May 15 McCain Blogger Conference Call

Senator McCain just finished a conference call with bloggers. Most of the call was dominated by discussion of Iraq and Iran, specifically Senator Obama's reaction to President Bush's remarks in Israel, Senator McCain's thoughts on negotiating with Iran and Senator McCain's thoughts on his announced goal to win the war in Iraq by 2013. Here are the highlights:

Senator McCain set out his definition of victory in Iraq, including control of the country by the Maliki government, the Iraqi military taking over responsibility and U.S. troops out of harms way and reducing U.S. troop presence, but he stressed that this does not mean we leave Iraq, or that there is not still "sporadic fighting." He again analogized a long-term presence in Iraq to those in Kuwait and Korea.

Senator McCain specifically stated that he looks forward to having with Sen. Obama or Clinton a "debate as to whether we are winning or not" in Iraq. He stressed repeatedly the importance of the "facts on the ground."

He emphasized that he is not announcing a date for withdrawal by setting a 2013 goal. When a questioner characterized his speech as a withdrawal date he was quite firm in telling her that "you either didn't read or didn't understand my speech" and said it "should be fairly apparent" that he picked 2013 because that would be the end of his first term and he's saying what he intends to accomplish.

Turning to Iran, Sen. McCain said he took Pres. Bush at his word that in his remarks on the dangers of appeasement he was not referring to Sen. Obama, but he did note "such a vociferous reaction" by Sen. Obama and characterized as the "highest degree of naivete and inexperience" to negotiate with Iran when the Iranian leadership refers to Israel as "a stinking corpse" and threatens to wipe Israel off the map and supports terrorism and the insurgency in Iraq, emphasizing that such talks would only lend prestige to the Iranian regime.

As Sen. McCain described Sen. Obama's proposal for such talks: "what is it that he wants to talk about?"

Sen. McCain then laid out his conditions for talking with Iran: renounce threats against Israel, renounce nuclear ambitions, stop supplying "lethal explosive devices" to insurgents in Iraq. He noted that he'd be willing to offer incentives to Iran but they would have to make those steps first. He also noted that U.S. Ambassador Crocker, in Iraq, has tried talking with the Iranian Ambassador there (despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations) but has met with nothing but intransigence.

A few more random points:

In response to Jim Geraghty's question about Obama trying to lie about having proposed talks with Iran, Sen. McCain noted that Sen. Obama has told different audiences different things about NAFTA (being against it in Ohio and pro-free-trade in NC), and also noted that the Canadians responded to Sen. Obama's threat to unilaterally renegotiate NAFTA by saying they'd have to sell oil to China instead.

He also promised to try to do regular blogger calls even in the White House.

In response to a question about the influence of Newt Gingrich on his thinking, Sen. McCain said of Newt: "he has some of the best ideas in this country" and he has read some of Newt's books.

Sen. McCain reiterated his strong support for nuclear power and blamed President Carter for ceasing the reprocessing of spent fuel.

Answering a question about veterans' healthcare, Sen. McCain noted his support from veterans groups and promised to match his record of the same against anyone. He noted that he wants to work with Sen. Webb and that he supports letting veterans go to local non-VA health providers for routine care. He stressed that a key goal is "encouraging people to stay in the military" but that it's also important to support the mission, not just care for the wounded.

Finally, in response to questions about appointing Democrats to his Administration, Sen. McCain stated that he would intend to do so but won't specify to what jobs and that he has to "get a running mate first" before he thinks of that.

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