The McCain Blogger Call

Note, this post is just the facts. I’m not making any editorial comments.

The McCain campaign invited several bloggers to take part in a conference call with the presumptive Republican nominee Senator John McCain. Here are some of the highlights:

First, Senator McCain congratulated Senator Hillary Clinton saying she “inspired women all over America.” He also congratulated Senator Barack Obama and then invited the Illinois Senator and presumptive nominee to 10 town hall meetings with 200-400 onlookers between now and the Democratic convention in Denver. He reminded the bloggers that President John Kennedy and Senator Barry Goldwater had planned to take part in several town hall style debates before the 1964 election. “America wants a different kind of debate,” he said.

McCain then said that Obama denies the surge in Iraq is succeeding and that it has been over 788 days since the junior Senator of Illinois has been to Iraq and he has not had a meeting with General Petraeus.

Dan Nowiki of the Arizona Republic asked McCain if he is worried about independent groups such as 527 groups that could make race an issue. McCain said he will do everything he can to stop 527 groups, but he can’t been the referee and can’t control them. He reminded the bloggers about how the left-leaning MoveOn.org campaign where General Petraeus was called General “Betray Us,” and called on Obama to condemn the ad.

Quinn Hillyer of the Washington Examiner asked why McCain denounced conservatives in tones normally used by the left. Hillyer noted one complaint where those who had issues with immigration were called “nativists” by Senator McCain. He denied every using those words.

James Kirchick of the New Republic asked about the recent developments in California regarding gay marriage. McCain said he supported marriage between a man and a woman and supported the amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman and effectively ban gay marriage.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get to my question which was along the lines of Mr. Kirchick, responding to the recent report by the Human Rights Campaign, that alleges McCain would be as bad as President Bush when it comes to gay rights. Hopefully another time.