the general election financing, the first major candidate to do so since the inception of federal funding. Obama's campaign stated that they had expected to bring in more than the $85 million provided by the FEC and therefore do not want to abide by the spending limits incurred by accepting federal funding. To balance out the expected fundraising advantage Senator Obama had, Senator McCain relyied on the Republican National Committee to help with the campaign through advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts. The RNC had a distinct fundraising advantage over its Democratic counterpart, the Democratic National Committee. The lack of funds, though, hurt down-ticket Republicans who were not able to fall back on RNC fundraising, but instead had to rely on their own efforts as well as that of the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee which have lagged compared to their Democratic counterparts, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

==Campaign Issues==

===Budget===
McCain stated his plans to balance the budget by 2013, via spending cuts by ending earmarks and proposing a one-year pause in discretionary spending, in addition to tax cuts.<ref>[http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/4dbd2cc7-890e-47f1-882f-b8fc4cfecc78.htm John McCain's Economic Proposals]</ref> Economic experts, though, were skeptical that the ideas proposed by Senator McCain would create a balanced budget. According to Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group, "It would be very difficult to achieve in the best of circumstances, and even more difficult under the policies that Senator McCain has proposed." <ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/us/politics/08budget.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Skepticism on McCain Plan to Balance Budget]</ref>

Senator McCain proposed to hold the increase in federal spending to 2%, while it had grown at an average of 6% over the past five years. In addition, he planned to slow the growth of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid but never gave details of how he plans to do so.

As a comparison on earmarks, if President Bush were to end all earmarks in 2008, it would cut $17 billion out of a $2.9 trillion budget, a relatively minor amount.

In addition, McCain sees the ends of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan as an opportunity to help reduce the deficit. "The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit. Since all their costs were financed with deficit spending, all their savings must go to deficit reduction.” <ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11553.html McCain promises to balance budget]</ref>

===View on Tax rebate and Recession===
In January, McCain stated, "As far as putting additional money in taxpayers pocket, that's fine, because a lot of it is psychological. Because I agree the fundamentals of our economy is still strong."<ref>http://youtube.com/watch?v=6aHJT1Ol0iE&v3</ref> In April, he stated, "I’m very concerned about it, Neil. And obviously the way it’s been going up is just terrible. But I think psychologically — and a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological — the confidence, trust, the uncertainty about our economic future, ability to keep our own home. This might give them a little psychological boost. Let’s have some straight talk, it’s not a huge amount of money."<ref>[http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/19/mccain-a-lot-of-our-problems-today-are-psychological/ McCain: 'A lot of our problems today are psychological']</ref>

===Energy===
In a [[Paris Hilton]] video released on FunnyorDie.com, she states "We could do limited offshore drilling with strict environmental oversight while creating tax incentives to get [[Detroit]] making hybrid and electric cars. That way the offshore drilling carries us until the new technologies kick in, which would then create new jobs and energy independence. Energy crisis solved." <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,399821,00.html Congressman Gives a Plug to 'Paris Hilton Plan' in Energy Debate] Fox News, August 7, 2008</ref> In response, the McCain campaign said "In reality, Paris Hilton may have a more substantive energy policy than Barack Obama."

===Pennsylvania lawsuit===
In August of 2008, McCain supporters in the [[Pennsylvania]] GOP filed a lawsuit to remove Libertarian candidate [[Bob Barr]] from the ballot in Pennsylvania.<ref>[http://www.foxreno.com/politics/17258065/detail.html GOP Wants Barr Barred From Pa. Ballot: Candidate Claims McCain Camp Playing Dirty]</ref> Barr is a staunch conservative and could draw votes away from McCain in a state where McCain could ill afford it. The suit says Libertarians waited too long to substitute Barr's name for the stand-in candidate whose name had appeared on petitions. Barr denies the accusation.

==Missed votes in Senate==
Although John McCain has a long record of being present in the Senate for voting, during the current Congress, McCain has missed 64.1% of the votes while running for President - the highest in this Senate this session. Obama is third with 46.3% in this, his only term in the Senate. Four of the top five people who have missed the most votes are all candidates who ran for President.<ref>[http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/senate/vote-missers/ Senate members who missed votes]</ref>

==Age Concern==
There was concern among some that McCain, at the age of 72, may have had health risks as President.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/09/ftl.health.poll/index.html Poll: 47 percent concerned McCain wouldn't finish first term]</ref> He dismissed concerns about his age and past health concerns (malignant [[melanoma]] in 2000), stating in 2005 that his health was "excellent."

==Eligibility==
McCain would also become the first President of the United States to be born in a U.S. territory (the Panama Canal Zone) outside of the current 50 states. Although McCain was not born within a state of the United States, his US citizenship (and future eligibility to be elected to the presidency) was assured at birth both by jus sanguinis, since both of his parents were U.S. citizens, and jus soli, as the Canal Zone was at that time a United States possession.

==Democratic Campaign==
The Democratic campaign has tried to undercut McCain's image as a maverick and his popularity among independents and Democrats by charging that he votes with President Bush 90% of the time (actually, Bush does not vote in the Senate.) By comparison, Obama votes with the Democratic party 97% of the time.

==Criticisms==
John McCain had been frequently criticized by conservatives for his position on [[Campaign finance reform]], [[Immigration]] and for not initially supporting the Bush tax cuts. Former Senator [[Rick Santorum]] (R-[[Pennsylvania]]) claimed that McCain was erratic in his positions and did not serve the best interests of conservatives. He was also criticized by the [[fiscal conservative]] political action committee (PAC) [[Club for Growth]]. Saying that, "While Senator McCain’s economic record contains a number of pro-growth positions, such as his support for [[school choice]] and [[free trade]], and his steadfast opposition to wasteful government spending, his overall record is tainted by a marked antipathy towards the free market and individual freedom."

[[Focus on the Family]] chairman [[James Dobson]] criticized McCain's opposition to passing a Constitutional Amendment banning [[same-sex marriage]].

McCain discussed with the press that he is computer illiterate, a position that some criticized.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R9wnMVZE_Q Youtube: John McCain Admits He Can't Use a A Computer]</ref><ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/us/politics/13mccain.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&hp&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1216062882-WQLoVeqid4IdgFtNqjqEXQ</ref>

According to close McCain advisers, the nominee had been seriously considering a [[pro-choice]] running mate, with [[Senator Joe Lieberman]] and former [[Pennsylvania]] governor and [[Secretary of Homeland Security]] [[Tom Ridge]] most often mentioned.<ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12646.html McCain weighs a Lieberman surprise]</ref> This brought serious criticism from conservative voices such as [[Rush Limbaugh]], who stated: "He’s not going to help himself any additional way, he’s going to hurt himself by putting a liberal or a liberal Republican on this ticket, particularly pro-choice."<ref>[http://thepage.time.com/rush-limbaugh-on-prospect-of-pro-choice-veep-pick/ Rush Limbaugh on Prospect of Pro-Choice Veep Pick]</ref> In addition, [[Laura Ingraham]] weighed in during an on-air interview with Senator McCain, asking "How could you consider selecting someone who opposed the federal [[partial birth abortion]] ban and was one of the eleven original cosponsors of the radical [[Freedom of Choice Act]] as your vice president given your [[pro-life]] stance?"<ref>[http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0808/With_buzz_building_on_prochoice_veep_McCain_remains_coy_on_vp.html?showall With buzz building on pro-choice veep, McCain remains coy on VP]</ref>

In the end, after McCain had won the Republican nomination, conservatives rallied around him. By election day, all of the people who had concerns about McCain above were supporting him.

==Notable Endorsements==
* Sen. [[Joe Lieberman|Joseph Lieberman]] (I-CT), Former [[Democratic]] Vice-Presidential nominee in 2000.
* [[Henry Kissinger]], former [[National Security Adviser]] and [[Secretary of State]] under Presidents [[Richard Nixon]] and [[Gerald Ford]].
* [[Charles R. Schwab]], famous investor and founder of the brokerage firm Charles Schwab Corporation
* [[Lawrence Eagleburger]], former [[Secretary of State]] under President [[George H. W. Bush]]
* [[Alexander Haig]], former [[Secretary of State]] under President [[Ronald Reagan]]
* [[George Schultz]], former [[Secretary of State]] under President [[Ronald Reagan]]
* [[John Thain]], CEO of the [[New York Stock Exchange]]
* [[James Woolsey]], former [[CIA|CIA Director]] under President [[Bill Clinton]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==See also==
*[[John McCain]]
*[[2008 Presidential Election]]

==External links==
*[http://www.johnmccain.com/ John McCain for President]

[[Category: 2008 Presidential Candidates]]

John McCain 2008 Presidential Campaign

2008-11-24T15:55:27Z

RobertPressley: /* Age Concern */ changed to past tense also, HITLER MEGAZOID!!!

<small>For more information on the details of the Presidential race between McCain and Obama see [[United States Presidential Election, 2008]].</small>

[[Image:McCain_nomination.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Senator John McCain accepting his party's presidential nomination, 09/04/08]] [[Arizona]] [[Senator]] [[John McCain]] formally announced his candidacy for the [[Republican]] nomination for [[President of the United States]] in Portsmouth, [[New Hampshire]] on April 25, 2007, and became the GOP nominee in September 3, 2008, after the longest primary season in history.

While his campaign's success was once considered unlikely, McCain won several early primaries and went on to win enough delegates to secure the nomination. McCain had gained national prominence during his surprisingly strong presidential campaign in 2000. He eventually lost out to now-President [[George W. Bush]].

McCain ran as the outsider, the maverick who went his own ways and opposed corruption and the same-old-politics. He electrified the nation and solidified his base among conservatives by naming Alaska governor [[Sarah Palin]] as his running mate. One of his TV commercials summed it up:
:"The original mavericks. He fights pork barrel spending. She stopped the Bridge to Nowhere. He took on the drug industry. She took on big oil. He battled Republicans and reformed Washington. She battled Republicans and reformed Alaska. They'll make history. They'll change Washington. McCain. Palin. Real change."<ref> See [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVIaqCjvLpU for YouTube version, Sept. 8, 2008 ]</ref>
He lost the election to his opponent, the Democratic nominee, [[Barrack Obama]].

==Campaign development==
Based on his longevity in the Senate and his previous race in 2000, McCain already had name recognition coming up to the 2008 election. He informally stated he would be a candidate for the [[2008 Presidential Election]] on the ''Late Show with [[David Letterman]]'' on February 28, 2007, and officially announced his candidacy in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, two months later. A few weeks prior to making his announcement on ''Letterman'', he was beginning to trail behind former Mayor of [[New York City]] [[Rudy Giuliani]] in the polls. McCain supported the 2007 proposal by President George W. Bush for a "surge", an increase in the number of U.S. troops deployed in the [[Iraq War]], which thankfully for McCain was a success. He started a series of campaign events entitled the "No Surrender Tour." His campaign became far more prominent with his wins in the [[New Hampshire primary]] and on [[Super Tuesday]], and since [[Mitt Romney]] endorsed him was considered a virtual certainty to win the nomination. He finally reached the 1,191 delegates to win the nomination on the [[Super Tuesday II]] contests on March 4th.

==Fund raising issues==
McCain's fund raising results and campaign financials were poor. After first-quarter 2007 fundraising totals were released in early April 2007, totals showed McCain's $13.6 million lagging behind rivals in the race. During the second quarter he did worse, raising $11.2 million. In early July 2007, the McCain campaign let go fifty to a hundred staffers and forced others to accept pay cuts or switch to no pay.

McCain accepted nearly $70,000 for his presidential campaign from the top donors to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and their family. The SBVT were condemned at the time by McCain when they ran ads questioning [[John Kerry|John Kerry's]] military service and his reception of the Purple Heart. The money raised was four times the amount McCain raised from those donors in the 14 years prior to launching his campaign.<ref>http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-06-30-swiftboat_N.htm Price of Power: McCain accepts ex-Swift Boaters' Donations</ref>

In June 2008, McCain had his best fundraising month to date, bringing in $21 million in donations for his campaign. In the same month, though, Senator Barack Obama's campaign reported bringing in $52 million.

Senator McCain announced that he would accept public financing for the general election. After his party's nominating convention, the Federal Elections Commission provided him with a check for $85 million. His opponent, Senator Obama, chose to opt-out of the general election financing, the first major candidate to do so since the inception of federal funding. Obama's campaign stated that they had expected to bring in more than the $85 million provided by the FEC and therefore do not want to abide by the spending limits incurred by accepting federal funding. To balance out the expected fundraising advantage Senator Obama had, Senator McCain relyied on the Republican National Committee to help with the campaign through advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts. The RNC had a distinct fundraising advantage over its Democratic counterpart, the Democratic National Committee. The lack of funds, though, hurt down-ticket Republicans who were not able to fall back on RNC fundraising, but instead had to rely on their own efforts as well as that of the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee which have lagged compared to their Democratic counterparts, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

==Campaign Issues==

===Budget===
McCain has stated he plans to balance the budget by 2013, via spending cuts by ending earmarks and proposing a one-year pause in discretionary spending, in addition to tax cuts.<ref>[http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/4dbd2cc7-890e-47f1-882f-b8fc4cfecc78.htm John McCain's Economic Proposals]</ref> Economic experts, though, are skeptical that the ideas proposed by Senator McCain will create a balanced budget. According to Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan budget watchdog group, "It would be very difficult to achieve in the best of circumstances, and even more difficult under the policies that Senator McCain has proposed." <ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/us/politics/08budget.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Skepticism on McCain Plan to Balance Budget]</ref>

Senator McCain proposes to hold the increase in federal spending to 2%, while it has grown at an average of 6% over the past five years. In addition, he plans to slow the growth of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid but has not given details of how he plans to do so.

As a comparison on earmarks, if President Bush were to end all earmarks in 2008, it would cut $17 billion out of a $2.9 trillion budget, a relatively minor amount.

In addition, McCain sees the ends of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan as an opportunity to help reduce the deficit. "The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in the fight against Islamic extremists for reducing the deficit. Since all their costs were financed with deficit spending, all their savings must go to deficit reduction.” <ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11553.html McCain promises to balance budget]</ref>

===View on Tax rebate and Recession===
In January, McCain stated, "As far as putting additional money in taxpayers pocket, that's fine, because a lot of it is psychological. Because I agree the fundamentals of our economy is still strong."<ref>http://youtube.com/watch?v=6aHJT1Ol0iE&v3</ref> In April, he stated, "I’m very concerned about it, Neil. And obviously the way it’s been going up is just terrible. But I think psychologically — and a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological — the confidence, trust, the uncertainty about our economic future, ability to keep our own home. This might give them a little psychological boost. Let’s have some straight talk, it’s not a huge amount of money."<ref>[http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/19/mccain-a-lot-of-our-problems-today-are-psychological/ McCain: 'A lot of our problems today are psychological']</ref>

===Energy===
In a [[Paris Hilton]] video released on FunnyorDie.com, she states "We could do limited offshore drilling with strict environmental oversight while creating tax incentives to get [[Detroit]] making hybrid and electric cars. That way the offshore drilling carries us until the new technologies kick in, which would then create new jobs and energy independence. Energy crisis solved." <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,399821,00.html Congressman Gives a Plug to 'Paris Hilton Plan' in Energy Debate] Fox News, August 7, 2008</ref> In response, the McCain campaign said "In reality, Paris Hilton may have a more substantive energy policy than Barack Obama."

===Pennsylvania lawsuit===
In August of 2008, McCain supporters in the [[Pennsylvania]] GOP filed a lawsuit to remove Libertarian candidate [[Bob Barr]] from the ballot in Pennsylvania.<ref>[http://www.foxreno.com/politics/17258065/detail.html GOP Wants Barr Barred From Pa. Ballot: Candidate Claims McCain Camp Playing Dirty]</ref> Barr is a staunch conservative and could draw votes away from McCain in a state where McCain could ill afford it. The suit says Libertarians waited too long to substitute Barr's name for the stand-in candidate whose name had appeared on petitions. Barr denies the accusation.

==Missed votes in Senate==
Although John McCain has a long record of being present in the Senate for voting, during the current Congress, McCain has missed 64.1% of the votes while running for President - the highest in this Senate this session. Obama is third with 46.3% in this, his only term in the Senate. Four of the top five people who have missed the most votes are all candidates who ran for President.<ref>[http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/110/senate/vote-missers/ Senate members who missed votes]</ref>

==Age Concern==
There was concern among some that McCain, at the age of 72, may have had health risks as President.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/09/ftl.health.poll/index.html Poll: 47 percent concerned McCain wouldn't finish first term]</ref> He dismissed concerns about his age and past health concerns (malignant [[melanoma]] in 2000), stating in 2005 that his health was "excellent."

==Eligibility==
McCain would also become the first President of the United States to be born in a U.S. territory (the Panama Canal Zone) outside of the current 50 states. Although McCain was not born within a state of the United States, his US citizenship (and future eligibility to be elected to the presidency) was assured at birth both by jus sanguinis, since both of his parents were U.S. citizens, and jus soli, as the Canal Zone was at that time a United States possession.

==Democratic Campaign==
The Democratic campaign has tried to undercut McCain's image as a maverick and his popularity among independents and Democrats by charging that he votes with President Bush 90% of the time (actually, Bush does not vote in the Senate.) By comparison, Obama votes with the Democratic party 97% of the time.

==Criticisms==
John McCain had been frequently criticized by conservatives for his position on [[Campaign finance reform]], [[Immigration]] and for not initially supporting the Bush tax cuts. Former Senator [[Rick Santorum]] (R-[[Pennsylvania]]) claimed that McCain was erratic in his positions and did not serve the best interests of conservatives. He was also criticized by the [[fiscal conservative]] political action committee (PAC) [[Club for Growth]]. Saying that, "While Senator McCain’s economic record contains a number of pro-growth positions, such as his support for [[school choice]] and [[free trade]], and his steadfast opposition to wasteful government spending, his overall record is tainted by a marked antipathy towards the free market and individual freedom."

[[Focus on the Family]] chairman [[James Dobson]] criticized McCain's opposition to passing a Constitutional Amendment banning [[same-sex marriage]].

McCain discussed with the press that he is computer illiterate, a position that some criticized.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R9wnMVZE_Q Youtube: John McCain Admits He Can't Use a A Computer]</ref><ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/us/politics/13mccain.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&hp&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1216062882-WQLoVeqid4IdgFtNqjqEXQ</ref>

According to close McCain advisers, the nominee had been seriously considering a [[pro-choice]] running mate, with [[Senator Joe Lieberman]] and former [[Pennsylvania]] governor and [[Secretary of Homeland Security]] [[Tom Ridge]] most often mentioned.<ref>[http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12646.html McCain weighs a Lieberman surprise]</ref> This brought serious criticism from conservative voices such as [[Rush Limbaugh]], who stated: "He’s not going to help himself any additional way, he’s going to hurt himself by putting a liberal or a liberal Republican on this ticket, particularly pro-choice."<ref>[http://thepage.time.com/rush-limbaugh-on-prospect-of-pro-choice-veep-pick/ Rush Limbaugh on Prospect of Pro-Choice Veep Pick]</ref> In addition, [[Laura Ingraham]] weighed in during an on-air interview with Senator McCain, asking "How could you consider selecting someone who opposed the federal [[partial birth abortion]] ban and was one of the eleven original cosponsors of the radical [[Freedom of Choice Act]] as your vice president given your [[pro-life]] stance?"<ref>[http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0808/With_buzz_building_on_prochoice_veep_McCain_remains_coy_on_vp.html?showall With buzz building on pro-choice veep, McCain remains coy on VP]</ref>

In the end, after McCain had won the Republican nomination, conservatives rallied around him. By election day, all of the people who had concerns about McCain above were supporting him.

==Notable Endorsements==
* Sen. [[Joe Lieberman|Joseph Lieberman]] (I-CT), Former [[Democratic]] Vice-Presidential nominee in 2000.
* [[Henry Kissinger]], former [[National Security Adviser]] and [[Secretary of State]] under Presidents [[Richard Nixon]] and [[Gerald Ford]].
* [[Charles R. Schwab]], famous investor and founder of the brokerage firm Charles Schwab Corporation
* [[Lawrence Eagleburger]], former [[Secretary of State]] under President [[George H. W. Bush]]
* [[Alexander Haig]], former [[Secretary of State]] under President [[Ronald Reagan]]
* [[George Schultz]], former [[Secretary of State]] under President [[Ronald Reagan]]
* [[John Thain]], CEO of the [[New York Stock Exchange]]
* [[James Woolsey]], former [[CIA|CIA Director]] under President [[Bill Clinton]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

==See also==
*[[John McCain]]
*[[2008 Presidential Election]]

==External links==
*[http://www.johnmccain.com/ John McCain for President]

[[Category: 2008 Presidential Candidates]]