DNC: This Doesn't Seem to Be Getting Any Easier...Another No Good, Very Bad Week for John McCain

March 28, 2008

WASHINGTON, March 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Though he's been the presumptive Republican nominee for a while now, the weeks don't seem to be getting any easier for John McCain. This week, in what were billed by his campaign as "major policy speeches" on Iraq and the mortgage crisis, McCain in fact included no new policies, proposals or ideas to tackle the most important issues facing our country - and it didn't go unnoticed.

But no one was buying McCain's doubletalk. Below are a selection of articles chronicling McCain's tough week:

On the Economy, Housing Crisis:

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1206693064181100.xml&coll=2

Cleveland Plain Dealer

March 28, 2008

"Despite his criticism this week of government intervention in the mortgage and foreclosure crisis, Republican presidential candidate John McCain sounded friendlier toward struggling homeowners last month when he campaigned in Ohio...That's a different tone from the rhetoric he used Tuesday during a speech in which he suggested homeowners facing foreclosure have only themselves to blame...But seeking The Plain Dealer endorsement leading up to Ohio's March 4 primary, McCain struck a more sympathetic tone. Northeast Ohio had the sixth highest foreclosure rate in the nation last year, according to a recent analysis, and three other metro areas in the state were in the top 20."

McCain leaves housing crisis options on table:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iNxTApa2sQRu0Xx99P3jt2bEXw7gD8VKK9E80

Associated Press

March 25, 2008

"McCain, in the midst of a weeklong western fundraising swing, focused on the home-financing crisis at an event in the Republican bastion of Orange County as he tried to rebut Democratic criticism of his economic credentials. His pitch, though, offered little in the way of specific proposals to immediately address the crisis."

McCain talks housing crisis in L.A. area:

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-mccain26mar26,1,2281234.story

Los Angeles Times

March 26, 2008

" Sen. John McCain addressed the mortgage foreclosure crisis and the weakening economy in a speech in Santa Ana today but offered no major prescriptions for quelling turbulence -- instead calling for two panels to look at the problems."

How not to prevent foreclosures:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/opinion/27thu1.html?_r=4&oref=slogin&ref=opinion&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

New York Times

Editorial

March 27, 2008

"With foreclosures surging, the last thing the nation needs is another government-hosted meeting where mortgage lenders pledge once again to do their utmost to help distressed borrowers stay in their homes -- and then go back to the business of foreclosure. Yet, a meeting and a round of pledges is exactly what Senator John McCain called for on Tuesday, as if the country had not been down that fruitless road already. The real core of his speech was his argument against government action to help dig distressed homeowners -- or the country -- out of the mortgage mess. Mr. McCain 's talk therapy will not ease, let alone end, the worst foreclosure crisis since the Depression or the financial crisis that has erupted in its wake. But worse yet is what it says about the presumptive Republican nominee's view of the economy and the government's responsibility to protect and help its citizens. His suggestion that federal aid might wrongly reward 'undeserving' homeowners sounded both mean-spirited and economically naive. And then there is the double standard. He seemed less concerned about the government helping reckless bankers, endorsing its role in preventing the bankruptcy of Bear Stearns."

McCain, under pressure, revisits economic questions

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/27/mccain_under_pressure_revisits.html

Washington Post

March 27, 2008

"McCain's campaign 'seems to have recognized that the other side was landing some potentially damaging blows this week with charges that McCain's economic plan was less laissez-faire than plain old cold-hearted.'"

Foreign Policy:

Sen. McCain 's gaffe

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-oops.artmar25,0,54547,print.story

Hartford Courant

Editorial

March 25, 2008

"On his trip to the Middle East , presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain flubbed a key fact about the situation in Iraq . The Arizona senator said on several occasions that he was concerned that Iranians were training members of al-Qaida inside Iran and returning them to Iraq . He said it was a 'well-known' fact and 'common knowledge'...Iran is a Shiite country and would not likely be aiding al-Qaida, an insurgent group composed of Sunni Muslims. Why is this repeated misidentification by Mr. McCain important? Because he is basing his campaign on the premise that he's the most experienced of the candidates by far in national security and foreign policy."

John McCain visits Palm Desert today

http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080325/NEWS01/803250313/1144/RSS26

The Desert Sun

March 25, 2008

"McCain's stop in Palm Desert is part of a three-day trip to Southern California...The trip begins three days after McCain's seven-day congressional fact-finding trip to the Middle East and Europe intended to bolster his foreign policy credentials, but will probably be best remembered for a gaffe...Not only is McCain wrong on Iraq again, but the bigger problem is either that either he doesn't understand the problems facing Iraq and basically the whole Middle East or he's willing to ignore the facts on the ground,' Luis Miranda , a deputy communications director with the Democratic National Committee told City News Service. 'Whichever one of those two things it is, it's just not worthy of inspiring trust.'"

McCain won't win over Europe unless U.S. exits Iraq

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/27/ED6BVRK76.DTL

San Francisco Chronicle

Steve Kettmann , Op-Ed Contributer

March 28, 2008

"John McCain's status as the presumptive Republican nominee for president should have made his recent photo-op-diplomacy swing through the Middle East and Europe a cakewalk, in which just distancing himself from the universally loathed George W. Bush would at least earn him a healthy dollop of goodwill...It was clear that for all his love of the Baghdad street photo-op, McCain seems to have an alarmingly incoherent notion of what is actually going on in the country we invaded five years ago."

Problems In the West?:

McCain pays Utah a visit: Mitt, Huntsman help him raise $400K

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695265419,00.html

Deseret Morning News

March 28, 2008

"And Western Democrats joined forces Thursday to say that McCain will have to work to win the Western vote, despite the fact that he has been an Arizona senator since 1987. 'We don't believe he has an advantage in the West,' said Colorado Democratic Party chairwoman Pat Waak...Utah Democratic Party communications director Bill Keshlear said recent polls that show McCain having 54 percent of Republicans is 'historically low' for Utah. 'It hasn't been that low since 1964,' Keshlear said. 'John McCain is vulnerable on the issues in a whole range of ways.'"

http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080328/NATION/747429636/1002

Washington Times

March 28, 2008

"Democratic leaders in Rocky Mountain states yesterday said Sen. John McCain is not a shoo-in for victory this fall in the traditionally Republican region, saying they hope to capitalize on a trend toward their party as urban professionals flood into their cities. Demographics in the region are undeniably changing: there are now more Hispanic immigrants, who traditionally vote Democratic, and newcomers are middle-class, more independent and concerned about issues from the environment to schools to growth issues."

The Myth of the Maverick:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/opinion/26gabler.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

New York Times

By Neal Gabler , Op-Ed Contributor

March 26, 2008

"Yet however much his accessibility, amiability and candor may have defined the news media's love affair with him in 2000, and however much they continue to operate that way in 2008, there is also something different and more complicated at work now. Joan Didion once described a presidential campaign as a closed system staged by the candidates for the news media -- one in which the media judged a candidate essentially by how well he or she manipulated them, and one in which the electorate were bystanders...Off the bus he plays to the rubes (us) by reciting the conservative catechism; on the bus he plays to the press by giving the impression that his talk is all just a ploy to capture the Republican nomination."

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