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(snip) WALLACE: Some people are asking — and I know you know this because you read the papers; you're aware of what people say — "What's happened to John McCain?" You, for instance, were a big supporter of global warming legislation, and yet two of your closest friends in the Senate, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, came out with a provision and you said it was horrendous. And on many issues observers say that you have become this year more combative and more conservative. MCCAIN: I, unfortunately, have always been combative. Second of all, I'm having... WALLACE: Have you always...

Barack Obama began his presidency with an open hand toward the man he had just defeated in a race that was at times bitter. "There are few Americans who understand this need for common purpose and common effort better than John McCain," said Obama at an inauguration-eve tribute dinner to his former foe. But in the year since that evening of comity and collegiality, McCain has emerged as one of the leading critics of the new president. On foreign policy, his traditional area of expertise, and domestic affairs, where McCain has shown new passion, the 72-year-old Arizonan is making it...

(snip) Don Imus and the Arizona Republican were talking Friday morning about the February stimulus vote when McCain, who kept his famous temper at bay during the '08 campaign, went Howard Beale. Imus: Did you support that bill? McCain: Hell no. Imus: I don't think you have to swear at me Senator when I'm just asking a... McCain: I'm not swearing at you. I'm swearing I've had to have been smoking something pretty strong to vote for that outrageous use of taxpayers' dollars. Toggling to the economy at large, McCain added: "There's not a lot of happy people out there,...

Sen. John McCain hammered the Obama administration Friday for its decision to try accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four other suspected terrorists in a civilian court in New York. Mohammed, Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi will all be transferred from Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York - a short distance from the World Trade Center towers that were destroyed in the September 11 attacks.

This morning, in an interview with CNN's State of the Union, Sen. John McCain (RINO-Ariz.) apparently used some rather choice language to describe the fairly evident future political aspirations of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Ak.): "Will Sarah and I - did we always agree on everything in the past? Will we in the future? No. But let's let a thousand flowers bloom. Let's come up with a winning combination next time."—http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2360310/posts With only a cursory glance, it appears from McCain's language that he is merely asking for a second chance -- in 2012? -- with Palin. [And, at first...

(snip) Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union," the Arizona Republican said: "When we selected, or asked, Sarah Palin to be my running mate, it energized our party. We were ahead in the polls, until the stock market crashed. And she still is a formidable force in the Republican Party. And I have great affection for her. Will Sarah and I - did we always agree on everything in the past? Will we in the future? No. But let's let a thousand flowers bloom. Let's come up with a winning combination next time." (snip)

(snip) McCain took five questions about health care, and heard from several other people, including one who challenged his conservative credentials and several who said they deeply opposed Obama policies and expansion of the government into health care or other facets of personal life. (snip) The only note of disagreement came from Gabriela Mercer, a naturalized citizen from Mexico who repeatedly challenged McCain’s conservative credentials, saying he has not represented Arizona on immigration issues. McCain defended his record and said he recently won an award for tight-fisted spending. (snip)

(snip) JOHN KING: The president of the United States, who a year ago this weekend was your campaign rival heading into the final month of the campaign, is the Nobel Peace laureate for 2009. Deserved? SEN. JOHN MCCAIN: Oh, I’m sure that the president is very honored to receive this award. And Nobel Committee, I can’t divine all their intentions, but I think part of their decision-making was expectations. And I’m sure the president understands that he now has even more to live up to. But as Americans, we’re proud when our president receives an award of that prestigious category....

(CNN) — Arizona Sen. John McCain said Friday the Nobel Committee's decision to award President Obama the Peace Prize was likely based on expectations, not accomplishments. "I can't divine all their intentions, but I think part of their decision-making was expectations," McCain told CNN's John King. "And I'm sure the president understands that he now has even more to live up to." But Obama's former rival for the White House said he was happy with the decision.

Many FR threads have included the infamous picture of John McCain, teeth-gritted and looking at "somebody" with pure hatred and contempt. In fact, the picture has been seen by many as strong evidence of McCain's personality 'flaw', and certainly it's representative of that. But what's MISSING from the picture is at least as important as the picture itself. Here's a best-available full view -- but you still can't see the full context. Who's the object of McCain's nasty grimace? -- well, you can't see it in the picture. For those not aware, the "object" was none other than -- candidate...

Sen. John McCain blasted Democrats' plans for a health-care overhaul Friday in Oro Valley at the annual conference of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. In a generally jovial mood at the Hilton El Conquistador Golf and Tennis Resort, before an adoring crowd that gave him two standing ovations, he joked: "Every place I go, everybody says, 'I voted for ya,' 'I voted for ya.' I'm about to demand a recount." . . . . . On whether he would vote for health-care reform if the public option were removed:"It would have to depend on the legislation. There are...

It's careful, it's complicated, it's got a catchy name, and it's first. At face value, that's what I see in the Mortgage Bankers Association's proposal to formulate a new, government-guaranteed, mortgage backed securities market to take the place of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.Let's start at the very beginning, with the MBA press release: The centerpiece of MBA’s recommendation is the creation of a new line of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). Each security would have two components – a loan level guarantee provided by privately-owned, government-chartered and regulated mortgage credit-guarantor entity (MCGE) and a security-level, federal government-guaranteed wrap.America, meet the MCGE,...

KANSAS CITY, MO - Three Republican senators came to Children's Mercy Hospital Monday to meet with health care professionals. Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said we should focus on only the problems that need fixing and not revamp the whole thing. Senator McConnell joined Senators John McCain and Kit Bond before an invited crowd of mostly health professionals on Monday. "We have committed an act of generational death by laying on our children, grandchildren these multi-trillions of dollars," Sen. McCain said. "All of it, it strikes me argues once again for a much more targeted, incremental approach to health care...

Please send John your birthday message. Sign his online birthday card today Dear Supporter, This Saturday, August 29th, my husband John will celebrate his birthday. A few weeks ago, I wrote to you asking you to sign the online birthday card we've put together for him. Over 30,000 of you have signed the online birthday card so far! I want you to know I appreciate each and every one of these birthday wishes and I know John will be excited to read them over the weekend. If you haven't yet had the chance to sign the online birthday card, you...

President Obama made a vigorous effort after the election to court Sen. John McCain, hoping his campaign rival would become a Senate advocate for his ambitious agenda. Instead, McCain (R-Ariz.) has emerged as one of the chief gadflies leading Republican opposition to Obama’s biggest legislative initiatives. Nevertheless, Obama and other Democrats still cling to the hope that McCain can be persuaded to help advance their priorities.

With unusual ubiquity for a losing presidential candidate, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain has been popping up all over the media these days. So it was probably inevitable that he'd get the same question asked of virtually every breathing Republican in these, the Grand Old Party's Days of Disarray: Will you be running for president in 2012? First of all, McCain's got to win Senate reelection next year. Second, the party's conservatives still don't like him, although as long as he lost in November, they've pretty much shut up about it for now. Arizona Republican Senator John McCain Third, he'd...

He talks to Hannity.

Senator John McCain, hurt during the presidential campaign by his differences with President Obama on healthcare, is trying to turn the tables. McCain today criticized Obama's insistence on a public insurance option to compete directly with private insurers. “State run plans have driven the private insurers out…it ends up being more and in some cases prohibitively expensive,” the former GOP presidential nominee said on Fox News Channel. McCain also pointed out that Obama is at least open to considering a tax on employer-paid healthcare benefits to pay for expanding access -- an idea that the president eviscerated McCain about during...

Arizona Sen. John McCain voted for a bill Thursday allowing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco, while fellow Sen. Jon Kyl said no. The bill would give the FDA the power to regulate tobacco and cigarettes for the first time. The Senate voted 79 to 17 Thursday for the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. President Barack Obama supports the bill. Obama and Congress approved a large increase to the federal tobacco tax earlier this year to fund expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides health coverage to uninsured minors.

SNIP (McCain) was in high spirits, and we talked for a while about the Obama Administration's embrace of realpolitik, Pakistan, Iran, the whole nine yards. But first I asked him about Dick Cheney and his defense of Bush Administration torture policies. He told me of his fundamental disagreement with Cheney: "When you have a majority of Americans, seventy-something percent, saying we shouldn't torture, then I'm not sure it helps for the Vice President to go out and continue to espouse that position," he said. "But look, he's free to talk. He's a former Vice President of the United States. I...

From the Washington Post today: McCain had been left for dead politically this summer, and now his decision to return to a state he skipped altogether in his 2000 bid for the White House is one of the many signs that the GOP contest for president is still in search of a front-runner. McCain has surged back into a strong second place in New Hampshire, where former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the GOP front-runner there, returned Wednesday in the hope of shoring up his eroding poll numbers. The two men traded angry, long-distance insults that signaled an abrupt end to...

Who's poised to lead the Republican party out of the woods? John McCain seems convinced that one GOP notable is not the person for the job, someone he's quite familiar with - his former running mate. On Monday's "Tonight Show," Jay Leno asked the Arizona Senator to name the new guiding lights of the Republican party, and McCain was quick to rattle off a list of "young, dynamic" governors around the country. Palin wasn't one of them. McCain singled out Lousisana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Florida Gov. Charlie Christ, Minnesota's Tim Pawlenty, and Mitt Romney, McCain's chief rival for the Republican...

Meghan McCain: We Need More Gay Republicans! By David Knowles Apr 13th 2009 10:00AM Here's a question: Can Meghan McCain, the blog-a-lot daughter of Senator John McCain, help bring the Republican Party into the twenty-first century? Well, with her column at The Daily Beast, and during her many television interviews, she sure is giving it a go. Today's screed, for instance, attempts to light a fire under the Republican posterior on the matter of including gay rights in the party platform: If the Republican Party has any hope of gaining substantial support from a wider, younger base, we need to...

Looks like Meghan McCain has a shot at being Tila Tequila's new bff. The daughter of former presidential candidate John McCain was spotted having lunch with the MySpace minx-turned reality TV star in West Hollywood last week -- and apparently the two have a lot in common. "People may think we are so different, but she is a Scorpio and I'm a Scorpio and we have very strong opinions about things," Tila Tequila told Usmagazine.com Sunday. Meghan "is a really good friend of mine," she said.The two dined out at the posh Chateau Marmont after contacting each other through Twitter,...

The 79-19 roll call by which the Senate voted Thursday to triple the size of the AmeriCorps and broadly expand incentives for students and seniors to give back to their communities. On this vote, a "yes" vote was a vote to pass the bill. Voting "yes" were 55 Democrats and 22 Republicans and 2 independents. Voting "no" were 0 Democrats and 19 Republicans.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has no illusions about the 2008 White House race. "God bless them," McCain said Thursday at the Heritage Foundation when reminded of the tens of millions of people who voted for him last year. "Over 50 million people voted for me and Sarah Palin - mostly for Sarah Palin," McCain said to an eruption of laughter. But "there was a sizable majority of the other party returned to Congress. And, elections have consequences. Elections have consequences. And these consequences we are seeing now in full display."

Sen. John McCain's daughter continued her all-out media tour with a stop on CNN's "Larry King Live" Tuesday night, voicing support for her father's campaign opponent, President Obama, but none for her Republican critics. Meghan McCain, a columnist for TheDailyBeast.com, also tried to take the high road after conservative radio host Laura Ingraham had joked about the 24 year-old's weight last week. "As far as I'm concerned with what's going on with Laura Ingraham, on my end, it's over," McCain told King. "There are nine million women in this country suffering from eating disorders. And I'm not going to be...

Today, a certain Freeper asked a good FRiend of mine if she was "tired yet of hating# on the McCain family." [1] As the keeper of the McCain Truth File ping list, I can say with complete certainty that I am not. And here's why. It should be publicly known by now that I throughly detest Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and that's putting it nicely. From his amnesty for illegal aliens (McCain-Kennedy) to carbon cap-and-trade (McCain-Lieberman), campaign finance "reform" (McCain-Feingold), and his grandstanding with regard to a certain recent massive Socialist bailout for the financial services industry, McCain has...

It's one of those things that sneaks up on you in politics, a sense of things happening not quite as you expected. It started in April when our Times colleague Louise Roug called with a quote from Sen. Hillary Clinton.

They got a statement from Sarah, of course she took the high road.

It's standard fare for a president to make a bipartisan gesture by including one member of the opposing party in his cabinet - just as it's always the case (lest we forget) that every president-elect vows to change the tone in Washington and reach out magnanimously to his vanquished opponents. But John Podesta, the former Bill Clinton former chief of staff who's spearheading the transition for the 44th president, said today that there would be independents and Republicans in Barack Obama's cabinet and "not just at a token level".

John McCain is the GOP candidate for president. But who will run for Veep? One of the smartest decisions George W. Bush made was choosing Dick Cheney. Contrary to the Cheney image peddled by the hysterical Left, a sort of a projected Darth Vader on the screen of their childish nightmares, in reality Dick Cheney is wise, experienced, thoughtful, calm, humorous, and ready to step up to be president. Cheney is not a hot electoral commodity; he excels at governance. So does Rudy Giuliani. McCain has his pick of running mates, but Rudy stands out. He is younger than McCain,...

If Americans want to continue the Iraq war, then Sen. John McCain -- the apparent Republican presidential candidate and relentless hawk -- is their man. It seems McCain was not kidding when he said the U.S. might have to remain in Iraq for 100 years. At a town meeting in New Hampshire, McCain was told that President Bush had indicated the possibility of U.S. forces staying in Iraq for 50 years. “Make it a hundred,’’ McCain responded. Presumably McCain means that would still be with a volunteer U.S. army because even the “straight talking” senator would not dare to suggest...

Appearing on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" Sunday, senator John McCain tried to qualify his remark from 2005 that senator Hillary Clinton "would make a good president."" The likely Republican presidential nominee said Clinton "would be a good president in the respect that I think she has integrity, I think she has all of the qualities that are necessary, but she has a very different philosophical view, the liberal Democratic view, than I have, which is conservative Republican."

Senator John McCain’s campaign advisers will ask the White House to deploy President Bush for major Republican fund-raising, but they do not want the president to appear too often at his side, top aides to Mr. McCain said Sunday. After a weekend of strategy meetings at Mr. McCain’s Arizona ranch — in a sense, the first Sedona summit of the Republican Party’s new leadership — the advisers said that much remains undecided about coordinating the campaign with the White House and the party apparatus until Mr. McCain wins enough delegates to be the official nominee. But even as the consensus...

Raising (Mc)Cain: Just how bad is the senator's temper, anyway? The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionPublished on: 02/10/08 Is John McCain giving "fit for the presidency" a new meaning, or are the tales about his temper overblown?As McCain has disposed of one promising opponent after another, the chatter about his temperament has steadily gained volume. Last week it reached a new pitch with comments like these:<snip>

McCain a 'True Conservative,' Bush Says Feb 10 08:36 AM US/Eastern WASHINGTON (AP) - John McCain is a "true conservative," President Bush says, although the presumptive Republican presidential nominee may have to work harder to convince other conservatives that he is one of their own. McCain "is very strong on national defense," Bush said in an interview taped for airing on "Fox News Sunday." "He is tough fiscally. He believes the tax cuts ought to be permanent. He is pro-life. His principles are sound and solid as far as I'm concerned." But when asked about criticism of McCain by conservative...

I know Free Republic members overwhelmingly don't want John McCain. He's not my choice.But I was just listening to Glenn Beck saying that Hilary Cinton will be better, that Bill Clinton's election in 1992 was the "best thing" that ever happened to America, that the country will be in such dire straights after four years of Hilary, that a "Churchill" will be needed to sort it out. This on top of Rush's statements and Coulter's.But folks, if Free Republic becomes the "Hilary will be better" site well I don't care if Barry Goldwater comes back and says it, that is...

Stop the presses! The very latest polling data from California indicates a sharp trend for Obama and against Hillary. Preliminary indications in other states are that the trend is very widespread and not just concentrated on the west coast. Pollster Scott Rasmussen's three day tracking survey, conducted on January 28-30, shows Hillary with a bare and dwindling 3 point lead over Obama in California. He has Hillary at 43%, Obama at 40%, and Edwards (two of the three days were before he dropped out) at 9%. This data compares with a 20 point plus Hillary margin in most polls in...

Reagan Library Republican Presidential Debate: January 30, 2008 SIMI VALLEY, California (CNN) -- Republican presidential hopefuls will face off Wednesday night without a familiar face as ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to drop out and endorse front-runner Sen. John McCain. The remaining candidates will take the stage in a debate -- sponsored by CNN, the Los Angeles Times and Politico -- beginning at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday. The event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, follows McCain's Tuesday night win in the Florida primary. McCain topped former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 36 percent to...

Alexander J. Madison – January 29, 2008 Fellow citizens, I was holding out hope that we could save the Republican Party from it’s slow, deliberate and painful march towards irrelevance. But with the only Reaganite in the primary election, Duncan Hunter, dropping out this past weekend, and Tom Tancredo long gone after being pilloried by the GOP cheerleaders on ‘conservative’ talk radio, and Fred Thompson, the only other reasonably traditional conservative, unable to get the necessary traction for a competitive race against the moderates, it is time to cut our losses and let the collapse take its natural course. The...

Both Hillary Clinton and John McCain scored hugely significant wins on Saturday in Nevada and South Carolina, wins which might set them on the road to the nomination. Hillary is very likely to lose South Carolina because of the large black vote there. Had she lost Nevada too, she would have been badly handicapped going into Florida and Super Tuesday, having suffered two consecutive defeats. But now that she has won Nevada, she can lose South Carolina and still have momentum. The run-up to South Carolina and the primary itself will feature constant focus on the African-American vote. Analysts and...

<p>With this field of losers, it's no wonder the race for the GOP presidential nomination remains completely up for grabs.</p> <p>The only common bond among the Republicans running is that each one has managed to humiliate himself with disastrous defeats at some point or another.</p>

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has decided not to assail Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton for her stance on the Iraq War in a speech Wednesday at a military prep school. On Tuesday, McCain's campaign released excerpts of his speech at Camden Military Academy in which the Arizona senator accuses Clinton of indecisiveness, arguing that won't work for a post-Sept. 11 commander in chief. "The Democratic front-runner wants to have it both ways when it comes to foreign policy. On the one hand, the New York senator voted for the Iraq War. On the other hand, she now opposes it—sort...

MIAMI (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain warned on Wednesday against the spread of socialism in Latin America and pledged to give the region renewed U.S. attention if elected. Appearing in Little Havana, McCain carefully avoided criticism of President Bush but said the Iraq war "has diverted attention from our hemisphere and we have paid a penalty for that" in the form of a growing leftism embodied by leaders Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia. In a speech to veterans of the ill-fated, CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, McCain said his first...

John McCain's Obama- esque remarks about our "wasted" resources in Iraq weren't the only comments that landed him in hot water after a recent appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. Many of his staff were blindsided by his campaign announcement. And several aides were so outraged that they've quit, say Republican insiders. "They're imploding—he had a game plan that had him announcing much later in the year," one top Republican aide tells Radar, adding that the campaign is "in serious trouble ... Romney's plan and Rudy's jump in the polls caused him to scrap his plans completely. When you...

Aides to opponents of Sen. John McCain said they were "stunned" by his decision not to show up at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington. After rejecting invitations to speak to the 6,000 attendees, McCain tried to schedule a private reception without clearing the request with CPAC. By then, all the rooms at the Omni Shoreham had been booked. "It was a classic McCain move, dissing us by going behind our backs," said William J. Lauderback, executive vice president of the American Conservative Union, which sponsors the three-day conference. "If you diss the girl before the dance, you're...

It would be unprecedented that 2008 would pass without a tough contest for Republican presidential nominee. But will John McCain be that nominee? I have previously argued that McCain doesn't have the stamina to win a campaign; he is almost as old as Reagan was when Reagan ran for *re-election*, and he ran out of steam eight years ago, impressing many as ill-tempered due to being over-tired. So far, however, he has been the 2nd-place candidate in just about every survey, behind Giuliani, and it does seem inevitable, from history, let alone the considerable uneasiness many conservatives may have for...

Before his daughter was shot to death in an Arizona parking lot last Sunday, Ronald Schiffman never considered himself a political person. Now he says he might be ready for a change. Less than a week after his daughter, Nicole, 19, and her best friend, Carol Kestenbaum, 20, were killed, Schiffman called on Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to speak out against gun violence. "This is his state. John McCain should make a statement about this incident," said Schiffman. "He cries, rightly so, about all the boys who die in Iraq. I'd like to see him talk about gun control. It's...