|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
| NEWSMAKER:JOHN McCAIN | |
February 2,
2000 |
|
|
Fresh from a double-digit win in the New Hampshire primary, Republican
Senator John McCain speaks about his campaign and the road to the Republican
nomination for president.
|
|
JIM LEHRER: And now back to Presidential politics and to Senator McCain, who joins us now from Columbia, South Carolina. Senator, welcome and congratulations. |
||||||||||
| The big win in New Hampshire | |||||||||||
|
JIM LEHRER: Do you feel as good now as you did last night when it happened? SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Yes. Let me give you an example of kind of an unexpected thing that happened. We've now gotten $500,000 in contributions over the Internet today, which is more than we've ever had. By the way, that's McCain2000.com. JIM LEHRER: Just from all over the country? SEN. JOHN McCAIN: All over the country, $500,000, and most of that's matched, so we may have the first million dollar day we've had in the history of this campaign. JIM LEHRER: Wow. You said last night that this was the beginning of a national crusade. A crusade for what?
SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Well, he fits - he defends the status quo. He will not support campaign finance reform. He says that it's bad for our party. I've always believed that's what's good for our country is good for our party. He is obviously - or his people are now setting up organizations where tens of millions of dollars of soft money are going to be funneled into the campaign. And obviously the establishment is all behind him because they want the status quo. I'm going to break the iron triangle of lobbyists, money, and legislation, and he's defending it. |
 |
||||||||||
| McCain as Senator | |||||||||||
|
JIM LEHRER: What do you say to those who suggest, though, hey, wait a minute, Senator, you've been chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which is kind of center of the establishment, at least one part of the establishment in Washington in terms of legislation for interests, and all of that, and Governor Bush has been in Texas while this has been going on. Why are you different? You've been here but you're not part of it. He hasn't been here, and he is.
|
|||||||||||
| McCain: Maverick or true-blue republican | |||||||||||
|
JIM LEHRER: There was a suggestion today from some of Governor Bush's supporters that maybe you're not really a true blue Republican, that some of the things you support like campaign finance reform and your opposition to tax cuts are more like Gore and Bradley and Clinton and Democrats than Republican.
JIM LEHRER: Well, then, but you don't deny you're a different kind of Republican, do you, than the "leadership" of the party right now? SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Well, I think, you know, the party has lost its way to a large degree, because we've been captured by the huge amounts of soft money. Ronald Reagan is - I'm right in tune with him and with Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight David Eisenhower. It's a terrible thing, what all this money has done to our party, and we've got to break this grip or this Iron Triangle that I've talked about before. JIM LEHRER: But wasn't Ronald Reagan supported by the leadership of the Republican Party when he ran?
JIM LEHRER: But you don't mind being considered a maverick, somebody that's a little bit different than the traditional Republican? SEN. JOHN McCAIN: No. And what I'd really like to be known for and respected for is my independence, but my commitment to principle and my ability to inspire young Americans to commit themselves to causes greater than your self interest. And the fact is I'm the only candidate that's fully prepared to be President of the United States, particularly as far as Commander in Chief is concerned. |
 |
||||||||||
| Politics and campaigns | |||||||||||
|
JIM LEHRER: Fully prepared? You're the only candidate to be fully prepared to be President of the United States? SEN. JOHN McCAIN: That's right. The others are prepared; I am fully prepared. JIM LEHRER: And what does fully mean? SEN. JOHN McCAIN: That means in every way I'm ready to take over the job; I don't need on-the-job training.
SEN. JOHN McCAIN: I don't know. If you inspect my 17-year voting record, it's a proud conservative Republican who acts on principles and one who obviously has a very strong commitment to the leadership role the United States has to play. I've never voted for a pay raise - excuse me - never voted for a pay raise - but more importantly, I've never voted for a tax increase, whether it was proposed by a Republican or Democrat administration. I'm proud of my voting record, but look, these things happen in campaigns so that, you know, you call people liberals and others. I'm not going to do that with Governor Bush. He's a good man, and we're going to campaign on the differences we have, rather than trying to label somebody as something which clearly they're not. |
|||||||||||
| Economy and the role of the president | |||||||||||
|
JIM LEHRER: Senator, yesterday was - marked the 107th month - straight month of economic expansion in the United States. If you're elected, President, what would you do to make sure it keeps going on?
JIM LEHRER: President Clinton said yesterday that he thought he deserved some of the credit for this expansion or this continuing boom. Do you agree with that? SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Yes, and - just as I would give him blame if it wasn't. I would argue that the men and women who made this thing happen that are the incredible genius of America - reduction in regulations, deregulation in the 80's, and a lot of other things - but I'll give him some credit. And the question is, is how we keep it going, and that's what I think I'm fully prepared to address. JIM LEHRER: But you believe that the President has the power to keep it going, right?
|
 |
||||||||||
| Campaigning on biography | |||||||||||
|
JIM LEHRER: Back to New Hampshire for a moment. The pundits, a lot of the pundits, not all of the pundits, but many of the pundits said that at the heart of your victory was actually the character issue and your resume. Do you flinch at that? Do you revel in that? What's your reaction to that?
JIM LEHRER: Do you think you're going to win the whole thing? SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Oh, I think we've got a great shot at it. I think we're still the underdog. We were outspent in New Hampshire five and six to one and we still prevailed. We're being outspent here, but I think we can win the battle of ideas if not the bucks. We're still the underdog, still got a long way to go, still fighting an insurgency campaign, and I'm telling you, I'm loving every minute of it. JIM LEHRER: You did over a hundred town meetings in New Hampshire. How are you going to do it in all these other states, beginning with South Carolina, how are you going to have to change the way you campaign in order to win this? SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Well, we've done a whole lot of them down here already. We will get a megaphone and amplification and message out of this. I'll have town hall meetings that are covered by local television and radio; we're doing one with one of the local - one of the national talk shows here in a week or two. We'll do the same technique so we'll get the magnification of it. Look, I started New Hampshire with town hall meetings where 20 people came. I did one in Peterborough in July and gave away free ice cream, 40 people came. We did our last town hall meeting in Peterborough, the place was packed with well over a thousand people. So it's a technique, if I may sound so immodest, that a lot of other candidates are going to have to employ because that's the real essence of democracy, and that's interaction with the voters. JIM LEHRER: And in your case at least it worked too, did it not?
JIM LEHRER: I got you. I got you. Well, Senator, again, congratulations, and thank you very much. SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Thanks for having me on.
|
|||||||||||
 |
        |
|
| Support the kind of journalism done by the NewsHour...Become a member of your local PBS station. | ||
| ||
| PBS Online Privacy Policy Copyright ©1996- MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. All Rights Reserved. | ||
| ||
SEN.
JOHN McCAIN: Thank you very much. We were very exhilarated by the win,
and it's been a great ride.
SEN.
JOHN McCAIN: A crusade to take the government out of the hands of the
special interests and give it back to the people of this country and
allow them again to be connected with their government. Young people
don't vote; young people are cynical; they've become alienated because
the special interests have taken over and their hopes and dreams and
aspirations are no longer represented. That's what we find out from
talking to them. For example, the lowest voter turnout in history of
the eighteen to twenty-six-year-olds was in the 1998 election. 
JIM
LEHRER: But the man you defeated last night was George W. Bush. And
you've said you want to send a message to Washington. He's been the
governor of Texas. Is he - how does he fit into your crusade?
SEN.
JOHN McCAIN: Because I have fought tooth and nail against the special
interests, whether it be against the telecommunications so-called Reform
Act of 1998 - 1996 - or whether it be against the giveaway of $70 billion
of free spectrum to the television - to the broadcasters. I've fought
against pork barrel spending. I've fought for the line item veto. I
was responsible for the legislation on a gift ban and the lobbying ban,
and I've been a reformer all of my time in Washington, and we've had
some successes, and we've also had some failures. But there's no doubt
what I've fought for, and that's against the special interests.
SEN.
JOHN McCAIN: Well, I'm much more like Ronald Reagan, actually, than
the present hierarchy of our party. I'm for tax cuts, but I'm for working
Americans. Governor Bush wants to give 38 percent of his tax cuts to
the wealthiest 1 percent. I want to give it to working families. But
I want to give it also to pay into Social Security, and make it solve,
Medicare, and start paying down the debt. And, by the way, the majority
of Republicans supporting the polls support my proposal, over Governor
Bush's. He has not one penny for Social Security, not one penny for
Medicare, not one penny for paying down the debt. It's conservative
to pay for our obligations when they have some money. And I think it's
clear who the conservative is, particularly on the issue of taxes. But
also, look, is it not conservative or Republican to try to take the
government out of the hands of special interests, which prevent the
American people from being represented? I think that's the tradition
of Ronald Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt, to tell you the truth. Theodore
Roosevelt got a ban on corporate contributions to American political
campaigns in 1907. He's my role model.
SEN.
JOHN McCAIN: Oh, no. In 1976, there was, I think, one or two Senators,
one of them being Laxalt. In 1980, the party candidate was John Connolly.
He ran from the outside.
JIM
LEHRER: There was a story today that one of the new tactics, strategies,
whichever way you want to use it, to go after you in South Carolina,
in particular, is to paint you as a liberal. Now you mentioned - you
mentioned that a moment ago. Is that going to work? Is there something
out there that we don't know that makes you a liberal?
SEN.
JOHN McCAIN: Oh, I think that the President has a great deal to do with
the power to keep it going. I don't say that the President is a dictator.
You have to deal with Congress; you have to deal with various forces.
For example, the WTO debacle out in Seattle, which was largely the President's
-- or at least to some degree - the President's responsibility, has
hurt our efforts to further free trade throughout the world. But there
are obviously certain things which are not in the President's control,
but largely, they are.
SEN.
JOHN McCAIN: I think that voters vote for someone not based on what
they've done but how they believe they can lead the country in the future.
They think - they give you credit for what you've done, but they'll
only vote for you as to how they think you'll lead. So I think part
of that but I think specific positions - very straight, unambiguous
positions on issues - and by the way the reason there was such a great
gap between what pollsters were telling is that there were thousands
of young New Hampshire, young people that went and registered to vote
yesterday in order to vote for me. And that is what expanded the numbers
to such an incredible degree. I've got to tell you - I never felt we
would win by 19 points. I just didn't think that was possible. And I'm
exhilarated by it.
SEN.
JOHN McCAIN: Oh, yeah, but it was also marvelous. I mean, you hear from
people, you learn, you listen. People, you can see them connect again
after a period of cynicism and even alienation. So many people came
up to me and said I haven't voted in 20 years and I'm going to go out
and vote for you. I mean, whether I win or lose, what we've been able
to do here is something that I will always cherish the memory, even
getting up in Laconia when it's 35 degrees below zero.