Obama’s position on free trade “highly irresponsible” says Florida Congressman

Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) speaks about the differences between Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on hispanic issues. Diaz-Balart says that Obama does not support free trade in Columbia and would like to abolish the free trade deal that the United States has with Mexico and Canada. Diaz-Balart also calls Obama’s position on free trade “highly irresponsible.” (0:44)
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Obama may not be up to Afghanistan challenge, experts say

Senior foreign affairs advisors for John McCain, Kori Schake and Randy Scheunemann, discuss the setbacks Barack Obama has when it comesto foreign policy, especially in Afghanistan. Following Obama's speech about national security, Schuenemann said it is interesting that Obama gave this speech, especially since he has not been to Iraq in over 900 days and has never been to Afghanistan. Rep. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) sees problems with committee organization and action on issues in Afghanistan. (17:50)
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A gateway to better care, “McCain want's all Americans covered”

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Senior Policy Advisor with the John McCain campaign speaks about McCain’s health care insurance proposal. Holtz-Eakin was on hand with Barack Obama Policy Advisor Jeffrey Liebman to discuss how the next president will pay our nation’s bills; the forum was sponsored by AARP. (0:47)
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Obama camp okay with raising taxes to fund social security

Jeffrey Liebman, a policy advisor to the Barack Obama campaign says the McCain campaign put out an economic plan in which they said the Obama campaign cannot afford our benefit promises to seniors for social security. But Liebman says that Obama “does believe we can choose to meet our benefit promises to seniors.” Liebman added that Obama believes the best way to handle social security is “in a bi-partisan way,” and that the place to start in paying for it is “to have the people that can most afford it contribute more revenue.” (0:40)
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McCain camp says Obama’s words have “short half life.”

Douglas Holtz-Eakin a policy advisor with the John McCain campaign criticizes Sen. Barack Obama for reversing his positions on a whole host of issues. In attacking, Holtz-Eakin says “words from the Obama campaign have a very short half life.” Holt-Eakin was joined by Jeffrey Liebman from the Obama campaign for an AARP forum on paying our nation’s future bills by the next president. (1:19)
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McCain simply “out of touch” with Americans

The Democratic National Committee held a conference call and discussed Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) “disastrous” week on the campaign trail. McCain was supposed to strengthen his stance on his economic policy this week, but instead showed how “out of touch” he is with the challenges that America’s families are facing. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said that she was insulted on behalf of the people she represents by McCain’s words and actions. She explained that McCain doesn’t understand what Americans go through everyday just to make ends meet and how his support for more years of a Bush economy would be disastrous for American families.

Stabenow explained that McCain actually called social security a “disgrace’ when he has “a total lack of understanding” of what it really is. She also said that McCain’s approach on tax policy would make it impossible to balance the nation’s budget, something that needs to be done. McCain also failed to vote for the current medicare bill; he was the only senator to miss the vote which “is critical to the future of medicare.”

Stabenow said that people in Michigan are suffering and are not experiencing “a mental recession.” Since President Bush took office, three and a half million manufacturing jobs have been lost in Michigan alone, and the state is currently experiencing an unemployment rate of eight and a half percent. Stabenow explained that McCain fully supported Bush’s policies and that the people of Michigan “cannot take four more years of this.”

McCain’s economic advisor Phil Gramm said that Americans are “a nation of whiners,” yet Stabenow said that the people of Michigan are not hallucinating when they aren’t getting a paycheck, when they can’t pay their mortgage, and when they can’t put food on the table. Stabenow said that people are struggling as every single cost has gone up while wages have gone down. She claimed that McCain is simply not in touch with what is going on in the real world. Stabenow also declared her support for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and said that she is absolutely confident that he will make the changes that will help the country grow, and gets what the American population is going through.
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New McCain ad targets Hispanic vote

Senator John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) presidential campaign held a conference call on a new ad, “God’s Children,” that will air in Colorado, New Mexico, and Nevada. The ad focuses Hispanic voters. Senator Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) said the ad is an effort of the McCain campaign to target the “tremendously” important Hispanic vote and the ever-growing Hispanic community.

Martinez said the ad shows the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. and McCain speaking at the height of New Hampshire primary season. In the ad, he said that McCain proudly touts the contributions that Hispanics make to the armed services in the ad.

Martinez described McCain as very clear in his support of immigration reform, adding that McCain helped lead the first efforts for full immigration reform. Because McCain represents a border state, he truly understands immigrants’ issues and this new ad is a way to reach out to Hispanic voters and assure them of his support for reform. (16:47)
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Obama campaign says McCain is “four more years of Bush economics”

Today Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) campaign attacked Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for what they called another “four years of Bush economics.” The Obama campaign featured Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Heidi Hartman of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research on an afternoon conference call to take aim at the Arizona senator and lay out Sen. Obama’s own plans to help working women.

Speaking on the call, Sen. Klobuchar said that Obama’s plan would be best for working women because it would provide a $1,000 tax break to families and $500 to single women. “This program will help low income women come into the middle class,” said Klobuchar. The plan that Obama has laid out also calls for increasing the national minimum wage, something that Hartman said would be critical to “women’s equality.”

According to the Obama campaign, McCain’s tax plan would leave out a hundred million Americans and would give over three hundred billion dollars in tax giveaways to big corporations. While the Obama campaign stated that his plan would cut taxes for ninety five percent of Americans and would also work to elevate women’s pay to equal that of men’s. “Equal pay for women is equally important for both men and women because it affects that standard of the family,” added Hartman. Hartman concluded that Obama’s plan was “the most detailed plan i’ve ever seen from a presidential candidate.” (27:00)
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Obama is “consistently weak” on Iran says McCain campaign

Senator John McCain’s (D-Ariz.) presidential campaign held a conference call in response to Senator Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) recent comments on Iran. Senator John Thune (R-SD), said that Obama is hypocritical on the issue of Iran’s national security threat to the U.S - calling for tougher sanctions, while calling Iran a “tiny threat.” Thune said Obama has been “consistently weak” on the topic. He said there is no doubt that Iran is a growing threat and Obama’s weakness on the issue contrasts with McCain’s preparedness to assume the presidency. Randy Scheunemann, the senior foreign policy adviser for the McCain 2008 campaign said Obama’s lack of strength and consistency on the issue of Iran proves his inexperience on a serious matter of national security. (15:11)
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Immigration invades 2008 election

In a conference call, America’s Voice, a campaign for building public support and political power to advance immigration reform, announced a new project to track the impact of immigration issues in the 2008 elections. Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice, announced a new website, Immigration08.com, which will track ads, coverage, and commentary on immigration until the election. Recently the two nominees, Senators Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), spoke at several Latino events, so the campaign took this opportunity to announce its new site.

Celinda Lake, President of Lake Research Partners, said that the program is proposing an election-day exit poll to discern what role immigration issues played in mobilizing voters. Pete Brodnitz, the Principal of Benenson Strategy Group, advised solving immigration problems, rather than antagonizing immigrants. Simon Rosenberg, President of the New Democrat Network, said that there is no way that the Republicans can win the Presidency without a significant showing in the southwestern states and Florida, making immigration a vital issue in the upcoming election. He added that McCain (R-AZ) has shown cowardice rather than courage on immigration issues.

Sharry said that McCain understands the immigration issue but revoked his support of immigration reform in fear of a right-wing revolt. But now, he said, McCain is associated with the Bush immigration policy that represses immigrants in self-deportation. America’s Voice endorses full immigration reform with the opportunity to gain citizenship.(49:48)
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Ohio: Obama has leverage, but pro-Bush McCain may be weighed down

In a conference call, Todd Book, Ohio State House Assistant Minority Leader, and Chillicothe Mayor Joe Sulzer discussed the effects of John McCain's economic policies in Ohio and how Barack Obama's tax cuts will satisfy Ohio voters.(15:00)

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McCain willing to make tough choices to tighten spending

The Jobs for America economic plan was at the crux of a press conference call held by Senator John McCain's presidential campaign. Former president and CEO of eBay, Inc. Meg Whitman and Senior Policy
Adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin discussed McCain's plan for the U.S. economy.

Whitman said that McCain is concerned with job security and the direction the economy is taking. She says that McCain wants to get the economy back on track by focusing on job creation, particularly in
small businesses. According to Whitman, this will involve spurring innovation around research and development as well as making tough choices to tighten spending. Whitman says McCain supports small
businesses as he knows they help create jobs.

Holtz-Eakin added that McCain has built his policy to ensure Americans get better health care and that a comprehensive energy policy is put in place to address the need for environmental security. When
questioned as to why McCain has never explicitly said he would balance the budget by 2013, Holtz-Eakin replied that McCain plans to balance the budget by the end of his term and this would happen as quickly as when the Democrats 'come to the table.' (11:19)
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McCain and Obama on opposite sides of tax fence

Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign held a press conference call with economic policy adviser Steve Forbes and senior policy adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin to discuss Senator Obama’s economic plan. Both advisers said that McCain’s economic proposals are opposite that of Obama’s proposals.

Forbes said that Obama has a series of tax proposals that would devastate the U.S. economy. When looking at his voting actions, Obama has been a ‘massive tax increaser.’ Forbes noted that McCain, on the other hand, had tax cut proposals for middle-class Americans and small businesses which is a pro-growth and job creating plan. According to Forbes, small businesses have created around 200,000 jobs and they would be adversely affected by Obama’s economic plan.

When questioned by a caller as to how McCain intends to balance the budget by the end of his first term, the advisers said that McCain will talk about a broad based future in terms of making cheaper energy available to families, helping with international competitiveness and reducing tax burdens on entrepreneurs. The advisers emphasized McCain has ‘learnt lessons of history’ and will not raise taxes when the economy is in trouble. (9:36)
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DoD: McCain and Obama have access to intelligence briefings

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says that Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have the same access to military operations and intelligence briefings from the Defense Department if they request briefings through their Senate offices. (1:07)
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Kerry says McCain is doing a "double talk dance"

In a conference call from the Obama for America press office, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Mayor Chris Coleman of St. Paul, Minnesota discuss the effect of John McCain’s failed energy ideas for Minnesota and America. Kerry spoke about John McCain’s “double talk dance” and how he has changed his opinion on many issues over the past few weeks. Kerry says that Obama is offering the right issues for the American people in finding new alternatives for gas, whereas McCain is just following the Bush doctrine of digging for oil. (19:58)
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Catastrophic nuclear attack a growing threat says McCain advisor

Stephen Biegun a Corporate Officer and Vice President of International Governmental Affairs for Ford Motor Company representing the McCain campaign speaks about the McCain’s commitment to focusing on the issue of nuclear arms. Biegun believes that because of nuclear arms issues regarding Iran and North Korea that the issue will be on the presidents desk on the first day in office. (1:04)
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Team McCain responds to Obama's remarks

Presumptive Republican Presidential Nominee Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign held a press conference call to discuss Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee Senator Barack Obama’s remarks in Flint, Michigan. Senior economic policy adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin and Republican National Committee (RNC) Victory 2008 Chair Carly Fiorina respond to questions from callers on issues ranging from free trade to the Iraq war to education policies.(21:52)
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McCain defends small town Americans

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain says that he appeals to “Reagan democrats” and adds that he would never suggest that Americans in small towns turn to religion and guns due to bitterness. (0:57)
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Change: Obama wants it, McCain knows how

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain says that he has repeatedly called for town hall meetings between Sen. Obama and himself, stating that a change in Washington needs a change in campaign protocol. McCain suggests that he and Obama should give Americans “what they deserve” by holding a town hall meeting in California. (1:48)
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Pelosi: Americans scrambling for change

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says that the economy is a “bread and butter” issue and that republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain will continue Bush policies that have negative consequences for the middle and lower class. (1:18)

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