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McCain Calls for 'Economic Surge'

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August 06, 2008 3:52 PM

ABC News' Bret Hovell reports: John McCain called for an "economic surge" Wednesday, marrying key language from the war in Iraq with the economic troubles facing the United States.

"Our surge has succeeded in Iraq militarily, now we need an economic surge," Sen. McCain said at a cabinet maker in Southeastern Ohio, "to keep jobs here at home and create new ones."

It was the first time he used the term surge in concert with his economic plans, but it does not mark a shift in those plans. It's more of a re-branding effort.

"Most Americans identify the surge as taking resources and putting them where they’re needed for success," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

"This is a concept that we feel like we can replicate," Bounds said.

In past months identifying a new policy with the war in Iraq would have been politically dicey territory for any candidate. McCain’s willingness to appropriate language specific to the war in Iraq for a domestic policy item seems an overt demonstration of his campaign's confidence in the situation on the ground in that country.

In mid-July, McCain went from saying that the surge in Iraq is "succeeding" to saying that it had "succeeded." That change seemed spontaneous and was described by aides at the time as McCain's own decision after thinking about the progress that had been made.

August 6, 2008 in Hunter, Duncan | Permalink | User Comments (101)

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Vote for "Surge and Drill" cadidate. Sad, unfortunate, and tragic for common ordinary people of our Great-grand nation

Posted by: COL.[retd]A.M.Khajawall | Aug 6, 2008 4:09:30 PM

Hmmmm..... War on economy!

Posted by: Thinking | Aug 6, 2008 4:13:18 PM

To bad the wrinkly-old-white-haired guy did not think about our jobs 4 years ago or 2 months ago when he voted to ship them out of the country. I think he already gave us our "surge on the economy and our job market, he surged it right to canada, mexico and anyplace else but this country.

Posted by: beck | Aug 6, 2008 4:13:43 PM

Nice twist to what is needed for the economy.

While I don't support McCain, his policies seem to be better than what morphs from the Obama side.

Posted by: Jayhawk | Aug 6, 2008 4:14:07 PM

Surge - Can McShame expand his vocabulary. THE SURGE, THE SURGE, AND THE SURGE. Give me a break! McShame needs to go some where! He is an idiot for sure.

Posted by: gl | Aug 6, 2008 4:18:25 PM

You guys must make a lot of money being negative.

Hate to tell you this but McCain has no policies on the economy. He only wants to "surge it now" does he tell you how?? No, because he is empty.

Obama does have policies, and great ones that will work.

Enjoy and save your money while you can because if McCain is the choice you will need it.

Posted by: beck | Aug 6, 2008 4:19:26 PM

Maybe we can fix the economy by inflating our tires.

Posted by: Jane | Aug 6, 2008 4:21:17 PM

Obama will downplay it and then steal the line.

Posted by: Mack | Aug 6, 2008 4:23:52 PM

"Where is BHO hiding his baby mama?"

She's still getting her makeover.

Posted by: Mack | Aug 6, 2008 4:25:42 PM

Soetoro, what are you even talking about?

GOP keeps pushing these catch phrases to McCain, and he keeps pushing them to people who are easily deceived. Any even longer than an hour, he will forget these lines and start sounding stupid...Can't wait for the debates where people cant pump him lines to memorize.

Posted by: Monarch | Aug 6, 2008 4:28:01 PM

"Most Americans identify the surge as taking resources and putting them where they’re needed for success," says the McCain spokesman. But McCain, in order to take credit for the Anbar Awakening (which had nothing to do with the increase in troops in Baghdad), earlier tried to claim that when he said "surge" he always meant the counterinSURGEncy policy, not the reallocation of troops to Baghdad. So what economic insurgency is McCain going to try to supress with bribes and payoffs? and which part of the economy is he going to get to turn on and attack another part of the economy?

Posted by: S. L. | Aug 6, 2008 4:31:17 PM

Obama wants to "fix" the economy by offering huge government giveaways funded by deficit spending and higher taxes.

McCain is looking for practical solutions. Think about the size of the economic boom that offshore drilling could bring to Florida. Then decide whether you want drilling or not.

There's a Chinese oil rig drilling off the coast of Florida right now - it's based in Cuba. More are coming soon. Are we really gonna let the Chinese drill up our own oil and sell it back to us at a profit?

Get real, people.

Posted by: Katie | Aug 6, 2008 4:37:07 PM

Obama will oppose it, criticize it, then later flip and say that he was for an economic surge all along.
And, yes, where the heck *is* Michelle, she of the protuding posterior?

Posted by: Marty | Aug 6, 2008 4:37:33 PM

An economic surge?

How exactly is the federal government supposed to implement such a surge? Isn't this rather antagonistic to what Republicans claim to believe about the economy and the government?

Maybe we should just declare more of these no-win wars. You know, like the war on poverty, drugs, illiteracy, obesity, and terror.

We can have the war on unemployment, and the war on falling Dow Jones 30 indices, and the war on gas prices, and the war on bad lending practices, and the war on falling home values, and the war on higher food prices, and the war on exporting of jobs...

Heck, why not just declare martial law. I think McCain already proposed that with his "surge" on inner city crime a couple weeks ago. Since we're going to be putting troops in our cities under President McCain, why not put troops on Wall Street, and insurance offices, and mortgage lending offices, etc.

Posted by: Paul | Aug 6, 2008 4:39:10 PM

McCain is a has-been. Old man needs to retire.

Posted by: JOE | Aug 6, 2008 4:39:47 PM

I am still waiting for the details!

Take my tax money and give it to the well off, so that the taxes I paid can trickle back to me over 10 years.

A surge you can believe in!

Posted by: Thinking | Aug 6, 2008 4:40:49 PM

I wonder how this McCain detour into economic issues plays into his obsession with celebrity?

Posted by: Paul | Aug 6, 2008 4:41:41 PM

"There's a Chinese oil rig drilling off the coast of Florida right now - it's based in Cuba. More are coming soon. Are we really gonna let the Chinese drill up our own oil and sell it back to us at a profit?

Get real, people. "

That's a real wake up call.

Posted by: Mack | Aug 6, 2008 4:41:54 PM

McCain also called for a “surge” in American neighborhoods, similar to Iraqi neighborhoods. This guy is scary.

Posted by: Old School | Aug 6, 2008 4:43:33 PM

"Maybe we should just declare more of these no-win wars. You know, like the war on poverty, drugs, illiteracy, obesity, and terror."

You have a point there.

Posted by: Mack | Aug 6, 2008 4:44:08 PM

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