Wallace on McCain: FNC 07/08/08

Added: Oct 7, 2008

From: mediafactcheck

Duration: 4:53

Nicole Wallace and Martha MacCallum on John McCain "The Live Desk" 2:02pm Interview ROBERT GIBBS: I think what you're gonna see in this election is a very clear choice; a clear choice between the clear, new ideas that put the middle class first from Senator Obama versus the same old thinking on our economy on any number of issues, the same old ideas you've heard from George Bush for the past eight years. This time you're just gonna hear them from John McCain. [...] NICOLE WALLACE: Well, you know, I don't think the people who are making a choice in this election care too much about what happens at a staff level, but I think we are in a position now to hit the ground running and to really focus on the choice that voters have. As you know, as you talk about every day this is a big election about big stuff and I think it would be glorious if that clip you just played of Barack Obama's communications director rang a bit true at all, but it doesn't. There is nothing that Barack Obama has done or proposed that would do anything other than suck all the oxygen out of this economy that is already facing some challenges. MARTHA MACCALLUM: You know what? I do wanna get your thoughts also on this Invesco Field decision, that they're gonna do the big announcement at the Invesco Field. It's a Super Bowl stadium, 75,000 people—how do you compete with that at the Republican Convention, Nicole? WALLACE: You know, we're very comfortable to hold up to the American people a choice between someone who spends [...] every minute of every day mixing it up, talking to real people with real questions. Everything they say to John McCain isn't scripted, polished, vetted or checked. They're talking to him about their worries, about Barack Obama's plan to tax our small businesses, which really are the engine of our economy. They're talking to John McCain face-to-face, day in, day out. We're very comfortable contrasting all that access and all that spontaneity with what is a very stand-offish [...] image that they send out when they stand in the middle of a field with screaming fans. It's something that works for them and, if it does, then we're glad about that but it's a contrast I think we're comfortable with. MACCALLUM: [...] there was a report this weekend that I saw that suggested a speech coach was being brought in, though, to help John McCain communicate his own personality a little bit more clearly when he does do a formal speech. Is that true? WALLACE: Well you know, all sorts of people are involved, but look—this isn't about John McCain liking it one way or another. This is about the American people demanding that their leader stand before them. This is why we proposed ten town hall meetings. Barack Obama hasn't shown up for any of them but hope springs eternal, but we hope that when he said that he'd meet with us anywhere, any time to talk about the issues in front of the voters that, at some point, he'll be true to his words. He sometimes veers around them. We're hoping he'll veer back to that position, but this is about connecting with people on the issues they care most about. How to grow the economy, to keep taxes low, to strengthen our small businesses and to create jobs and so far, nothing we've seen out of the Obama campaign would accomplish any of that. MACCALLUM: Nicole, you're a veteran of this process. You were a part of the Bush 2004 team. How do things compare? How does it feel? You know, how does being in the McCain campaign feel compared to being with the Bush team in 04 to you? WALLACE: You know, I have admired Senator McCain for many years so it's a tremendous honor to be a small part of this operation and, you know, it's a thrill to be out on the road and to have these town halls be the centerpiece of how we communicate. It's a different approach, in that we place the voters in center stage. We place the voters in the center of everything we do. Every day is constructed around hearing from voters, hearing from people. So it's a little more interesting when everything is unexpected and when everything is truly unfiltered and coming straight from the minds and the mouths of the voters of this country. NW2 JM CNN 07-07-08 14.02 (JR#392) GUTS

Channel: News

Tags: 07/08/08  bush  economy  mcbush  mccain  mcsame  taxes  tracking 

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