McCain in Franklin, NH (GG file photo)
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In the third blogger conference call with John McCain, I was once again impressed with his willingness to engage directly with members of the New Media. His answers on a full range of questions were all on the mark. I continue to be pleased with his solid commitment to victory in the war, along with his understanding of important geo-political matters. His list of current and probable trouble spots for the US coincides with mine: Iraq, Iran, "radical Islamic extremism", and, most recently, Putin and a new Russian empire.
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Sen. McCain also stated, almost word for word, my belief that, contrary to what Mitt Romney said recently, we MUST get Osama bin Laden.
"Every effort must be made to get anybody that inflicts harm on the US. Osama still holds a degree of control and is the symbol of Al Qaida."
Exactly. By working to get Bin Laden, you will be identifying and eliminating the building blocks that make up the organization.
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McCain would oppose civil unions if he lived in NH and is against anything that impinges or impacts the sanctity of marriage. On the energy issue, which has been of some concern to me, given his sudden global warming views, I was relieved to hear him state that, while continuing to seek clean alternatives to foreign energy dependence, he is
"not ready to impose government controls or have government intervene."
That is music to my ears. He is very pro nuclear energy. I agree. Wouldn’t this free up more oil for gas in our cars, thus preventing price shocks? He is in favor of a "fair" tax or a "flat" tax, in answer to a question from Skip, pledging to promote
"any effort to reform the tax code that a majority of the people and Congress support,"
acknowledging the wasted time spent in tax compliance. He will try to fix the social security mess, noting that future generations
"will face bankruptcy or ruinous taxation if we don’t fix it."
I will discuss 2 other points he raised in separate posts: judges, and homeland security "pork."
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All in all, Senator McCain remains very high on the list of candidates acceptable to me as both nominee and president. The new world war trumps all other issues. McCain is rock solid on this, declaring,
"I would rather lose a campaign versus losing the war."
I am glad to see that he continues to be that strong voice of support so valuable to maintaining support for the war here on the homefront. Win or lose, he is doing the country a great service.
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