On Meet the Press John McCain was asked tough questions concerning his campaign and the choices he has made so far. What did you take away from this interview and how did John McCain try to distance himself from President George Bush during the questioning. Remember to be SPECIFIC and to use certain quotes from the interview to show me how McCain is changing his approach in the remaining week of campaigning.
54 comments:
During this interview i think that McCain seem a little nervous. One of the reasons why I think this was so was because they were showing him the polls numbers which showed him 11 points behind Barak Obama. He denied them right away which it was expected, but I don't think he denied them because he truly believes they were false or because he thinks that he is going to win. I think that the reason why he denied it was because he didn't wanted to have to answers questions about it. In the case of him accepting that he was losing he would of had have to give an expalanation of why he thought this was happening and that was exactly what he wanted to avoid. After watching this interview I honestly think that McCain is a liar. After every question that he was asked they always showed a video clip where he answered the opposite. This in my opinion is a lack of consistency and commitment to do one thing. After showing that Senator McCain agreed with President Bush 92% of the times he argued that it was at very different times and the situation was a lot more different than what it is now. He said that he disagreed with President Bush when he starting seeing that we were heading in a bad direction. For example in the Iraq war and with energy independence.
The first statement Tom Brokaw had said in the interview was a quote John McCain had said at the third Presidential Debate: "I'm not President Bush." Then Brokaw showed a video from June 19 in 2005 which had McCain saying that he had agreed more with President Bush that disagree. After the video Brokaw says "Senator McCain, both in tone and language, you are very close with President Bush in those appearances." John McCain says there are number of disagreements he had with President George Bush, but he respect President George Bush. "Do I respect President Bush? Of course I respect him. But I pointed out we were on the wrong track in a whole lot of ways."
This was only the first ten minutes of the interview did McCain truly separate himself from President Bush during the questioning.I feel that McCain did well in separating himself from Bush, the interview went very quick,only giving McCain a short amount of time to persuade the public to show that he is NOT Bush.
The conversation starts off by stating that Obama is ahead in Iowa by eleven points. McCain adds on that polls are actually making him seem more behind than he really is.In meet the press the interviewer mentioned that McCain has voted with Bush 92% of time. He said it is hard to get out the shell due to the fact. McCain explains that he respects Bush fully. In Georgia Obama is falling behind six points. They start to wonder if Obama is capable of getting Georgia. In both campaigns they agree that money is the biggest difference. After September they believe that nothing mattered, for example if Palin got chosen or not. They go into detailed how Hispanics turned on republicans. Another question the interviewer mentioned was Sarah Palin not being qualified. He adds on that he is very proud of Palin and the way she motivates hundreds of crowds. Later on in the interview McCain puts Obama in the spot about taxes. Continually talking they go into the great depression, eventually going into FDR. John McCain talks about not wanting to raise anyone's taxes due to harsh times. ANother speaker they had in the show was the retired secretary of state. He explains that John McCain is always changing his formulas in bettering our taxes. As for Obama, he states that he is crossing the line which is good because we need someone like him. And I also agree with the secretary of state when he says that McCain should stop saying inappropriate stuff about Obama and his religion background and explaining how he is a terrorist, explaining that this is not America. What McCain should stop doing is a making false accusations. Therefore the secretary of state will be voting for Obama because he feels he is the president we need now!
When John McCain was on Meet the Press it was very obvious that he was very nervous. When Tom Borka showed him the Mason Dixon poll in Iowa that had Barack Obama leading by 11%, John McCain stumbled over his words when he replied back. John McCain says he sees polls from 3% to 11% that he trusts his senses and that he trusts the polls. If he trusts his senses and the polls, he should be a bit more worried. wheater its 3% or 11%, he is still losing, and he needs to do something because time running out for him. The subject changed to John McCain and George W. Bush and the comparison between the two. On June 19th 2005 John McCain was on Meet the Press and he stated that “The fact is that I'm different, but the fact is that I have agreed with President Bush far more than I have disagreed. And on the transcendent issues, the most important issues of our day, I have been totally in agreement and support of President Bush. So I strongly disagree with any assertion that I've been more at odds with the president of the United States than I have been in agreement with.” If McCain voted with Bush 92% of the time, why should the American people believe McCain when he says that he will not carry out the same policies as Bush? I would rather take a chance with Barack Obama than have four more years of the last eight years. America can not handle four more years of the same. John McCain said that “I voted against these projects--these pork barrel spending. I was the harshest critic of the failed strategy in Iraq and pointed it out in hearing after hearing and fought against it. I've supported action to address climate change, from--since 2000 and said we've got to do something about it.” I would have a little more respect for McCain if he stood up against Bush about Iraq. Iraq didn’t attack us on 9/11, it was Afghanistan. America is fighting the wrong war right now, we shouldn’t be going around as the world police and I believe that’s why so many people outside the U.S. hate us. America needs to be in Afghanistan, fighting that war and Barack Obama understands that, John McCain does not, and to me, that’s how he and George W. Bush are the same. I think John McCain did not do a good job trying to separate himself from Bush.
After watching Meet the Press with Tom Brokaw and his guest John McCain, Tom had not the best news for John McCain. He told McCain that Obama has the lead in Iowa 51% to 40%. Obama is ahead by 11 points. By the looks of John McCain, seemed like he wanted to say something about that, since four years ago Bush had won the state. But McCain just smiled but it seemed very fake. He looked angry towards the news Tom had given him. John says "polls have been consistently shown me much further behind than we actually are." But if polls are poseted on national tv, I don't think they would lie about the points because they do matter. Tom had asked McCain about "I am not Bush," and McCain responded that he has agreed with Bush more than he has disagreed. He strongly agrees and supports Bush. It's basically saying he thinks like Bush, which means he is just like Bush.
My opinion on McCain saying he is not Bush is that if he says that he has agreed with him more than disagreed than it means he believes the same way as Bush. He is the exact same way Bush is. The only think that is different for both of them is their fmily and name. But they agree in many things, whom he says he doesn't always but 95% of that time he does. The reaction he gave to Tom about the polls shows he has a rough week knowning that theres only one week till elections. McCain says he is fine where he stands right now and how well his campaign is going, but could this be good or bad? He needs a reality check because he thinks he is not far in the polls and he is losing a state that President Bush had won in 2004.
RE: Ariel
I disagree with you about McCain seperating himself from Bush. He says he is not Bush but he has agreed with him more than he has disagreed. They have the same beliefs. I honestly think he was referring himself more to president Bush than persuading the audience that he is not Bush.
When McCain tried to distance himself from Bush, it didn't work. There was a statistic that they showed that said that McCain had voted 92 percent of the time in favor of Bush's plans. How different can you be if you don't have your own opinion. He tries to say that he did diagree with Bush eventually, but it is a little too late for that now, our economy is in recession.
McCain tries to say that he does not want to increase taxes on large companies, but they showed a clip of him that said otherwise. He needs to make up his mind on what he wants because he seems confused. If he does not know what he wants now, then when he is president he won't know if he should raise taxes or give tax breaks. Also during his interview, he kept bringing up things about how Obama voted and how Obama is one of the most liberal senators, I think that he should have simply addressed the questions instead of trying to make Obama look bad. The interview wasn't about Obama, it was suppose to let us get to know him a little better.
Re: Cindy
I agree with your comment. McCain is in denial that he is loosing. He thinks that by changing his campaign strategy he can make up for those lost votes. But it is a little too late for that. Election day is coming soon and it looks like we are going to have the first African American president in history.
Re: Ariel
I disagree with your comment. I feel that McCain did not separate himself from president Bush because he agreed with him 92 percent of the time. Also he contradicted himself a couple of times, especially when it came to taxes.
I've taken away a couple of things from watching this interview. The first thing that I took away is that Senator McCain doesn't care about the recent poll results. McCain made this clear by stating that "I don't agree with their conclusion that I'm, quote, 11 or 12 or 14 point, whatever it is. We have polls...showing us 3 or 4 points behind...I don't agree with that...We are closing, and we have been closing." He also stated earlier on that the polls "have consistently shown me much further behind than we actually are" and that his campaign is "doing fine." McCain believes that despite the defecits in numerous polls, he will be victorious on election day. As for his relationship with president George Bush, McCain continued to say that "I am not George Bush". He justified this by explaining how he hasn't been very popular in his own party. One of the examples he used was the war in Iraq. He claimed that when he brought up the failed strategy in Iraq, he was criticized by Republicans. The Republican Party has constantly opposed him, but he has "stood up against his party, not just president Bush; but others, and hes got the scars to prove it". Aside from realizing McCain's opposition towards both the polls and his similarities with George Bush, this interview also helped me further understand how Senator McCain feels about the status of his campaign. He displayed a lot of confidence in his campaign, and this is important because if he loses hope, his voters will too. Rather than being discouraged by the poll results, McCain turned things around by disagreeing with the polls and saying that they're inaccurate. There are different polls out there with different numbers, and McCain doesn't care about any of them because he firmly believes that he will win on November 4th.
John McCain has been working extremely hard recently. Although it doesn't show in the polls, it does show in his rallies. If anybody saw his rally in Dayton, Ohio on Monday, you could see how passionate he is towards this election. He was banging on the podium and expressing how important it is to win the battleground states. He used his signature speech ending and asked for the people at his rally to stand up and fight, and concluded by saying "We're Americans. We don't hide from history; we make it". He is really working hard to encourage people to vote for him. He's trying to make connections with the people, and he's apealing to voters in the battleground states. Despite the 11 point defecit in the national poll, he claims that he's closing the gap, and that it's a close race.
I think that McCain seems confident that he will win. Every single time that Tom Brokaw showed him a poll that showed a big gap between him and Obama he said that he knew that they weren't really that far from each other. He kept saying that he couldn't discuss anything about those polls because he disagreed with them. He's not paying attention to the polls, which is a good thing, I believe. Polls can be misleading and can be inaccurate at times, something that McCain metioned during the interview. Also I feel more respect toward McCain because I've gotten to know his character more and I feel that he would be a much better and more intelligent president than Bush.
He tried to distance himself from Bush and I believe he's doing a pretty good job of that. Tom Brokaw said that he had voted with Bush 92% of the time and he showed clips of Bush endorsing McCain, while McCain accepted graciously. However, McCain now disagrees with Bush in many things and says that he only shares the Republican philosophy with Bush. I believe he's being honest because he has been an unpleasant statesman to many Republicans and he has never been someone all Republicans like. The only reason that McCain may have supported Bush may be because he wanted to be more accepted in his own party, but now he no longer needs to support Bush and it is no longer advisable. I think this is understandable but it shows that he might support things he does not like, but which may bring an advantage to him.
RE: Ariel
I agree with how you say that McCain did well on distancing himself from Bush. It is also true that he had a little bit of time to talk about it, but the truth is he has had multiple opportunities to show this. He finally said that he was not Bush in the final presidential debate and he should have done that a long time ago. I think it's been a mistake to have waited so long to refute the comments that Obama has made regarding their similarities. However, so far, with the time he has, McCain has done pretty well in distancing himself from McCain.
In his interview with Tom Brokaw, McCain did admit to supporting Bush in the past years, but he also said that he has stood up against the republican party. He said that he respects Bush, but he has disagreed on issues, such as government spending. In both last sunday's intreview on Meet the Press and at the last presidential debate McCain boldly stated that he is NOT President Bush.
Although polls are continuously showing Obama in the lead, McCain is still keeping his confidence in his campaign. He doesnt agree with the polls, but to me I think he is just trying not to let the media bring down his spirit. Palin is being critczied more and more as the election nears, but McCain "praises" her for the way she has been campaigning. Overall, McCain claims that he and Palin are going to continue fighting in the battleground states because he has confidence that they will win.
During this interview Tom Brokaw opened with Iowa poll numbers showing that Senator Obama is steadily ahead by 11 points. John McCain basically said that the polls show that he is MORE behind than what he actually is. He says that his campaign is very competitive in battleground states and that he sees "intensity out there" He stated, "So we're very competitive here, and I'm very happy with where we are and I'm very proud of the campaign that I've run." The hugest topic of MEET THE PRESS was McCain's last debate comment about NOT being George W. Bush. Brokaw quoted, that this past week an account was published in The Washington Times, "Senator John McCain blasted President Bush for building a mountain of debt for future generations, failing to pay for expanding Medicare, and abusing executive powers, leveling his strongest criticism to date of the administration whose unpopularity may be dragging the Republican Party to the brink of a massive electoral defeat." This was followed up by video footage of the "humble" and "grateful" John McCain thanking the President for endorsing him. Then afterword, it was followed my more contradicting footage of the nominee.
I personally think John McCain was very awkward in this interview. He looked very uncomfortable. However, He did make his case, in my opinion, my noting that he IS NOT Bush. He has had a history of agreeing with the Bush administration but he also has had a reputation of swinging to the other side, on his own. He continued, "Do I respect President Bush? Of course I respect him. But I pointed out we were on the wrong track in a whole lot of ways." This was important for McCain to keep true to his promise's to the voters, but also keep his party happy.
Re: Cindy
I personally didn’t have the opportunity to watch the show, but from your comment I believe that McCain is just one of those people who doesn’t stick to one opinion, but instead builds upon it, improves it, and revise it. Everyone knows that George Bush didn’t do as a great of a job than we wanted him to do and McCain understands at the time George Bush was running he agreed on some issues, but as time went on it turns out that certain plans didn’t work out. McCain said, “I’m not President Bush” from the last presidential debate, which to me was a clear statement that as of right now in this time period he doesn’t resemble George Bush. Just because someone agrees on some issues doesn’t mean they are completely the same person. About the lying, I just believe all politicians say certain things to make people happy, but reality is you can’t keep everyone happy and someone has to be lied to.
Re: Ariel
To me McCain seems to be in a sticky situation because he advocated that George Bush approves of him as President, but the unpopularity of relations to George Bush is very high. I think it’s very risky to cut off George Bush completely, but instead point out main issues that separate between him. I think the approach of saying he respects George Bush sends a strong message saying even though there were rough times, disagreements and other things between them McCain wouldn’t disrespect him and instead saying hey even though we had some agreements I’m still different from him in many other issues.
RE: ARIEL
I have to say I disagree with you. First because I don't think McCain did a very good job on pointing out the differences between President Bush and himself. I believe that in the whole 30 minutes interview he did not give enough specific things in which he was different from president Bush. Sure he might have pointed out that we were heading in the wrong direction but he still agreed with him in many aspects long before he this happended. And Im pretty sure that many more people not just him saw this coming. My point is that if Senator McCain would've been the president of the United States after 9/11 I'm pretty sure he would of made the same choices about going to war just like President Bush did.
What I took away from this is that McCain is trying to say he is not out of the race yet and also that he will not be another George Bush. McCain says that different polls show different results.” We are very competitive in many of the battleground states, and I see these polls ranging from a 3 point gap today in Zogby to your 11 point one." He doesn't believe that he is loosing by that much, but I noticed that he never said he was ahead by any of the poll numbers. McCain knows he is loosing and I think he is becoming a little bit desperate, which made me believe that he came on Meet The Press to try and different himself from Bush so he may gain more votes.
McCain is trying to different himself from Bush by saying that he will not do hurtful things like create a $10 trillion deficit. I find that to be highly unlikely. First of all he agreed with Bush 92% of the time, so why is it going to be any different, and second how is he not going to have a deficit when he wants to stay in Iraq and finish the war? I did not think he did a good job making himself seem different from Bush
Re: Amber
I don’t agree with you on the point that McCain has kept a confidence. To me he seems a tad nervous. At first I felt like he didn’t have a knack for this, then as it progressed I felt that he was doing better, but now I think these huge poll number gaps actually do have a affect on him and he is somewhat shaken up.
Re: Gladys
I don’t agree with you on the point that he is doing a good job differencing himself from Bush. He says that he not going to do the same things as Bush, but in return he says he is going to do something that was the same as Bush. Example: the war. He says that he’s going to try and get rid of this deficit, but he wants to stay in the war. The war is what causing this deficit, so staying in it will not solve the problem and he will not have done anything different than Bush
McCain is trying to separate himself from Bush now. In the beginning McCain was acting like Bush was his best friend. He openly said that he agreed with everything Bush was doing and he backed him up. To me it only seemed that McCain liked president Bush when it was convenient for his campaign. McCain was not popular within his own party so he needed someone who was to back him up, even if it was Bush. Now that McCain doesn't seem to need Bush anymore he wants to separate himself from Bush and tell America how he really feels.
McCain starts telling about how he felt the "spending was out of control", and he was "the harshest critic of the failed strategy in Iraq". All these things that Bush our president is responsible for. Maybe McCain feels that it probably was not the best decision to hold on to the fact that he supports Bush for so long. People don't want another Bush. And even though it worked for him in the beginning it doesn't now because no one can seem to get past the fact that he was a great friend with Bush and now all of a sudden he wants nothing to do with him. If anything it makes me wonder about how honest is he really. Yea he may not have any personal problems with Bush anymore but he did say time and time again that he backs up whatever Bush does.
Re: ariel
I don't agree that McCain did very well with the interview. I think he did what he could. I feel that this interview made him seem hypocritical because he endorsed Bush so much. But since the race is almost over he wants people to know the truth of how he really feels. But I don't think it went well as far as making him look good.
RE: Yesenia
I agree with the fact that McCain has to keep his promise to his followers. In order to win this, McCain has to keep the support of the conservative base of his party while keeping some of the moderates and the independents. He has to respect Bush if he wants to get the vote of the conservatives, but he can't deviate and change how he has always been, standing up for his party.
Re: Cindy
I agree that McCain was nervous, but I can't truly say that I agree with your about how McCain felt about the polls. From McCain's point of view, the only numbers that count are the numbers after election day. Polls work by statistics, McCain refused to believe the polls because his polls are different. In denial, maybe, but can you trust the polls?
Re: Gladys
I'm glad that you agree that McCain did well in distancing himself from President Bush. He had rough times during this campaign trail but McCain isn't Bush. He respects President Bush, but doesn't always agrees with him. When President Bush announced that he nominates McCain at a press conference, both (McCain and Bush) were distanced from each other. By this body language I can safely say they are not close
McCain was asked some pretty tough questions. Overall, I think he did pretty well addressing the subject of him losing in the polls. He pointed out that the polls are different everywhere you look and you'll never know who is going to win until its all over. He had this to say about it: "I see these polls ranging from a 3 point gap today in Zogby to your 11 point one. And they're all over the map; and, obviously, I choose to trust my senses as well as polls." I feel that he did quite well during the beginning of his interview. After that however, his answers became kind of shaky.I'm not saying that he was lying, but his responses didn't have much substance.
McCain didn't do very well on the topic of him agreeing with George Bush however. When Tom Brokaw showed clips featuring John McCain "agreeing" with Bush and followed them up with questions regarding them, McCain sort of dodged the questions. He talked about pork barrel spending and climate change instead. I think I know what he was trying to accomplish here though. Instead of talking about the 92% he voted WITH George Bush, he tried to highlight the 8% he didn't. This answer was probably a safe bet, but people want that old John McCain straight talk, and he didn't give it to them during this interview.
RE: Ariel
I think the first few minutes of McCain's interview was his best part. He did a good job of answering questions about the polls, but he didn't really do a good job separating himself from George Bush. It's going to be really tough at this point for John McCain to do so however. He doesn't really have a chance to do so. With the election only a few days away, most people have already made up their minds.
RE: Jessica Garcia
I also think that McCain didn't do a very good job of separating himself from Bush. With video proof of McCain saying he voted with President Bush 92% of the time, there's not much he could say about it. All he could do...and all he did, was talk about the points in which disagreed with Bush on. This didn't come off as a very strong argument.
Based on this interview, I believe that John McCain no longer cares about the polls, and gets a little annoyed that Tom Brokaw keeps bring up the polls that show Obama having a significant lead on McCain. John McCaim says numerous times before the interview: "I am not George Bush." He even repeats that phrase during the interview as well. When Tom Brokaw brings out the Video from June 2005, which shows that McCain agrees with George Bush on the majority of his policies (92% of the time), John McCain says that he respects George Bush, but once again they are not the same. He says that of course they share a general set of views that come along with being a republican, but on key issues such as the failed strategy of the iraq war, he has disagreed with George Bush. John McCain then backs up this statement by saying that he has battled with his own party on numerous occasions, and has not always been popular within his own party.
McCain says he has fought with his own party and he has the scars to prove it. While it has not shown in the polls, or at least the ones Tom Brokaw is using, McCain is doing much better in his campaign, and has shown an increased intensity which has shown positive effects. McCain also states in the interview that he doesnt care about polls, and despite the considerable lead most of them are showing Obama has, McCain believes he will win this election.
re: Cindy
I disagree with you that McCain looked nervous. I believe he handles himself with fortitude, and had no problem with telling Tom Brokaw that he did not agree with those polls and basically told him to stop referring back to them. And, i do not believe McCain is a liar, people can change their mind, and 3 years is a long time. People all the time completely change their entire views and turn their entire lives around in less time than 3 years, so i dont believe he is any different. He seemed to be very sincere with everything that he said in my opinion.
re: Yesenia
as i stated in reponse to Cindy's comment, i do not believe that John McCain appeared to be awkward or nervous in the least. He appeared to answer the questions with honesty and sincerity. He is bluntly honest in nearly every political setting he has been in after a turning point in his campaign, and i believe that it is doing well for him.
Re: Richele Joaquin
Your right about the fact that just because you vote with someone, doesn’t mean you’re the same person, but when you vote with that person 92% of the time, your views are very identical. I believe John McCain voted with President Bush 92% of the time from 2006 – 2008 and that’s when Bush’s ratings as President were the lowest in American history. And if John McCain wants a chance of winning this Presidential race, of course he was going to try to separate himself from Bush. In my opinion, he did this too late as it came in the 3rd presidential debate.
Re: Ariel
I agree with you on the fact that McCain made the interview go very quick by distancing himself from Bush. I would have liked to hear a little more on his opposition to the Bush administration. I would have also liked a little more on his campaign. He says he is proud; but he has the same campaign adivsors and tactics as Bush. Contradicting if you ask me.
Re: Jessica Garcia
I agree with you about John McCain and the fact that he needs to make up his mind. To me it seems like one of his plans are always changing. His campaign is not on the issues that all Americans are on. First he wanted to cut taxes then he might have to raise them, and then cut them again, Im confused about where he stands when it comes to taxes. All I get from him when he speaks is that he wants an “all across the board spending freeze” which I don’t think would even work.
Re: Travis
I completely agree with you. McCain needs to show a bit more concern with his position in the polls. Whether he likes it or not, it is COMPLETELY RELEVENT! There is a difference between showing a game face along with standing ground and sitting down and waiting for fate to decide itself. November 4th is too late for McCain to show up.
Ariel:
You pointed out very important points about the interview. You said that McCain was becoming less like Bush. I don't agree much with that. I believe if he voted with a lot of what Bush did then he is more on his side, right? He didn't do a good job in persuading people that is a not identical with him.
Cindy:
Your thoughts about McCain are very opinionated. I do believe that McCain was getting a bit bother by all the questions being asked. He is loosing and he doesn't know what to do. Polls show that he is clearly loosing votes and he has to find a way to regain them before its too late. McCain has to fine more useful strategies ideas in how to better our economy and taxes as well as the war.
RE: Isamar
You have to look at the issue with polls from John McCain's eyes. Yes, John McCain is down in the polls; however, he made the argument that the polls are inaccurate and that he doesn't agree with them. As we've learned in our economics class, the population of the United States of America is approximately 300 million people. In chapter 6 of our government book, we learned that polls generally survey about 2000 people. We should be able to understand why John McCain doesn't trust in the polls with this information. He must not see how a poll based on 2000 people's opinions can account for all 300 million of us. He may be far in the polls, but he made it clear that he doesn't care about the polls and that he's been closing (or at least attempting to) the gap in the last few days of this election. But I'm not John McCain so I don't know for sure. He could just be saying that he disagrees with the polls because he wants to keep the voters encouraged.
RE: Yesenia
I agree that the interview was pretty awkward. One segment in the interview in particular that I thought was awkward was when McCain couldn't remember the name of the fifth former secretary that endorsed him. After about 15 seconds of McCain stalling to figure out the name, he decided to move on and refer to him as "some other guy". By the time he remembered the name, they were already on another topic. That was pretty funny.
Also, as we saw in the documentary in class, McCain had to assimilate himself with the Bush campaign to become the front runner of the Republican party. Prior to that, they weren't so similar. They were sort of like rivals within the party. I just wanted to point that out.
Re: Cindy :)
I agree with your statement about McCain's nervousness and the way he avoided the questions about him being behind in the polls. He knows that by acknowledging the fact that he is behind will only give him that doubt of losing. If he continues to have that doubt he will be distracted and vulnerable towards the end of the campaigns.
I noticed in this interview that McCain doesn't admit the fact that he is losing this election. He keeps referring to other polls that have him ahead or just 3 points behind, and then he just disagrees with the poll all-together. This either shows his confidence, or his ignorance. McCain says, "And look, those polls have been consistently shown me much further behind than we actually are." McCain is confident that if he maintains his current momentum, saying, "We have closed in the last week. We continue this close through next week, you're going to be up very, very late on election night."
McCain distanced himself from Bush well during the interview. Although Brokaw pointed out that McCain voted along with Bush 92% of the time, McCain says he disagrees with the current spending spree in Washington, the failed strategy in Iraq, and climate change. McCain isn't Bush, but he voted with him 92% of the time. Instead of "disagreeing" with the statistics, he accepted them. He said that they share common philosophies of the Republican party, but also have different ones.
RE: Cindy
I agree with you that McCain was a little nervous since Tom was telling him about the polls, how he is 11 points behind Obama. I also agree with you that McCain is a liar. If showing a video clip of every question he was being asked during the interview, in the video was a different reponse. So how do we know if he is telling the truth or not, if everytime he has a different answer and there's evidence that he is lying.
Re: Travis
I do agree that McCain needs to do something to improve his campaign because many polls show that he is behind. Polls may not be exact, but there is no way they are showing Obama in the lead everytime just by mistake. McCain needs to realize this. One positive thing about McCain is that he has faith in his campaign... he's not giving up.
RE: Leo
I agree with your statements describing McCain's deep passion for his campaign and all, but passion will only get one so far. Though McCain is trying, it is imperative that he connects with more voters in the battleground states and gets them to share his passion. The polls may not be one hundred percent accurate, but I'm sure everyone working the polls is not out to get John McCain...he's much better off accepting the fact that he's trailing by a significant amount than continuing to live in denial.
Re: Ariel
I think that McCain did somewhat seperate himself from Bush. Yes, he has supported him in the past, but he has also stood up against the republican party. This is a bold move because people in his party may resent him. This shows that McCain follows his own mind, not Bushes all the time.
Throughout the interview McCain seemed somewhat nervous and in a way, sensitive as well. Tom Brokaw began pitching him tough questions and McCain was always so quick to respond. Most of his responses, however, seemed to come from such a personal viewpoint. He seemed personally hurt by many of the things Tom Brokaw mentioned and uneasy when clips of him were played back. For example, when the poll numbers were brought up McCain said, "So you're starting out, in all due respect with fundamental assumptions that I don't agree with. So it's hard for me to respond to assumptions that I don't agree with." McCain looked as if the "attacks" made on him during the interview could have dented his reputation and his campaign more so than before. His uneasiness made this obvious.
Another pressing topic during the interview was his "similarity" or in this case, non similarity to Bush. McCain finally put out in public that he is not George Bush. He didn't bother to do laps around the issue and instead took a straight forward shot at it. He seemed tired of all the talk circulating about him in comparison to the Bush administration. McCain said about Bush and himself, "So do we share a common philosophy of the Republican Party? Of course. But I've, I've stood up against my party, not just President Bush, but others; and I've got the scars to prove it, including taking up, with Ted Kennedy, immigration reform, knowing full well that that was going to hurt my chances in the primaries. So I could go down a long list of issues with you." By saying those, he's implying that he respects Bush for who he is but he has his own beliefs and America needs to see this.
From the beginning of the interview McCain was able to distance himself from Bush. Tom began the discussion by quoting McCain saying, "I am not George Bush." The discussion brought up the issue on how McCain stated that Bush's unpopularity may be dragging down the Republican Party. Tom states that McCain has voted with McCain "92% of the time" and that it is hard to seperate him from Bush. McCain emphasized "I am not George Bush. I was not popular within my own party." He states that he shares a common philosophy with the Republican Party but that he is also known for standing up for what he believes. He also points out that he "respects Geroge Bush". It was within the first 8 minutes that McCain spent denfending himself on that issue.
What I got from the interview is the same thing I got form the last debate. McCain states that he is different from Bush but agrees that he has voted with hi 92% of the time. In regards to the polls I think McCain just doesn't want to accept the fact that Obama is now ahead of him. There were several polls mentioned and he kept saying they were wrong. McCain, I feel did not get his point across. He did not really seperate himself from Bush at all. He dedicated the interview to seperating himself from Obama instead of Bush. We already know that he and Obama don't agree on many things, it was time for him to show that he is not George Bush.
Re: Jessica Garcia
I agree with what you said. It did at times seem as if McCain kept contradicting himself. If he really wants to win presidency then he needs to figure out what he's planning to do. The country is interested in what McCain will do for us as President not what he thinks of Obama, it's perfectly clear that he wouldn't want him to win. He needs to focus on his own campaign rather than Obama's.
Re: Amber
I do agree with you that in the interview it seemed as if McCain had complete confidence in winning. After, reading your opinion I can see why McCain wouldn't pay attention to the polls, like you said, they would just bring him down. However, I do feel it is important to at least consider what the polls are saying. If he sees he is failing in one area then he can focus on improving it. I think that it would help him in the end if he took the poll results into consideration.
Re: Gladys
I agree with you when you say that McCain did a good job distancing himself from Bush. People before me typically said that McCain isn't distanced from Bush, but didn't discuss how he tried to distanced himself from Bush. I agree with you when you say that Bush only shares the Republican philosophy with Bush, and that he needed to regain the affection of the Republican party.
RE: Isamar
I disagree with you when you say that McCain is exactly the same as Bush. Yes they agreed 92% of the time, but they aren't exactly the same. Now, it seems that McCain only agrees with Bush on republican philosophy. Remember that McCain nearly switched parties in 2000 because of his disagreement with Bush.
In the interview with Tom Brokaw, John McCain seemed confident, and sure that he had a great possibility of winning the election. When told what the polls given by NBC News Mason Dixon poll where, he stated that he is very happy with where they are at and very proud of the campaign that he is running. I think that he actually believes that he has this race won hands down.
When Brokaw, showed McCain the video from 2005 in Meet the Press and that statement said him in The Washington Times; John got nervous and started fidgeting with his fingers and the pen he was holding. The things that McCain had said completely contradict each other and I personally think it makes him look phony. I understand why he wouldn’t want people seeing him as another Bush; he’s not something most people look up to so that is completely understandable. However, he contradicts himself a lot.
RE: Cindy
I agree that he did seem nervous. It seemed to me that McCain was, in fact, contradicting himself in the videos. McCain needs to straighten out his answers before saying them because his answers make him look like a liar because of those videos. I believe that he really needs to be more consistent with what he says and not switch answers depending on the given situation. Things like that make people wonder and question about the validity of his answers.
RE: Isamar
I agree, McCain was right in saying that he is not Bush. However, I believe that he is very similar to him. Voting the same way as Bush more than 90% of the time does show that they have common beliefs and ideas. McCain must show that he should not be compared to Bush by providing evidence showing him and Bush disagreeing on different matters. If he fails to do so, McCain and Bush will be so closely compared, that he will be recognized as being the same as Bush.
Re: yesenia
I agree with you on that McCain made a good case on saying that he wasn't Bush. As well as, that he kept his promise to the voter and also kept his party happy. However, I think that McCain seperated himself from Bush a little too late, and has said some things that contadict what he is now saying.
Re: Matt
When you commented Isamars comment you said that John McCain was not the same as George Bush, but when you vote with someone 92% of the time, your views and policies will most likely be the same. Also when John McCain ALMOST switched parties, it was after the 2000 election when McCain lost, and after Bush had done a lot of mud slinging. Now your right when you say, it seems that McCain only agrees with Bush on Republican philosophy, but that same philosophy has hurt America, and America can’t handle four more years of the last eight. If John McCain were to win this election, he would run his administration the same as Bush did.
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