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John McCain held another in his series of question and answer calls with bloggers today and BlogHer was invited to join in (though I was unable to make it into the Q&A queue before time ran out). The call came on the heels of his speech last night in Louisiana (video available at this link to Catherine Morgan at The Political Voices of Women and his media call this morning where, along with Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA) and his foreign policy and national security director Randy Scheunemann, McCain responded to Senator Barack Obama's earlier speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Today's blogger call confirmed that McCain is now campaigning against Obama and that national security and foreign policy will be key issues.
McCain began the call with a few remarks prior to the questions. First he congratulated Senator Hillary Clinton on her hard fought campaign which he said inspired women around the world. Then he said that it is obvious that Obama is the nominee of the "Democrat" party. And, just an aside here... I found it somewhat hypocritical that while claiming that he will run a respectful campaign, McCain chose to repeatedly and exclusively refer the the Democratic party using a rhetorical device developed by the petty, childish wing of the Republican party which is designed to belittle, diminish and slight Democrats.
Next McCain noted that he has sent Obama an invitation to engage in weekly town-hall debates for a total of ten.
"What a welcome change it would be were presidential candidates in our time to treat each other and the people they seek to lead with respect and courtesy as they discussed the great issues of the day, without the empty sound bites and media-filtered exchanges that dominate our elections," McCain said in a letter to Obama released by McCain's campaign.
Additionally, McCain has suggested that he and Obama fly together to the first debate:
McCain also suggested the two candidates fly together to the meetings, joking that that would save energy and money.
"I even suggested we travel to them together on the same plane, probably help out on energy savings," he said to applause from an audience in Baton Rouge.
Given his expenses and his fundraising that trails Obama's by a wide margin, he said: "I know my campaign would agree to it.
Both McCain and Obama have made fighting global warming and cutting down on foreign oil dependence key themes of their respective White House bids.
McCain concluded his opening remarks by stating that Obama continues to deny that the surge in Iraq has succeeded, that it is the 788th day since Obama has been to Iraq and that Obama has not made an inquiry to General Petraeus demonstrates Obama's lack of foreign policy judgment.
The first question asked came from Griff Jenkins of Fox News who asked if McCain would be willing to adapt his preferred town hall format to a longer speech format if Obama was unwilling to agree to McCain's invitation:
I think Americans probably, if you asked the majority of them, in long speeches (laughs) are not their favorite topic. so I think they want to participate. They want a great debate. I don't think they want to hear long speeches to tell you the truth - that's why I keep mine short.
Next, Dan Noike from the Arizona Republic asked what McCain would do to attempt to prevent outside groups from running race-based attack ads against Obama. McCain said he can't control 527's but that MoveOn.org is "setting the agenda for the Democrat (sic) party" and then called on Obama to condem the MoveOn "General Betray Us" ad as he did not vote on the Congressional resolution which denounced the ad.
McCain was then asked about (unfortunately I don't have the blogger's name) about the tone of statements some conservatives have found offensive. The blogger claimed one statement compared immigration foes to supporters of Jim Crow laws and McCain denied that he had ever used such language, specifically a reference to Jim Crow. McCain wanted to engage further with the blogger but there seemingly were technical difficulties and they were unable to finish the discussion of this issue.
James Kirchick of the New Republic asked if McCain has a position on the just qualified November ballot initiative in California to amend the state constitution in order to overturn the recent
