Subject: [big campaign] Tracking Update: McCain Speech in Columbus, OH
From: "Andres Moreno" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 12:30:10 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Just off the phone with our tracker Jacob Roberts who was on the ground this
morning in Ohio.  Below are the notes from our call.
*
Columbus, OH - McCain Speech on Bi-Partisanship and His 2013 "vision" *

*Big Highlights: *Speech attempts to distance himself from Bush and
highlights his "goals" for his first term as President. McCain claims that
Iraq War will have been won by Jan 2013, amongst many other promises on the
economy, environment, education health care, voluntary national service,
bi-partisanship.

*Background Details
*- McCain was introduced by local doctor
- Audience Size: 300-400
- The crowd seemed underwhelmed during many portions of the speech.
- McCain had trouble reading off of his huge teleprompter
- The speech was set up with a State of the Union feel. Press members
mentioned how "boring it was"
- Audience seated
- Secret Service Everywhere, Metal Detectors Used, McCain heavily staffed

*Press:*
- Traveling Press as usual
 - Japan Broadcasting Corporation
*Local TV Press:*
- 10 TV news
- WOUV News
- Local ABC, Fox
*Local Radio:*
- WTVN Radio
 - Ohio Public Radio - State House News
- Local Bloggers

*
Speech Highlights
*Link to transcript and webvideo:
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/Speeches/e8114732-e294-4a0d-b0b6-e5fa16857f61.htm

*Prepared Transcript:*

Thank you. The hectic but repetitive routine of presidential campaigns often
seems to consist entirely of back and forth charges between candidates,
punctuated by photo ops, debates and the occasional policy speech, followed
by another barrage of accusations and counter accusations, formulated into
the soundbites preferred by cable news producers. It is a little
hypocritical for candidates or reporters to criticize these deficiencies.
They are our creation. Campaigns and the media collaborated as architects of
the modern presidential campaign, and we deserve equal blame for the regret
we feel from time to time over its less than inspirational features.

Voters, however, even in this revolutionary communications age, with its 24
hour news cycle, can be forgiven their uncertainty about what the candidates
actually hope to achieve if they have the extraordinary privilege of being
elected President of the United States. We spend too little time and offer
too few specifics on that most important of questions. We make promises, of
course, about what kind of policies we would pursue in office. But they
often are obscured, mischaracterized and forgotten in the heat and fog of
political battle.

Next January, the political leadership of the United States will change
significantly. It is important that the candidates who seek to lead the
country after the Bush Administration define their objectives and what they
plan to achieve not with vague language but with clarity.

So, what I want to do today is take a little time to describe what I would
hope to have achieved at the end of my first term as President. I cannot
guarantee I will have achieved these things. I am presumptuous enough to
think I would be a good President, but not so much that I believe I can
govern by command. Should I forget that, Congress will, of course, hasten to
remind me. The following are conditions I intend to achieve. And toward that
end, I will focus all the powers of the office; every skill and strength I
possess; and seize every opportunity to work with members of Congress who
put the national interest ahead of partisanship, and any country in the
world that shares our hopes for a more peaceful and prosperous world.

By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women
who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom.
The Iraq War has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still
suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of
sectarian tension. Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much
reduced. Civil war has been prevented; militias disbanded; the Iraqi
Security Force is professional and competent; al Qaeda in Iraq has been
defeated; and the Government of Iraq is capable of imposing its authority in
every province of Iraq and defending the integrity of its borders. The
United States maintains a military presence there, but a much smaller one,
and it does not play a direct combat role.

The threat from a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan has been greatly reduced
but not eliminated. U.S. and NATO forces remain there to help finish the
job, and continue operations against the remnants of al Qaeda. The
Government of Pakistan has cooperated with the U.S. in successfully adapting
the counterinsurgency tactics that worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan to
its lawless tribal areas where al Qaeda fighters are based. The increase in
actionable intelligence that the counterinsurgency produced led to the
capture or death of Osama bin Laden, and his chief lieutenants. There is no
longer any place in the world al Qaeda can consider a safe haven. Increased
cooperation between the United States and its allies in the concerted use of
military, diplomatic, and economic power and reforms in the intelligence
capabilities of the United States has disrupted terrorist networks and
exposed plots around the world. There still has not been a major terrorist
attack in the United States since September 11, 2001.

The United States and its allies have made great progress in advancing
nuclear security. Concerted action by the great democracies of the world has
persuaded a reluctant Russia and China to cooperate in pressuring Iran to
abandon its nuclear ambitions, and North Korea to discontinue its own. The
single greatest threat facing the West -- the prospect of nuclear materials
in the hands of terrorists -- has been vastly diminished.

The size of the Army and Marine Corps has been significantly increased, and
are now better equipped and trained to defend us. Long overdue reforms to
the way we acquire weapons programs, including fixed price contracts, have
created sufficient savings to pay for a larger military. A substantial
increase in veterans educational benefits and improvements in their health
care has aided recruitment and retention. The strain on the National Guard
and reserve forces has been relieved.

After efforts to pressure the Government in Sudan over Darfur failed again
in the U.N. Security Council, the United States, acting in concert with a
newly formed League of Democracies, applied stiff diplomatic and economic
pressure that caused the government of Sudan to agree to a multinational
peacekeeping force, with NATO countries providing logistical and air
support, to stop the genocide that had made a mockery of the world's
repeated declaration that we would "never again" tolerant such inhumanity.
Encouraged by the success, the League is now occupied with using the
economic power and prestige of its member states to end other gross abuses
of human rights such as the despicable crime of human trafficking.

The United States has experienced several years of robust economic growth,
and Americans again have confidence in their economic future. A reduction in
the corporate tax rate from the second highest in the world to one on par
with our trading partners; the low rate on capital gains; allowing business
to deduct in a single year investments in equipment and technology, while
eliminating tax loopholes and ending corporate welfare, have spurred
innovation and productivity, and encouraged companies to keep their
operations and jobs in the United States. The Alternate Minimum Tax is being
phased out, with relief provided first to middle income families. Doubling
the size of the child exemption has put more disposable income in the hands
of taxpayers, further stimulating growth.

Congress has just passed by a single up or down vote a tax reform proposal
that offers Americans a choice of continuing to file under the rules of the
current complicated and burdensome tax code or use a new, simpler, fairer
and flatter tax, with two rates and a generous deduction. Millions of
taxpayers are expected to file under the flat tax, and save billions in the
cost of preparing their returns.

After exercising my veto several times in my first year in office, Congress
has not sent me an appropriations bill containing earmarks for the last
three years. A top to bottom review of every federal bureaucracy has yielded
great reductions in government spending by identifying programs that serve
no important purpose; and instigating far reaching reforms of procurement
and operating policies that have for too long extravagantly wasted money for
no better purpose than to increase federal payrolls.

New free trade agreements have been ratified and led to substantial
increases in both exports and imports. The resulting growth in prosperity in
countries from South America to Asia to Africa has greatly strengthened
America's security and the global progress of our political ideals. U.S.
tariffs on agricultural imports have been eliminated and unneeded farm
subsidies are being phased out. The world food crisis has ended, inflation
is low, and the quality of life not only in our country, but in some of the
most impoverished countries around the world is much improved.

Americans, who through no fault of their own, lost jobs in the global
economy they once believed were theirs for life, are assisted by reformed
unemployment insurance and worker retraining programs. Older workers who
accept lower paying jobs while they acquire new skills are provided
assistance to make up a good part of the income they have lost. Community
colleges and technical schools all over the country have developed worker
retraining programs suited to the specific economic opportunities available
in their communities and are helping millions of workers who have lost a job
that won't come back find a new one that won't go away.

Public education in the United States is much improved thanks to the
competition provided by charter and private schools; the increase of quality
teachers through incentives like merit pay and terrific programs that
attract to the classroom enthusiastic and innovative teachers from many
disciplines, like Teach for America and Troops to Teachers. Educational
software and online teaching programs endorsed by qualified non profits are
much more widely in use, bringing to the smallest classrooms in America some
of the greatest math, English, and science teachers in the country. This
revolution in teaching methods has especially benefited rural America. Test
scores and graduation rates are rising everywhere in the country.

Health care has become more accessible to more Americans than at any other
time in history. Reforms of the insurance market; putting the choice of
health care into the hands of American families rather than exclusively with
the government or employers; walk in clinics as alternatives to emergency
room care; paying for outcome in the treatment of disease rather than
individual procedures; and competition in the prescription drug market have
begun to wring out the runaway inflation once endemic in our health care
system. More small businesses offer their employees health plans. Schools
have greatly improved their emphasis on physical education and nutritional
content of meals offered in school cafeterias. Obesity rates among the young
and the disease they engender are stabilized and beginning to decline. The
federal government and states have cooperated in establishing backstop
insurance pools that provide coverage to people hard pressed to find
insurance elsewhere because of pre-existing illness.

The reduction in the growth of health care costs has begun to relieve some
of the pressure on Medicare; encouraging Congress to act in a bipartisan way
to extend its solvency for twenty-five years without increasing taxes and
raising premiums only for upper income seniors. Their success encouraged a
group of congressional leaders from both parties to work with my
administration to fix Social Security as well, without reducing benefits to
those near retirement. The reforms include some form of personal retirement
accounts in safe and reliable index funds, such as have been available to
government employees since their retirement plans were made solvent a
quarter century ago.

The United States is well on the way to independence from foreign sources of
oil; progress that has not only begun to alleviate the environmental threat
posed from climate change, but has greatly improved our security as well. A
cap and trade system has been implemented, spurring great innovation in the
development of green technologies and alternative energy sources. Clean coal
technology has advanced considerably with federal assistance. Construction
has begun on twenty new nuclear reactors thanks to improved incentives and a
streamlined regulatory process.

Scores of judges have been confirmed to the federal district and appellate
courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, who understand that they were not
sent there to write our laws but to enforce them and make sure they are
consistent with the Constitution. They are judges of exceptional character
and quality, who enforce and do not make laws, and who respect the values of
the people whose rights, laws and property they are sworn to defend.

Border state governors have certified and the American people recognize that
after tremendous improvements to border security infrastructure and
increases in the border patrol, and vigorous prosecution of companies that
employ illegal aliens, our southern border is now secure. Illegal immigrants
who broke our laws after they came here have been arrested and deported.
Illegal immigration has been finally brought under control, and the American
people accepted the practical necessity to institute a temporary worker
program and deal humanely with the millions of immigrants who have been in
this country illegally.

Voluntary national service has grown in popularity in part because of the
educational benefits used as incentives, as well as frequent appeals from
the bully pulpit of the White House, but mostly because the young Americans,
no less than earlier generations, understand that true happiness is much
greater than the pursuit of pleasure, and can only be found by serving
causes greater than self-interest. Scores of accomplished private sector
leaders have joined the ranks of my administration for a dollar a year and
have instituted some of the most innovative reforms of government programs
ever known, often in partnership with willing private sector partners. A
sense of community, a kinship of ideals, has invigorated public service
again.

This is the progress I want us to achieve during my presidency. These are
the changes I am running for President to make. I want to leave office
knowing that America is safer, freer, and wealthier than when I was elected;
that more Americans have more opportunities to pursue their dreams than at
any other time in our history; that the world has become less threatening to
our interests and more hospitable to our values; and that America has again,
as she always has, chosen not to hide from history but to make history.

I am well aware I cannot make any of these changes alone. The powers of the
presidency are rightly checked by the other branches of government, and I
will not attempt to acquire powers our founders saw fit to grant Congress. I
will exercise my veto if I believe legislation passed by Congress is not in
the nation's best interests, but I will not subvert the purpose of
legislation I have signed by making statements that indicate I will enforce
only the parts of it I like. I will respect the responsibilities the
Constitution and the American people have granted Congress, and will, as I
often have in the past, work with anyone of either party to get things done
for our country.

For too long, now, Washington has been consumed by a hyper-partisanship that
treats every serious challenge facing us as an opportunity to trade insults;
disparage each other's motives; and fight about the next election. For all
the problems we face, if you ask Americans what frustrates them most about
Washington, they will tell you they don't think we're capable of serving the
public interest before our personal and partisan ambitions; that we fight
for ourselves and not for them. Americans are sick of it, and they have
every right to be. They are sick of the politics of selfishness, stalemate
and delay. They despair when every election -- no matter who wins -- always
seems to produce four more years of unkept promises and a government that is
just a battleground for the next election. Their patience is at an end for
politicians who value ambition over principle, and for partisanship that is
less a contest of ide as than an uncivil brawl over the spoils of power.
They want to change not only the policies and institutions that have failed
the American people, but the political culture that produced them. They want
to move this country forward and stake our claim on this century as we did
in the last. And they want their government to care more about them than
preserving the privileges of the powerful.

There are serious issues at stake in this election, and serious differences
between the candidates. And we will argue about them, as we should. But it
should remain an argument among friends; each of us struggling to hear our
conscience, and heed its demands; each of us, despite our differences,
united in our great cause, and respectful of the goodness in each other.
That is how most Americans treat each other. And it is how they want the
people they elect to office to treat each other.

If I am elected President, I will work with anyone who sincerely wants to
get this country moving again. I will listen to any idea that is offered in
good faith and intended to help solve our problems, not make them worse. I
will seek the counsel of members of Congress from both parties in forming
government policy before I ask them to support it. I will ask Democrats to
serve in my administration. My administration will set a new standard for
transparency and accountability. I will hold weekly press conferences. I
will regularly brief the American people on the progress our policies have
made and the setbacks we have encountered. When we make errors, I will
confess them readily, and explain what we intend to do to correct them. I
will ask Congress to grant me the privilege of coming before both houses to
take questions, and address criticism, much the same as the Prime Minister
of Great Britain appears regularly before the House of Commons.

We cannot again leave our problems for another unluckier generation of
Americans to fix after they have become even harder to solve. I'm not
interested in partisanship that serves no other purpose than to gain a
temporary advantage over our opponents. This mindless, paralyzing rancor
must come to an end. We belong to different parties, not different
countries. We are rivals for the same power. But we are also compatriots. We
are fellow Americans, and that shared distinction means more to me than any
other association. I intend to prove myself worthy of the office; of our
country; and of your respect. I won't judge myself by how many elections
I've won. I won't spend one hour of my presidency worrying more about my
re-election than keeping my promises to the American people. There is a time
to campaign, and a time to govern. If I'm elected President, the era of the
permanent campaign will end. The era of problem solving will begin. I
promise you, from the day I am sworn into office until the last hour of my
presidency, I will work with anyone, of either party, to make this country
safe, prosperous and proud. And I won't care who gets the credit. Thank you.
Thank you,
-- 
Andres Moreno
Deputy Director - Tracking/Media Monitoring
Progressive Media USA
202-609-7688 (office)
703-501-6661 (cell)
[email-masked]

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