John McCain held another in his regular series of conference calls with bloggers yesterday. Among the participants were Erick Erickson of RedState, James Joyner of Outside the Beltway, Philip Klein of The American Spectator, Michael Goldfarb of The Weekly Standard, myself, and several others whose names I missed.
McCain opened by expressing his dismay at Vlad "The Impaler" Putin being named Time magazine's "Person of the Year." He felt General Petraeus deserved the honor, and recalled that when he "looked into Putin's eyes, I saw K-G-B."
Most of the questions involved the campaign, including my own. Probably the only newsworthy question was from Klein, who inquired about the campaign's new $3 million line of credit. McCain referred questions about details to campaign manager Rick Davis, but said the collateral was from the campaign, it was not a personal loan.
I've been in several of these calls and, to me, the most important aspect hasn't been McCain's answers, but the way he gives them. He takes any question, and answers it. Oh, he manages to work his campaign themes in, as any astute candidate would - but unlike most, he never retreats to the talking points instead of answering the question. The "straight talk" label is genuine enough: you may not like his answer, but he will tell you what he thinks.
His attitude has changed, too. Earlier this year, after the major campaign shake-up, McCain sounded determined, but grimly so. Yesterday, and in recent weeks, he sounds upbeat, relaxed, at ease, confident - mirroring his debate performances. He may yet be defeated - his chances are certainly no better than they were a year ago, and no better now than Romney's or Giuliani's - but if he is to be beaten, someone will have to beat him. He's not going to roll over.
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2008 Presidential Race, McCain, Media, Primaries, Republican
Tags: bloggers, McCain, presidential campaign, primaries, Republicans
