McCain advisors to meet with House Republican staff Friday
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/04/11/art.mccainhill.ap.jpg caption="McCain's senior staff is headed to the Hill Friday. "]WASHINGTON (CNN) - Senator John McCain's presidential campaign and congressional Republicans are stepping up their efforts to coordinate campaign strategy and political messaging.
McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis and senior policy advisor Douglas Holtz-Eakin are scheduled to meet Friday morning on Capitol Hill with the chiefs of staff for all Republican House members, according to several GOP congressional aides.
"This is the campaign generally starting to take on the mantle of the leadership. McCain now becomes the standard bearer of the Republican message," Sean Noble, campaign spokesman for Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., one of McCain's early Hill supporters, told CNN.
Noble said he expected McCain campaign officials to lay out where the candidate will campaign in the coming weeks, what themes he'll be hitting, and what the fundraising targets are. Noble also said the meeting would give senior staff of House Republicans who backed McCain's primary rivals a chance to meet the top staff members of McCain's campaign.
Noble noted it wasn't that long ago that McCain could only count on a handful of GOP Hill supporters to carry his message.
"Now he can reach out to essentially the entire House Republican Conference to serve as surrogates," he said.
One congressional aide said senior Republicans have already been coordinating with the McCain campaign, including regular communication among Davis, senior McCain advisor Charlie Black and senior Hill staff.
The McCain campaign recently enlisted John Green, a lobbyist and former aide to retired Senator Trent Lott, R-Miss, to lead Congressional outreach efforts.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Oh, acts as the liaison for the campaign to House Republicans and Senator Jon Kyl, R-Ariz, is the liaison to Senate Republicans. But the aide said, "coordination has ramped up just in the last couple of weeks."
Another source downplayed the significance of Friday's meeting, saying most of the information would be "scripted and generic" message coordination, but said it was valuable as "an initial touch of gloves for rank and file Members."
Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel said that Republicans see the value of McCain's ability to reach out to independents.
"People are increasingly enthusiastic about how much he'll help in the fall," Steel said.
GOP aides pointed to April 15th, tax day, as a natural opportunity for McCain and Hill Republicans to work together to highlight differences with Democrats on economic policy.
Boehner announced Thursday that Republicans will argue on the House floor next week that Democrats support "the biggest tax increase in American history" by not extending President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts.
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I hope people will wake up and stop being so ignorant come the next election. It's not about republican or democrat, it's about who will do the best job for the United States, end the war in Iraq that is bankrupting the US Treasury (John McCain wants to continue the war and spending $12 billion a month by issuing treasury bonds to the Chinese) and restore America's respect around the world. John McCain supports more war, more unilateral hawkish war rhetoric, etc.
People who voted for Dubya and are now complaining about economic woes, an unending war, and all the significant problems this country faces got exactly what they voted for both in 2000 and 2004. You got record surplus turned into record deficits, an out of control government debt, a tarnished reputation and image of the United States around the globe, a poor economy that some are saying is going to get even worse, record foreclosures, record energy prices, a never ending quagmire in Iraq, consumer sentiment at 26 year lows, record food inflation, crumbling higways and infrastructure (collapsing Minneapolis bridges), and I could go on and on. The record speaks for itself. Anyone who thinks John McCain is going to be any different that George Bush is nuts. He's a republican and they're all the same. More debt, more war, more problems. That's the GOP.
McCain will be President. Barrack Obama will be on the South side of Chicago selling used cars and 22 " rims
and that will be that
The Obamites are out in full force today. like their candidate all they know is to tear down decent people. Hillary has felt their wrath now it is McCain's turn. But it won't work, because the People know the difference between Fluff and Substance.
McCain has nothing to worry about if Obama is the candidate.
Dean has a lot to worry about as he said yesterday. The Democrats had an opportunity to win back the WH and they blew it by supporting this demagogue.
If Paul Begala is setting up campaign smear ads against McCain
for Hillary, what happens to that money when Hillary loses. They
have said the ads will go all the way to November. Would that
money be used to go against Hillary's own Democratic party. For instance Obama.!
Would Hillary and Begala do that? If not, why are thay planning
to use "smear" ads until the end? They are saying, against MCCain
but when Hillary gets out, I am sure that Hillary won't want all that
money to go for ads building up Obama. Let us know, Mr. Begala.
Reading the blogs from Dems is just too much fun for me! I'm a former Dem, now Independent voting for McCain. Dems have one candidate that will attempt to fabricate facing sniper fire (while McCain actually flew in combat) and as for Mr. Obama; well, I cannot accept that he sat in that church for twenty years and heard NOTHING hateful come out of Mr. Wright's mouth. Get real people. Bill was right when he called Obama a fairy tale.
I'm not sure I agree with Senator McCain about the war in Iraq. That being said, these MCsame comments are just stupid. McCain is his own man who does NOT deny global warming, DOES have a plan to help individual homeowners with the mortgage crisis, and will do what he thinks is right, not order a wind guage to pander to popular opinion.
Democratic party has veered way left. Bill Clinton was a good, CENTRIST President who achieved results. Al Gore was a fine standard bearer who was cheated in 2000. Now the Democratic Party's elder statesmen and party movers are Howard Dean, John Kerry, and Baracka Obama? Shouldn't you just rename it the Democratic-Socialist Party of America and be finished with it???
Unless you're just going to blindly follow the PIed-Piper Obama, or are willing to vote for a woman who will say ANYTHING to get elected, it may be in your interest to educate yourself on McCain's background as a patriotic American who has admittedly made mistakes in his life, but accepts responsibility for them and will do his best to protect the American people. How quickly we forget 9-11...
I truly can not believe how stupid so many of these ticker comments truly are! It is ridiculous! But sometimes I have to entertain myself by reading them.
McSame??? are you people really that stupid. It's clear to me why the rest of the world has caught up. More than half the nation has become so dumbed down it shames me. How is McCain anything like Bush? because he wants to stay the course in a war that wasn't started by just the right, but also the left? All for nothing? he know's a little to much about that and he won't allow America to turn its back on it's soldiers like it did when he was in uniform. All these flapping gums speaking for the soldiers, over 70% of them have said they prefer a leader with former military experience, that must mean obama? billiary the draft dodger? McCain is strong the rest, are weak.
McCain, the only real leader, and he isn't even a Conservative... look up liberatarian you dolts. He's middle of the road, you nut bags should be happy
What a joke. Obama will unite the country, when his groupies have gone out of their way to vilify others in the Democratic party. Birds of feather flock together, have a good look at those who are flocking around Obama and ask yourselves if you want them to run the country. He will be as great as the disastrous Carter. Obama for change, what a joke. It will be the same old, same old tired Democrats of the past who are now running Congress.
The only things Barack Obama is good at is whining,crying,lying,talking,con people,follow Hillary footstep,copy her her plan and copy other people speech and try to make his own. Some month ago I thought he might have beat McCain easily.but now there is no way in hell that's going to happen. Whe u look at the poll at the pollster.com that show McCain are consistently ahead of Obama in MO,MN,WI,OH,PA and FL and that's very bad for Obama. Hillary is the only candidate that can beat McCain in this crucial states and take back the white house.
The Democrats has better pay attention to this. While Obama and Hillary are verbally sniping at each other, McCain is putting together his strategy for the general election. He's getting his homework done.
If the Democrats don't resolve the candidacy issue soon, they will wind up well-behind the eight ball, and once again, snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I am an Obama supporter, but I honestly hope that, one way or the other the upcoming Pennsylvania primary is a landslide, so that we can get a concession speech, and get the Democratic Party focused on the real adversaries!
What a laugh that McCain is a possibility for "change". Not a good way to show it, by gathering with the rest of your Republican buddies John. Plain and simple, you are just as much a liar and a fraud as the rest of your crew.
Ron Paul '08
This was predictable. McCain needs the congressional Republicans to do his dirty work for him in the campaign. They will carry the racist or sexist arguments that he needs made and his fingerprints wont be on them.
A real straight talker, this one. A graduate of the George Bush school of political campaigning.
At least have the guts to attack your opponents in the open and take responsibility for the attack, coward!
Forget it Republicans, McCain will not be President. I don't care how much the Democrats fight. They will pulled together to beat another Republican.
Hey, Uncle Sam. Since you aren't one of McCain's critics, don't try to speak for them.
McCain is and entirely typical politician, as his brown-nosing of Bush and kissing up to the religious right abundantly demonstrates.
And he most certainly will place partisan advantage above the national interests. Selling out America to the highest bidder is what his party is all about.
Is there anyone out there that has asked or would like to know just what positions in his administration Barak Obama would fill with some of the nice people he knows, loves and hangs around with? Where would he use the Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers(terrorist) Bernadette Dorn? What others are there that we don't know about yet.
This is to Hick, from Nashville:
Some people, no matter how low their IQ or reasoning ability, will never understand the possibilities of an Obama Change. Others are just downright blinded by loyalties to the Clintons. Their time to inject their Ideas have come and gone. McCain is just "GONE".
I want someone from MY GENERATION to lead MY GENERATION. The older generations have done enough to "help me". We need to help ourselves by standing up for what we want......We want OBAMA as the next president.
Go Obama 08
AJ
You sure have a lot of hatred for Obama and his supporters. Are you a Democrat, Republican or Independent? Whatever the case may be, you do realize that you sound like a little child who didn't get their way and so now you're "cutting off your nose to spite your face."
Also, you sound a lot like GWB, with his infamous and stupid statement of: "You are either with us or against us." If someone doesn't vote for Hillary then they must be the enemy, right?? After all, on policy issues, Hillary and Obama aren't very close to agreeing on anything..../sarcasm
Stacy Clarks–Does your PC have spell check?
No amount of GETTING TOGETHER with other Republicans can help this senile old man's campaign... the only thing this warmonger really wants to do is get us back to Vietnam so he can bomb the many targets they would not allow him to hit the first time around.
How can anybody who's lived thru the last 7 years of Republican regime even think about voting for these freaks again?
Yes the standard answer is, Democrats are worse, but that is an excuse that an abused wife will give you all the time.
HAVE COURAGE, STAND UP AND SAY NO MORE OF THIS, and throw these thugs out on the street gutters where they belong.
A suggestion for VIC in Nashville, TN:
I also do not like untested candidates, unable to break their ties with pastors whose view of the USA is quite distorted.
HOWEVER, to state that you may vote for McCain should Hillary fail to get the Democratic nomination is UTTER STUPIDITY.
Nobody needs another day, another week, LET ALONE ANOTHER 4 YEARS of Republican bungling the war, the economy and God knows what else!!!!!!!
Can someone explain to me how McCain has experience and is now just learning about the economy at age 71? How can you lead if you don't know which way to go?
McCain's ideas for "Security" :
1. Fill out all the available spaces in Arlington Park National Cemetery
and plan Arlingtong Park (Phase II) in Iraq
2. Arrest and imprison innocents under the pretext of "War on Terror" and lable innocent civilians as "Terrorist"
3. To to a nuclear war on Iran
4. Recession will cease itself because everyone will be either dead or severely injured or have such health state that can't even thing of the economic issues...here you go, he solved the issues of global warming, high gasoline prices and NPT.
Obama...You will win because you have earned it.
Obama = socialist