Reasonably Concise Summary of McCain New Media/Blogger Conference Call - McCain Takes On Romney on Immigration: “Maybe his solution will be to get out his small-varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his lawn.”
Here is a concise summary of Senator McCain’s New Media Conference Call, which took place at 12:30 PM EDT on Monday, May 21, and lasted about 45 minutes. Many participants have summarized their own questions, as well as the conference call as a whole, so you can read their sites for more detail.
The title of the post refers to Senator McCain’s criticism of Mitt Romney’s claims about hunting, and the fact that Romney apparently had hired illegal Guatemalan immigrants, according to the independent new media site published by Wisconsin-based Ann Althouse. But we’ll get to that, as we go in chronological order of the conference call.
The call was graciously hosted by Patrick Hynes. After some brief opening remarks, Senator McCain took questions from ten different participants (BTW - Campaignia didn’t submit a question).
In the beginning, McCain said something to the effect of:
a) “I’m going to be addressing the Oklahoma legislature on government efficiency later today.” (Also, according to the campaign’s official site, he will be attending two fund-raisers in Oklahoma afterwards).
b) “I’m sure you’ve all heard of my recent dust-up with my friend, Senator John Cornyn (R., Texas) - [referring to the profanity-laced tirade that he launched against Cornyn during closed-door debate on the immigration bill over the weekend.] I only wish that YouTube could have been there, so that all of you could have seen it in context, as it was very entertaining.”
Senator McCain and his campaign have actually handled this pretty well - they haven’t tried to pretend it didn’t happen. They have put the best face possible on it - along the lines of “it’s a spirited debate on immigration, there are contentious issues involved, we’re all friends, some crazy things happen behind closed doors, etc.” It appears that it will blow over.
Campaignia was surprised that not a single participant asked about government efficiency, which had to have been disappointing to the campaign. The reason - government efficiency was clearly the talking point of the day. The NY Times had even posted a story on McCain’s speech, in which he shared billing with Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, who also was making a major speech today (there’s a separate post on this web log on the article).
Question #1 - independent blogger Ann Althouse asked something to the effect of: “Isn’t there a problem running for President while trying to play an effective role in the Senate and doesn’t this put you at a terrible disadvantage running against Giuliani and Romney (and Fred Thompson)?”
As she notes, she went first, unexpectedly. “I got my question in first. Surprising, because I wasn’t trying to get in first and was rather shocked to have to go first. After his answer, they didn’t bring in a second questioner, as I expected them to. There was a long silence. I was still on, and McCain said, “Anything else?” which left me to follow up, I received a longer answer, and had time to follow up on that as well.”
Althouse has a very detailed summary of the entire conference call, as well as her own questions and McCain’s answers, at “Another blogger conference call with McCain”, and as we’ll see below, she clarifies McCain’s jibe at Romney, in the title of this post.
Question #2 - Jennifer Rubin - immigration. Question #3 - Michael Goldfarb of the Weekly Standard - he has his own summary of the entire conference call on their site, titled “McCain Blasts Romney, Says Cornyn Exchange Exaggerated”. His own question dealt with the MRAP program - go to his site to read more about it. Question #4 - Pat from Brainster’s Blog asked about presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul and conspiracy theories regarding 9/11, and how destructive those theories are. He has a fully detailed summary of his own question at Brainster’s Blog, as well as generalized observations on the call as a whole. “I managed to ask Senator McCain about the 9-11 conspiracy theories, using Ron Paul’s silly comment at the debate as a lead-in and asked if he could comment about the “Truthers” and what more we could do to combat this virus which has now infected an estimated 35% of the Democratic electorate.”
“Senator McCain responded that these conspiracy theories arise in a democracy where people are free to speak their minds, but that they are damaging to the image of America abroad and disruptive to the fabric of society at home. He did indicate that he was very disturbed by the 35% figure and hoped that was not accurate.” Question #5 - “Eye” from Eyeon08.com. He asked about a post on his own new media site, referring to a NY Daily News article on a new measure of success in Iraq. Senator McCain replied that the path to success would be “long and hard and tough.”Question #6 - John Hindraker from Power Line, who has a summary of the entire conference call titled “Curses, Part 2″ on his own site. He asked about immigration. />Question #7 - Ryan Sager from the New York Sun. Sager has an extremely detailed summary of not only the conference call, but the reaction from the new media over McCain’s attack on Mitt Romney - you can click on his story - “McCain Hits Romney Hard” - for all of the in-depth stuff. Sager has an audio clip of that part of the McCain conference call, as well as a response from Romney’s camp. This article from Sager, and his reprinting of McCain’s answer to his question, led to the title of this post. It refers to McCain’s suggestion that due to Romney’s shifting positions on other issues, “maybe he [Romney] can get out his small-varmint gun and drive those Guatemalans off his lawn.”
That, obviously, was the most explosive part; the rest was a bit anticlimactic. I learned from Althouse’s blog that McCain’s use of the term “varmint” was in reference to Romney’s self-description of his hunting avocation. According to Althouse: “‘I’m not a big-game hunter,’ said Mitt Romney, campaigning in Indianapolis. ‘I’ve made that very clear. I’ve always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will.’ “ Althouse was then ”emailed this news story: Illegal Guatemalan immigrants really did work for Romney. In that context, I think McCain’s remark is… hilarious.” Question #8 - James Joyner - Outside the Beltway - he asked about immigration. He also has a summary of the complete conference call in a post titled “McCain on Immigration Bill”.
“I was able to get a question in toward the end of the call and asked how he planned to repair the damage this issue has done to the base of his party. He agreed that the issue is divisive. Indeed, he says it is by far the most polarizing issue among Republicans that he’s seen in his career, with the possible exception of abortion.”
“His solution for dealing with it, which is a common theme with McCain, is that he’d do it gradually by reaching out in town hall meetings and otherwise having a conversation with the American people. He says he’s had great success at the small level doing that, saying that he sees visible conversion in people’s attitudes once he explains the issue to them. He’s frustrated that his position is one that takes five minutes to articulate, while the opposition can get people worked up in a matter of seconds, but that’s a reality he’s prepared to deal with.”
Question #9 - Ed Morrissey from Captain’s Quarters. He has his own summary of his question and answer, as well as the entire conference call, titled “McCain Conference Call”.
“McCain knows that this bill will be a tough sell on both sides of the aisle, but more so on his own. He says that he was “a bit disappointed” in the responses of GOP politicians to the compromise. He feels it addresses all of the party’s key issues: it secures the borders, it provides triggers that keeps other aspects of normalization from coming into force before that, and it provides penalties for those illegal immigrants already in the country. He pointed out that a $5000 fine is not small potatoes for someone earning $15,000 a year.”
“Several bloggers questioned him on the specifics of the bill. I asked about the fence; some confusion had arisen as to whether the fencing in this bill came in addition to last year, or just reiterated last year’s authorization. McCain confirmed that it did not add any new fencing over last year’s bill, but said that electronic surveillance of the rural frontiers would work better than fencing, which would require far more foot patrols.”
Question #10 - David Brody of CBN - noted that McCain was being attacked on immigration from both left and right… Senator McCain cited the need to appeal to the Hispanic vote as important.
That’s it. Reactions, additions, comments, etc. are welcome.
Come visit the main site - www.campaignia.org - for more on the McCain campaign and campaigns in general.