Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Alerts | Electronic edition | Advertise | Subscribe to the paper | Today's Extras
Subscribe

Breaking News:

Rocky Q&A with John McCain

By David Montero, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 2, 2008 at 10:58 a.m.
Updated May 2, 2008 at 11:26 a.m.

Text size  

Related Links

Related Stories

More Elections

More stories »

Sen. John McCain made a stop in Denver this morning to talk about health care in America. Before he began his town hall meeting, he took time out to answer a few questions.

Question: A recent poll showed 81 percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track and President Bush's approval rating is in the low 30s and places like Colorado have been battered by the foreclosure crisis. What do you offer that is different than what has been offered for the past eight years?

McCain: A plan of action. A way to get the economy back on its feet. A way to make sure our nation is secure and among other things an energy policy that eliminates our dependence on foreign oil. I have a plan and I'll put it into action and we will show the American people that I have both the experience and the knowledge and the judgment and the vision to lead the country as president and that's what campaigns are all about.

Question: Colorado resident James Dobson has said publicly that he would have great difficulty supporting you. Have you reached out to him and what do you think you need to do to reach those that share Dobson's conservative beliefs?

McCain: I respect Dr. Dobson. I have not reached out to him. I'm always willing to talk to anyone who wants to talk to me. All I can say is I'm happy that the Republican Party is united and I've got to work to energize them so we can have a solid Republican base reach out to independents and the old and new Reagan Democrats and win this campaign.

Question: Oil companies in recent days have revealed record profits and yet, here in Colorado, gas prices are nudging toward $4 a gallon. You have proposed the gas tax holiday but critics argue that your plan would take money away from essential federal monies used for roads. If put into place, how will your plan ensure highways get the money they need to operate efficiently?

McCain: By just taking the money out of general revenues for awhile, giving lower-income Americans who drive the furthest and have consumed the most gasoline because they drive older automobiles a break or maybe they can buy something that would help their children when they go back to school this fall. I don't think its by any stretch of the imagination a solution to it, but I think it's a way to give lower-income Americans a little bit of a break and the problem with roads and infrastructure and bridges and tunnels in America can be laid right at the doorstep of Congress because of the pork barrel earmark spending such as the bridge to nowhere in Alaska has diverted people's hard earned tax dollars that they pay at the gas pump. It is a corrupting process and its going change when I'm president of the United States because I'm going to veto every one of those bills.

Question: You at one point rejected President Bush's request to make his tax cuts permanent but now you've said they should be made permanent. Why the change of heart?

McCain: I had my own tax cut plan and said we had to restrain spending and we did not. We presided over the greatest increase in spending since the Great Society and we have now accumulated massive deficits. I believe that if you don't make the tax cuts permanent, you will have the effect of a tax increase on what is already a very, very bad economy and I think it would be very harmful to the country.

Question: Does that mean you were wrong the first time around?

McCain: No, I was right because I wanted spending restraint and I wanted my own tax cuts and I had a strong plan for it. If we had done what I wanted to do and had the tax cuts I wanted and spending restraint I wanted we would be talking about further tax cuts today. I was right. I was right because there was no restraint in spending.

Question: You've said we need to stay in Iraq until the country can stand on its own and yet, there is a feeling that the war is becoming increasingly cost prohibitive to run. If we have to stay in Iraq for a long time — and you can say how long you think that might be — how do propose the nation will be able to pay for it?

McCain: I expect Iraqis to take over more and more financially as well as militarily. There is a total falsification on my comment about 100 years that has been condemned by every objective organization. When Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton have interpreted my remarks to be, but the fact is, after we succeed in Iraq, we can have a security arrangement — the same kind we have in South Korea after the Korean War ended. We are succeeding in Iraq. If we do what Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton want to do, which means setting a date for withdrawal, al quaeda, the extremists, the jihadists take over in Iraq, there's chaos and genocide and we will have to return with further sacrifice of American blood and treasure. All of us our frustrated by four years of Rumsfeld and I was one of the first to argue against the failing strategy and argue for the strategy that is succeeding today.

Comments

  • May 2, 2008

    11:42 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    freethought writes:

    After we succeed in Iraq??? This man doesn't look to have that long to live. It may take a hundred years...is like Lincoln telling us that the civil war might last until the Kennedy administration. If my toilet were full of that much ****, I would flush it.

  • May 2, 2008

    11:46 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    SkinnyMinnie writes:

    What's up with the softball journalism? How about asking him to justify voting against the ban on waterboarding? Or supporting businesses' ability to discriminate against women by paying lower wages than men? Or how he can claim to have strong foreign policy credentials, yet continually confuse Sunni and Shia sects in Iraq? Or how he is breaking the spending limits for a publicly financed primary campaign? It's not that hard to find the right questions to ask. How about a follow up question about how exactly he will "eliminate our dependence on foreign oil" (which is pretty much impossible, by the way)?

  • May 2, 2008

    11:53 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Alexandra writes:

    I like his first answer
    "I have a plan and I will put it into action"

    OK, SO.....(this shouldn't take a genius)
    WHAT IS THIS GREAT PLAN YOU SPEAK OF?

    Isn't this an obvious question by the interviewer?
    And yes...his pro-war stance is so ridiculously stupid.

    Right Buddy.
    "Mission Accomplished"

    He is just lucky the rest of the Republican candidates were even worse possibilities than he is.

    And YES, HOW will we eliminate dependence on foreign oil?
    I want to hear the actions not just the promises.

    Alex

  • May 2, 2008

    12:11 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    bubbabeers writes:

    I actually think he had a good chance of winning this election if he would have been the lone republican to stand up to the Bush administration years ago. I he would have shown some leadership in the republican party and asked the Bush administration he would be in better shape now. Instead, he dissappointed many by walking the party line and in the process got walked all over himself. And where did it get him? The republican machine has pissed all over him calling him a liberal etc. etc.... wow, just look at where party loyalty gets you.

  • May 2, 2008

    12:13 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Seabreezes writes:

    And yet, Bill Clinton caught hell for waffling. Give me a flippin' break. Obama '08. Or Ron Paul for President. Or even fricking Mickey Mouse. Anybody but McCain.

  • May 2, 2008

    12:16 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Diff writes:

    The Gas Tax Break - What a foolish idea! It is just politics, and sounds good. IT is no answer!
    IT would save me about $5 a week at best - BIG WHOOP!
    Let's look at the big oil companies who's PROFITS keep going up to record levels, along with the pump price of gasoline. The price keeps rising despite a DROP in usage?!?!
    just 8 months left - thank goodness it's 08 finally.
    And let's not extend the Bush administration with McCain!
    That would be even more FOOLISH

    OBMAMA 08

  • May 2, 2008

    12:48 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    MGD writes:

    What good proposals do you have for reducing the price of gas? I keep hearing that it's the fault of Government but I have yet to see a good idea for that.

  • May 2, 2008

    12:55 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Ztliano writes:

    McCain scares me straight.

  • May 2, 2008

    1:14 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jay writes:

    mgd, i don't know why bush doesn't leverage the negotiating power behind our strategic oil reserves in order to pressure the world's oil producing countries to increase production....effectively reducing gas prices....just as clinton successfully did.

    i'd still like to hear an answer to the question of the campaign.

    if you're voting for mccain...what bush accomplishments warrant a continuation of his policies?

Post your comment

Registration is required. Click here to create your free user account, or login below.

Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.




(Forgotten your password?)




News Tip

Know about something we should be reporting? Tell us about it.

Sponsored links



Reprints