Redstate

Posted at 3:06pm on May 15, 2008 May 15 McCain Blogger Conference Call

McCain Answers, Does Not Eat Waffle

By Dan McLaughlin

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:

Posted in 2008 | Bloggers | John McCain — Comments (21)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:31pm on Feb. 2, 2008 Romney Thinks Some Bloggers Are More Equal Than Others

By Bluey

Mitt Romney With Bloggers at CPAC

Mitt Romney held his first conference call with bloggers yesterday, following in the footsteps of rivals John McCain and Mike Huckabee. Romney's campaign chose to connect the candidate to bloggers -- at least a select few -- just as the Republican presidential race reaches a critical moment.

The campaign's director of online communications, Stephen Smith, organized the call for about a dozen mostly pro-Romney bloggers Friday morning. But as soon as it was over, the buzz among bloggers was not what Romney said, but who got left off the invite list.

I was among the unlucky ones who didn't make the cut. I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge my disappointment. It's not that I had a craving to talk to Romney; I got to do my own one-on-one interview about a year ago. But I'd never been deliberately excluded from one of these calls.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who was miffed. Matt Lewis of Townhall told me that he wrote to Smith and press secretary Kevin Madden questioning the campaign's decision. Jon Fleischman of the Flash Report had just interviewed Romney a day earlier and couldn't believe he was left off the call.

"I think this must be a case of the left foot and the right foot not talking," Fleischman said. "When running for president, you have to avoid missteps like this, especially this late in the game."

Continued on the jump...

Posted in 2008 | 2008 | Bloggers | Mitt Romney — Comments (20)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:46am on Dec. 11, 2007 Who's the Best College Blogger?

By Bluey

With the end of the year fast approaching, time is running out to submit an application for the America's Future Foundation College Blogger Contest. The competition is open to conservative and libertarian college bloggers with the winning prize of $10,000 being awarded to the winning blog.

The America's Future Foundation asked yours truly to serve as a judge for the contest along with Jonathan Adler of the Volokh Conspiracy, Radley Balko of The Agitator, Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online, Mary Katharine Ham of Townhall, Megan McArdle of The Atlantic and Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.

Applicants must be graduate and undergraduate bloggers age 25 and younger. In addition to the cash prize of $10,000, the winning blogger will be invited to speak at an America's Future Foundation roundtable in Washington, D.C. Click here to apply. The deadline is Dec. 31.

Posted at 12:18pm on Nov. 11, 2007 MI Morning Update: Remember and Honor Those Who Have Served - MIGOP Has Great State Committee Meeting, Read for Primary

By saul anuzis

361 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

Let’s remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom…honor those who honor us by serving our country. On this Veteran’s Day, we give thanks!
We had a great State Committee meeting. RNC presented the Victory ’08 program. We reviewed Newt’s American Solution polling. Discussed the presidential primary “fix” and state convention option…either way, we’re ready to go.

Posted in Bloggers | Michigan Republican Party | Presidential Primary | Republicans | Saulius | State Committee — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »