President Bush

President Bush is expected to do a little official sight-seeing in the East Valley before he appears at a John McCain/GOP fund-raiser in Phoenix on Tuesday evening, May 27.

The White House, however, had not released the daytime portion of the president’s schedule as of Thursday, May 22. Those details are likely to be released Friday, according to a White House spokesman.

A real-life consideration associated with any presidential visit is traffic congestion. Depending on when the president is shuttled from location to location Tuesday, the typically slow East Valley-to-Phoenix and Phoenix-to-the East Valley commutes are certain to slog down even more than usual.

I’ll post more details when they become available. 

Harry Mitchell, right

Rep. Harry Mitchell’s staff dashed off a press release Thursday noting that the Senate “overwhelmingly” approved the 21^st Century GI Bill, which is designed to provide military veterans with expanded educational benefits ranging from college tuition to living stipends.

Mitchell wouldn’t usually publically trumpet a Senate vote, but the new GI Bill is his bill. As his district director and former newspaperman Robbie Sherwood wrote in the press release…

This historic measure – whose chief sponsor in the House is U.S. Rep. Harry E. Mitchell – cleared the Senate by a veto-proof 75-22 margin as an amendment to the FY 2008 Supplemental Appropriations Bill for war funding.

“As we head into the Memorial Day weekend, this is really the best news that we could be delivering to our military personnel and veterans,” Mitchell said. “We have the opportunity and obligation as a nation to strengthen our commitment to those who have served in combat. These education benefits will not only help military recruitment, but will strengthen our economy at a time when it needs it the most.”

The measure previously passed the House on May 15, 2008 by a bipartisan vote of 256 to 166. The bill now heads to a House-Senate Conference Committee to work out differences in the bill in a conference committee.

The House would have to provide at least 291 votes to counteract a threatened White House veto, but the bill currently has 300 cosponsors. Mitchell said he is confident that House and Senate conferees would reach an agreement soon and it would earn strong support when it returns to the House for final approval.  

The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act extends educational benefits to all members of the military who have served on active duty since September 11, 2001, including activated reservists and National Guard.

Among those who oppose the bill is Republican Sen. and Vietnam War hero John McCain, who argues that the educational benefits are so good that troops might opt out of military service early to cash in on them. McCain prefers a tiered benefits system that would delay Mitchell-style full-benefits packages for men and women who serve longer hitches in the military.

Either way, the bill is certain to become a campaign issue. Mitchell, a Democrat, represents Arizona’s 5th Congressional District, which takes in Scottsdale, Tempe, Fountain Hills, Ahwatukee Foothills and west Mesa.

John McCain

Presidential candidate John McCain leads opponents Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in hypothetical head-to-head contests among Arizona voters, according to a Rocky Mountain Poll released today, Thursday, May 22.

In a McCain-Obama match-up, the Republican senator from Arizona has an 11-percentage point edge against the Democratic senator from Illinois. The results: McCain 50 percent, Obama 39 percent, and undecided 11 percent.

In a McCain-Clinton election, McCain has an even greater 15-percentage point advantage against the Democratic senator from New York. The specifics: McCain 51 percent, Clinton 36 percent, undecided 11 percent, and someone else 1 percent. 

Survey director Earl de Berge noted that the election is shaping up to be intensely partisan with 84 percent or more Republicans siding with McCain against either Democratic challenger; and conversely, 70 percent or more Democrats close ranks and align with either Obama or Clinton against the presumptive GOP nominee.

 “It appears that much of the GOP hope that Democrats will remain divided after the nomination process is over may be wishful thinking on their part,” de Berge wrote in an analysis.

The real campaign in Arizona will be for the votes of registered independents. McCain polls slightly ahead of the Democrats among independents, with a 2-percentage point advantage against Obama and a 3-percentage point lead against Clinton.

However, independents comprise a disproportionately large segment of the undecided voters. A full 16 percent of independents have yet to decide in a McCain-Obama race, while an even greater 23 percent have to make a choice in a McCain-Clinton race.\

The survey of 630 registered voters was conducted by Phoenix-based Behavior Research Center, a nonpartisan polling firm, from May 12 through 20. It had a margin of error of 4 percentage points, according to the pollsters.

Executives with the Arizona Chapter of the AFL-CIO planned to mobilize their members to demonstrate outside a GOP fundraiser featuring President Bush.

The event in Phoenix on May 27 will benefit John McCain’s presidential campaign and several GOP campaign committees.

“McCain did tell the truth he said he would be proud to have Bush campaign for him,” union spokeswoman Dana Marie Kennedy said in a statement.

“I guess it is payback time for all the times McCain stuck by Bush and his failed economic policies. McCain is a strong supporter of NAFTA and believes it has helped jobs,” she said in reference to the North American Free Trade Agreement. “Tell that to all be people who have lost jobs oversees.”

Information about the fund-raiser is available through McCain campaign executive Andrea Tyler Evans at (602) 488-5959 or aveans@mccain08hq.com.

Sen. Jon Kyl’s press office noted that legislationl authored by Kyl and John McCain was approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week

The measure authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to study ways to add to the water supply in the Sierra Vista Sub-watershed, which is home to Fort Huachuca, the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area.  

The bill authorizes $1,260,000 to pay for the federal government’s share of the study’s cost. The bill requires the non-federal cost share to be at least 55 percent. The committee approved it Wednesday.

President Bush is set to headline a high-dollar campaign event in Phoenix later this month to benefit Republican candidate John McCain.

The political fund-raiser is designed to appeal to deep-pocketed contributors who can donate as much as $37,000 at once. The event actually is a joint production of seven different campaign organizations, which will allow contributors to spread their money around.

The organizations: John McCain 2008, John McCain 2008 General election Compliance Fund, the Republican National Committee, and the state Republican parties for Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico and Wisconsin.

The first $2,300 from every contribution, according to the organizers, is earmarked for the John McCain 2008 committee, which is the candidate’s official campaign organization.

The next $2,300 is slated for the Compliance Fund, which is a source of revenue that’s intended to help defray certain allowable expenses, including office overhead expenditures and computer and Web site costs.

The balance of each contribution will be split evenly between the RNC and the state parties, which operate independently of McCain’s campaign and benefit Republican candidates at the national and state levels, respectively.

McCain campaign officials did not immediately return a call for comment.Meanwhile, Arizona Democratic Party spokeswoman Emily Bittner said it’s fitting that Bush is lined up as the featured speaker. “This is further evidence that what John McCain really represents is a third Bush term,” she said.

Here’s the details…

WHAT: John McCain fundraiser featuring President Bush

WHEN: 5:30 p.m., May 27

WHERE: Phoenix Convention Center, West Building, 100 N. Third St., Phoenix

INFO: Andrea Tyler Evans at (602) 488-5959 or aveans@mccain08hq.com 

Cindy and John McCain/Photo by Tim Hacker, Tribune

In the past, John McCain’s airport press conferences in Phoenix were loose affairs. No longer. They’re getting bigger and security is getting tighter. 

Previously, following weekend stopovers in Phoenix or at his ranch in Cornville, McCain spent a about a half hour doing a freewheeling Q&A with representatives members of the local media and the traveling national media alike before jetting off for another weekend of campaigning. 

The press conferences were simple enough – reporters simply walked into a large airplane hangar, found a spot among a row or two of folding chairs, and waited for McCain to emerge and take his place behind a podium. 

The actual Q&A session on Monday was unchanged, but the logistics had been given a wholesale security upgrade.  The location had been changed from a wide-open hangar to a more confined conference room. Furthermore, McCain’s public relations team asked reporters to show up earlier than usual and noted that access to the conference room would be restricted a half hour before its scheduled start. 

Long before McCain arrived, a police officer with an explosives-sniffing dog showed up. The officer instructed the dog to sniff every camera bag, every computer bag, every suitcase and every backpack in the room. For good measure, the dog also sniffed curtains, furniture, cabinets and artwork hanging on the wall. 

The dog, which was black and had a long droopy tongue, gave everything a thorough inhaling – no Bill Clinton style non-inhaling for that animal. The dog also stuck its head deep into every bag in the room. The officer apologized for the drool it left behind. 

Then, Secret Service agents ushered all the reporters and even McCain’s staffers out of the room. The agents wanded every person one by one with a portable metal detector before re-admitting them into the room.  The federal agents patted down or visually inspected everything that beeped, plus belt buckles, pocket buldges, waistlines and ankles.

They were friendly, polite and professional, which made the experience less uncomfortable than it might have been otherwise.

The security upgrades are just a sign of the times. If McCain wins the presidency, the security surrounding the most powerful man in the free world will increase even further.

For more on the press conference, which focused on the Republican candidate’s efforts to reach Hispanic voters and his plans regarding energy, check out today’s story in the Tribune. 

Cindy and John McCain/Photo by Tim Hacker, Tribune

John McCain spent a considerable portion of his press conference in Phoenix on Monday discussing his renewed efforts to reach out to Hispanic voters.

It was no coincidence that Monday is Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday that commemorates the Battle of Puebla in 1862 when a small group of Mexican troops overcame overwhelming force during that country’s struggle for independence.

McCain announced the launch of a Spanish-language page on his campaign Web site. It can be accessed at http://espanol.johnmccain.com.

Then, as he did following his Super Tuesday victories on Feb. 5, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee declaired that he wasn’t overly worried about the reaction from the most conservative members of his own party.

“My party is the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. My party is an inclusive party. My party reaches out to every citizen, every American who shares our views and our optimism and our belief in the principals of this great nation,” he said.

“I will seek the vote of every American. I will make sure we go to places where we might not get the majority of the votes. But the job that I have is to re-unite America and to make sure that people know that I will be the president of all the people, whether they vote for me or not,” he said.

“Americans are crying for us to work together. I notice that Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton are touting their work in a bipartisan fashion. I will match my record for reaching across the aisle and working with the other party with them any day of the week. It’s far more extensive and far more substantive – and I’m proud of that work,” he said.

For more on McCain’s outreach to Hispanics and his plans pump up the campaign with discussion of energy issues, check out my story on the Tribune’s main Web site here.

John McCain

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain would beat either of his Democratic opponents by fair margins in his home state, according to a statewide survey released Tuesday, April 29.

In a hypothetical head-to-head race against Sen. Barack Obama, the results were: McCain 47 percent, Obama 38 percent, and undecided 15 percent, according the poll conducted by Arizona State University/KAET-TV (Channel 8). That gives the home-state candidate a 9 percentage point edge.

In a head-to-head contest with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the results were: McCain 53 percent, Clinton 37 percent, and undecided 10 percent. That gives McCain an even more comfortable advantage of 16 percentage points.

The survey-takers probed further and identified the top reasons the respondents sided with their candidate. A sizable portion of the electorate apparently plans to vote against a particular candidate, rather than vote for a candidate.

For example, in the McCain-Obama race, the top three reasons voters said they were supporting McCain were: 1) They don’t like Obama, which turned up 22 percent of the time; 2) They always vote for the Republican candidate, at 20 percent; and, 3) McCain’s experience, 15 percent.

In the same McCain-Obama match-up, the top reasons respondents cited for favoring Obama were: 1) They always vote for the Democratic, which was important for 37 percent; 2) Obama’s message for hope and change, 16 percent; and, 3) They don’t like McCain, 14 percent.

In a McCain-Clinton race, the top reasons for supporting McCain were: 1) They don’t like Clinton, 45 percent; 2) They vote Republican, 18 percent; and, 3) They don’t like Bill Clinton and don’t want another Clinton in the White House, 8 percent.

Also in a McCain-Clinton race, the top reasons respondents told pollsters they selected Clinton were: 1) They vote Democrat, 31 percent; 2) Clinton will change President Bush’s policies and supporting working people, 15 percent; and tied for, 3) Clinton’s against the war in Iraq, and they like her stands on the issues, at 10 percent each.

Poll director Bruce Merrill said there are two reasons Obama did better than Clinton in the head-on-head contests with McCain.

“First, those who identify themselves as political independents divide their vote almost equally between Obama and McCain. Many independents are strongly opposed to the war in Iraq and they tend to oppose (McCain) on that issue,” Merrill said in a prepared statement.

“The second reason Obama does better than Clinton is that Arizonans simply have a strong dislike for Hillary Clinton, even though her husband won the state when he ran for reelection,” he said.

Well, some Arizonans have a strong dislike for her. Clinton beat Obama in Arizona’s Democratic presidential preference election 50.4 percent to 42.4 on Feb. 5, so she has her in-state support group as well.

Interestingly, age, gender and race appear to be only minor considerations for most voters, according to the survey. Or, perhaps, few people admit to pollsters that those factors are important to them.

Either way, among Obama supporters, just 4 percent said they supported him because he’s younger than McCain; while among Clinton supporters, the age issue didn’t register at all. Among McCain supporters, 3 percent said they supported him because he’s older than Obama. McCain supporters didn’t mention age when he was matched up against Clinton.

Regarding gender, 5 percent of Clinton’s followers cited her gender as their top reason to support her; while among McCain supporters, 2 percent cited Clinton’s gender as a reason to vote against her.

Race didn’t show up as a factor in any of the potential match-ups. The independent survey of 577 registered voters statewide was conducted between April 24 and 47. It has a margin of error of 4.0 percentage points, according to the pollsters.  

 While John McCain had strong support at his rally in Prescott on Saturday, there were some people in the crowd with different political agendas.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Ron Paul supporters held signs and distributed literature about their candidates as well.

One particular Paul supporter was fairly entertaining. As a row of newspaper reporters typed madly at their computers at an outdoor table immediately after McCain’s speech, the Paul enthusiast kept walking back and forth in front of them carrying a Paul campaign sign. He kept saying, “Remember the revolution! Remember the revolution!”

According to Paul’s Web site, his, ahem, revolution persists. It says, “Dr. Paul is continuing his bid for the Republican nomination in order to spread the message of constitutional government and personal freedom, take the GOP back to its traditional roots, and continue the grassroots activism his candidacy inspired.”

So noted.

Meanwhile, El Mirage resident William Crum made the trip to Prescott specifically to oppose McCain. He held a hand-made sign that stated, “McCain = 100 Years of War With a Draft (Men and Women).”

Crum, a Vietnam veteran, said he differs with McCain’s approach to the war in Iraq.

“His opinion right now is basically stay the course,” Crum said. “You know what? We can’t afford that. Our country and our service guys can’t stay the course. I mean, why else would they be going back three, four, five times? That’s why I feel that if this war keeps going, we’re going to have to start a draft again, because where else are we going to get people? The reason I believe that we’re going to have to get men and women is because there are not enough men.”

I covered McCain’s speech in the Tribune and my story can be accessed here.

OK, and quick note on Paul’s puzzling campaign sign, in which the letters E, V, O and L within the word “revolution” are backwards and in red. If you read just the red letters backwards, it spells ”love.”

Trippy, man.

Also, if you play some of Paul’s campaign speeches backwards, it sounds like he says, “Number 9,” “I am the walrus” and “Coo-coo ca choo.” Really.