My decrepit cell phone just kicked me off a McCain campaign
blogger conference call. Before I was reduced to the state of
nature, McCain surrogate Carly Fiorina argued that the Republican
nominee could appeal to Democrats and independents who, Jim
Leach-style, put party over country. She said that such
independence was consistent with McCain's history of putting
country first.
Fiorina contended that female voters could also be won over by
McCain. At 52 percent of the electorate, Fiorinia said, "Women
aren't a constituency -- they are the majority." She reported
knowing both pro-choice and pro-life women who are pro-McCain. She
said that women are twice as likely start small businesses and
therefore not single-issue voters based on "reproductive rights"
(from the pro-choice perspective) or "life" (from the pro-life
perspective).
Reaching out to women who supported Hillary, Fiorina said that
Clinton had been "treated with some disrespect" by Barack Obama,
who did not vet her for the veep nomination or call her when he
picked Joe Biden. She said that everything Biden brings to the
ticket, so does Hillary.
Fiorina acknowledged that Obama's campaign has been "uplifting"
and "inspirational" to many, but dinged him for offering "no
specifics" compared to McCain's plans on the economy, energy
independence, and other issues.
Responding to a question about the markets, Fiorina said that
McCain consulted widely with Wall Street, the Federal Reserve
chairman, the treasury secretary, and Nobel prize-winning
economists. She said that McCain understood that Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac could not be allowed to fail in the short term, but
that in the longer term "major reform" is "absolutely required," up
to and including privatization. What is important, she argued, is
the transparency of capital markets.
After that, my phone died and major news was probably
broken.
topics:
Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Business, Energy
