John McCain's campaign struck back shortly after Clinton's team released a new ad that makes the case that Hillary Clinton is better-prepared than the Arizona senator to handle the nation's economy.
(The McCain campaign has increasingly sparred with Barack Obama, criticizing the Democratic presidential hopeful in daily press releases, and on the trail - but the statement issued Wednesday afternoon in response to the Clinton contrast ad does not mention the New York senator by name.)
Full statement:
“John McCain is ready to lead with a pro-growth economic plan to lower taxes, cut government spending, empower America's entrepreneurs and get our economy back on track. Americans can’t afford the Democrats' liberal agenda to raise taxes, nationalize health care, cut off trade and crush the economy under big government.” - McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds
–CNN Associate Political Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand
(CNN) - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Wednesday sharply disputed Bill Clinton's reported claim that Richardson promised to endorse Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House.
- CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
WASHINGTON (CNN) - As President Bush travels overseas this week, it is a reminder of an early trademark moment of his presidency, his 2001 embrace of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy," Bush said after their initial summit in Slovenia. "We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul; a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country. And I appreciated so very much the frank dialogue."
Seven years later, Putin is viewed more critically across the West, for veering off the path of democratic reform, among other things. Bush, though, maintains it is a critical relationship. Crucial, but thorny: Bush has differences with Russia over plans for a U.S. missile defense program, and over putting former Soviet bloc countries Ukraine and Georgia on the path to membership in the NATO alliance.
And if there are tensions with Bush, Putin and his successor can almost certainly look forward to even tougher relations with the next U.S. president.
Bush's close ties to Putin have been criticized by all of the leading candidates. Republican John McCain, for example, regularly mocks Mr. Bush's claims of looking into Mr. Putin's eyes and getting a sense of his soul. McCain tells audiences when he looks into Mr. Putin's eyes he "sees three letters: KGB."
(CNN) - John McCain said Wednesday he's compiled his initial list of potential running mates.
The presumptive Republican nominee said on his campaign bus that the list has approximately 20 names on it, but said it will take "weeks if not months" to narrow the list down.
"It's the same process that has been used by Democrats and Republicans," the Arizona senator said. "It's not an unusual thing. You put the list together and then you just could do a cursory kind of a look that I guess you could do on Google."
McCain also said he hopes to name his running mate before the party's convention in September, as has been the practice in several recent presidential elections.
"I'd love to do it earlier in the run than later, but it depends on the process," he said. "We just really haven't gotten far enough along in the whole thing to really be able to even predict what we're doing, seriously."
In 2004, John Kerry announced his selection of John Edwards in early July - more than six weeks before the Democratic convention.
But McCain said he did not want to rush the process, hoping to avoid what he said were mistakes past nominees had made in choosing a vice presidential candidate. Specifically, McCain singled out the first President Bush's selection of then-Sen. Dan Quayle who had "not been briefed and prepared for some of the questions."
"I'm a great friend of Dan Quayle's and I think he was a fine senator," McCain also said. "I just think that it was you know, a lot of people in retrospect would have thought maybe the process should have been...I just think you have to have a measured process, make sure that you have taken every, all the factors into consideration and then decide."
Related: McCain mulls list of potential running mates
- CNN's Dana Bash and Alexander Mooney contributed to this report
Hillary Clinton's campaign has gone live in Pennsylvania with a new ad that features sleeping children, and a 3 a.m. crisis call - but this time, the spot takes aim at John McCain. The 30-second spot - "Ringing" - highlights Clinton's "readiness to be steward of the economy on Day One."
On a conference call with reporters, spokesman Howard Wolfson said that Clinton had not faced any economic crises before, but that she possessed "a rich and deep understanding of complex problems" that gave her the tools to deal with them.
(Full script after the jump)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Just under three weeks to go before the Pennsylvania primary, which seems like an eternity in the epic struggle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
History suggests that the more time Obama has to campaign somewhere, the better he does. A new poll seems to bear this out. The Quinnipiac University poll shows Clinton with a 9-point lead over Obama... 50% to 41%,that's down from a 12 point lead two weeks ago.
Also, Obama continues to rack up endorsements from some pretty key figures.
To read more and contribute to the Cafferty File discussion click here
(CNN) - The McCain campaign said Wednesday the Arizona senator's medical records will no longer be released by April 15. They now say the new timetable is "sometime in May."
UPDATE: The McCain campaign tells CNN the reason for the delay is because they want to gather all his doctors for a press conference to answer reporters' questions and May is the soonest that can be done.
- CNN Medical Unit and CNN’s Dana Bash
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