John McCain 2008 Presidential Campaign

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, although he had discussed running for months prior. If elected in 2008, McCain would become the oldest person elected President at 72 years old. He has dismissed concerns about his age and past health concerns (malignant melanoma in 2000), stating in 2005 that his health was "excellent." 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. 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. However, he eventually lost the Republican primaries to now-President George W. Bush.

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.

Missed votes in Senate

In May 2007, it was reported that McCain had missed 42 consecutive votes (five straight weeks) in the Senate while he was conducting his presidential campaign. From March to May, McCain only attended three floor votes in the Senate. During the current Congress, Senator McCain has missed 62.6% of the votes. That is the highest percentage of missed votes in this Senate session, with Senator Tim Johnson, who had to undergo brain surgery, second missing 50.3%. Senator Obama is third with 43.7%. Only two Congressional members have missed more votes this session, Rep. Charles Norwood (R-GA) and Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-VA), who both passed away while in office.

Fund raising issues

McCain's fund raising results and campaign financials have been 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 has 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's military service and his reception of the Purple Heart. The money raised is four times the amount McCain raised from those donors in the 14 years prior to launching his campaign.

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 has announced that he will accept public financing for the general election. After his party's nominating convention, the Federal Elections Commission will provide him with a check for $85 million. His opponent, Senator Obama, has chosen to opt-out of the general election financing, the first major candidate to do so since the inception of federal funding. Obama's campaign has stated that they expect 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 has, Senator McCain will be relying also on the Republican National Committee to help with the campaign through advertising and get-out-the-vote efforts. The RNC has a distinct fundraising advantage over its Democratic counterpart, the Democratic National Committee. The lack of funds, though, will hurt down-ticket Republicans who will not be able to fall back on RNC fundraising, but instead will have 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. 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."

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.”

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." 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."

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." In response, the McCain campaign said "In reality, Paris Hilton may have a more substantive energy policy than Barack Obama."

Criticisms

John McCain has 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 is not only erratic in his positions, but does not serve the best interests of conservatives. He has also been 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 but says he still may vote for him.

McCain discussed with the press that he is computer illiterate, a position that some have since criticized.

Senator McCain has called for a "gas tax holiday", suspending the 18.4 cents per gallon tax on gasoline and 24.3 cents per gallon on diesel fuel. The proposal has drawn criticism from economists who state that to make up the loss in tax revenue, money will have to be drawn from the general Treasury Fund, increasing the deficit. Though McCain told Fox News Channel on April 24th, that he could pay for it by cutting Congressional pork.

After Russia's invasion of neighboring Georgia, Senator McCain made tough statements regarding Russia's seemingly imperialistic maneuvers. McCain drew the most criticism for announcing that he'd send Senator Lindsey Graham and Senator Joe Lieberman on a trip to Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. The announcement brought suggestions of hypocrisy after McCain's criticism of Senator Obama's overseas trip that drew a crowd of 200,000 in Berlin for appearing too presidential. In addition, the trip by McCain's surrogates is exceptional due to past presidential candidates traditionally sidestepping any international conflicts in deference to the sitting president.

Notable Endorsements

• Sen. 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 Director under President Bill Clinton

See also

• John McCain
• 2008 Presidential Election

External links

• John McCain for President