In his own words: John McCain on taxes, earmarks, the economy

This is another in The Ticket's continuing series of items called In His/Her Own Words, in which we dedicate the entire story to the full text of someone's remarks in politics.

Recent Ticket Word items have included Hillary Clinton speaking about Barack Obama, Obama explaining his view of lapel flag pins and Clinton, Obama and John McCain talking about one another at the end of the primary season.

This one is the complete text of Sen. McCain's first weekly radio address today, intended as a regular feature of his general election campaign to become president -- and to get the chance to give his own weekly presidential radio addresses that not that many people actually listen to but that have become a regular PR tool for White House residents for putting out a particular message they want to be seen/heard talking about.

Here's the text of today's McCain radio remarks:

"Good morning. I'm John McCain, and this week I've been on the road in Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. I've been holding town hall meetings to talk over the subject on most everyone's minds these days -- our slowing economy.

"More than 400,000 Americans have lost their jobs since December, and the rate of new job creation has fallen sharply. Americans are worried about the security of their current job, and they're worried that they, their kids and their neighbors may not find good jobs and new opportunities in the future.

"It's a big problem when gasoline, food and other necessities of life carry the price tag of luxury goods, and that's what it feels like to millions of Americans.

"I have a plan to grow this economy, and it starts with getting a handle on the cost of gasoline and regaining America's energy ...

John McCain and Barack Obama on the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae troubles

Well, news on the the mortgage crisis front just keeps getting worse, but there's a bit of a silver lining -- Barack Obama and John McCain agree that mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in trouble.

Of course, there's a little more space between them on what to do about it.

Reporters asked McCain about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during a Thursday avail in Belleville, Mich., west of Detroit, and he repeated his belief that "they must not fail." But a federal bailout? Not so fast: "I will be looking at all the options ... and at this time I don’t think that there is a requirement for a government bailout. So we will have to discuss the options that are available in order to keep it viable. And that’s what I would hope that we could do with various experts and people of knowledge throughout the country."

Obama, whose theme Thursday was the women's vote -- including an appearance with Hillary Clinton -- didn't get that question from his traveling press crew. That's primarily because he didn't take any questions from his traveling press crew (those pesky reporters -- they keep wanting to ask about things that aren't on the daily script).

But Obama advisor Jason Furman issued a statement that Obama believes "the challenges facing Fannie and Freddie are part of the broader weakness in our economy." He blamed President Bush, saying "willful neglect" by the White House of trouble in the housing market and other sectors of the economy let the problems fester to crisis stage. Then he pushed Obama's call for immediate congressional action to help homeowners caught in the bind, and at risk of foreclosure.

But a government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? A little closer than McCain -- maybe. "Obama believes we must maintain the flow of capital for mortgages and protect homeowners from foreclosure," Furman said.

Whatever that means. We asked the campaign if Obama thinks a bailout should be in the cards. We'll update when we hear back. And meanwhile, The Swamp takes a look at the foibles of  Fannie and Freddie, too. And here are some details on exactly what Fannie and Freddie do.

UPDATE: Obama spokesman Bill Burton just released this statement, which essentially repeats Furman's comment and doesn't address the issue of federal intervention: "Sen. Obama has long believed we should take all necessary steps to ensure affordable home ownership for millions of American families, and that includes an essential role for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Nearly a year ago, Sen. Obama called for a major response to the housing crisis and significant relief for struggling homeowners. It took Sen. McCain three different tries to figure out a real response to the housing crisis, and his current plan does nothing to help more than two million homeowners who are facing foreclosure."   

-- Scott Martelle 

Poll: Voters fear John McCain will follow George Bush's policies

Well, we'll admit it, we're suckers for polls, and a recent one that our cousins at The Swamp tipped us to is interesting -- showing that Barack Obama is tapping a potentially rich vein in trying to tie John McCain to George Bush.

The Gallup/USA Today poll found that 68% of voters said they were concerned when asked whether they thought McCain would pursue "policies that are too similar to what George W. Bush has pursued." Of those polled, 49% said they were "very concerned."

As the poll analysis points out: "It is clearly a delicate balancing act for McCain, as Bush remains relatively popular with the Republican base. While only 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing as president, a majority of Republicans (60%) still do. Bush's approval rating among current McCain supporters is slightly lower, at 55%."

Dive deeper into the poll and something else interesting emerges -- people aren't all that keen on change, either. Some 49% said they were concerned when asked whether "Obama would go too far in changing the policies that George W. Bush pursued." Of those polled, 30% said they were "very concerned."

So the advantage for the moment goes to change -- in moderation. Which might help explain Obama's embrace Tuesday of the concept behind the Bush administration's faith-based initiative program.

-- Scott Martelle   

Does Barack Obama really want all of Hillary Clinton's donors?

Our blogging cousins over at the Swamp have an item up raising an interesting question about the rapprochement between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton: Does he really want all her financial supporters?

Obama, of course, has made a splash by raising a boatload of money from individual donors while professing to eschew cash from the "politics as usual" crowd. Clinton was less discriminating in her cash sources. But how does Obama heal the party and move forward if he winds up telling big Clinton supporters such as Sant Chatwal that he might not want his money? As the Swamp put it:

"Obama's in an awkward spot. At the moment anyway, he doesn't need Clinton's money -- though campaign money is like good pitching in baseball: You can never, ever have enough. But Obama does need the goodwill of the Clinton faction of the Democratic Party and that means ego massages for Chatwal and company. How Obama handles this kind of, what some would regard as, compromising outreach could help voters decide if indeed he represents 'change we can believe in.' "

The delicate dance continues.

-- Scott Martelle

Photo: Associated Press

Grover Norquist has a label for Barack Obama

John McCain has been trying hard of late to link Barack Obama with Jimmy Carter in the public consciousness, hoping that the "ineffectual" label that many voters affix to the former president will prove transferable.

But Grover Norquist -- the conservative activist who specializes in promoting an anti-tax agenda and, more generally, revels in the role of agent provocateur -- is offering a different comparison.

Norquist dropped by The Times' Washington bureau today and, as part of his negative critique of Obama's liberal stances on economic issues and other matters, he termed the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee "John Kerry with a tan."

Since Norquist isn't running for anything, he can get away with such remarks; we doubt McCain will be incorporating the line into his speeches anytime soon.

Norquist's clout on the right is such, however, that McCain and his aides will pay attention to his thoughts on who would fit well in the second spot on the GOP's presidential ticket. And in his chat with Times' reporters and editors, he was especially high on Bobby Jindal, the recently elected governor of Louisiana.

Norquist touted Jindal's success in pushing through tax-cut and ethics reform legislation during his short tenure as Louisiana's chief executive (no mention was made of the flap surrounding the governor for failing, so far, to live up to a promise to block a pay raise for state legislators).

Nominating Jindal for vice president also would generate a mother lode of contributions for Republicans from Americans of East Indian descent, Norquist predicted.

Another recipient of kind words as a veep prospect was Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota; Norquist praised his record on taxes save for one "mistake" -- approving a hike in state cigarette taxes in years past.

Norquist's most recent book is entitled "Leave Us Alone," which makes the case that Republicans can put together a post-Ronald Reagan governing coalition by appealing to voters who want government to stay out of their affairs.

Along those lines, he predicted that one reason conservative radio talk show hosts will rally behind McCain -- who many of them have been cool toward -- is that some Democratic leaders are advocating a return of the "fairness doctrine." That's the abandoned federal rule that required broadcasters to give equal time to opposing political viewpoints.

[UPDATE: John Kartch, Norquist's director of communications, e-mailed Friday with "two concerns" about the post. "One, it suggests that Grover was singling out Kerry.  The entire statement was that Obama had no policy differences with Carter in 1980, [Walter] Mondale, [Michael] Dukakis, [Al] Gore or Kerry.  'Kerry with a tan,' was simply Kerry was the latest of the string. Two, to be fair to Kerry, Grover pointed out that even Kerry's reputation as a snob never went as far as Obama's contemptuous comment on middle America "clinging" to its guns and faith.]

-- Don Frederick

Photo credit: Associated Press

House leader Hoyer steps in to help distressed Laura Richardson

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer today defended a California Democrat facing ethics questions over her personal finances, while appearing to downplay his involvement in a fundraiser for her this week.

Rep. Laura Richardson's Sacramento house was sold in a foreclosure last month, according to news reports, and she has gone into default on properties in San Pedro and Long Beach. She still owed $9,000 in county taxes on the Sacramento house.

The Long Beach Press-Telegram reports that in 1995 Richardson stiffed a local mechanic on a $735 bill to repair her heavily damaged BMW, and then had it towed to another body shop and abandoned it. Then a member of the Long Beach City Council, she began using a city-owned car, according to the Press-Telegram, which she continued to drive for five days after joining the California State Assembly.

The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has called on the House Ethics Committee to investigate.

Hoyer, known in political circles as a prodigious fundraiser, is hosting a Capitol Hill event on Wednesday to help Richardson retire her campaign debt. Matthew Hay Brown has the rest of the story over at the Swamp.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Top of the Ticket, the start of Year Two

On this, the first anniversary of our Top of the Ticket blog, we are reminded of the mercurial, unpredictable nature of U.S. politics -- part of what makes what we do so fascinating.

Our goal -- one of us on the East Coast and the other on the far more important or at least less humid West Coast -- was to write about Campaign '08 virtually around the clock.

Our second-ever posting, 12 months ago today, previewed an upcoming L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll; later in the day, we detailed the results of the nationwide survey. The findings were in line with other polls of the time.

In the Republican presidential race, which then seemed the most likely to last deep into the primary season, Rudy Giuliani was perched in first place. His lead wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough that he appeared certain to remain a major contender.

His liberal record on social issues loomed as an obvious liability within his party, but his tough-on-terrorism message was attracting substantial support from moderates and GOP-leaning independents.

His major headache among rivals last June was an as-yet-undeclared candidate who was riding a wave as the great conservative hope -- Fred Thompson. He ran a strong second in the poll.

Lagging far behind were John McCain and Mitt Romney, each barely with double-digit support. In our preview posting, we were especially scornful of McCain, noting sarcastically (and foolishly, as it turned out) that in the poll, he found himself "in heated competition with the 'Don't Know' category."

Meriting no mention from us was Mike Huckabee, one of several back-of-the-pack candidates barely earning any support across the country.

The Democratic race, at that point, seemed so much more cut-and-dried.

Hillary Clinton was the clear front-runner; Barack Obama was just as clearly ...

John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama talk jobs

It feels sometimes like there is no news item that can't draw a prepared statement from a political candidate. And the new jobless numbers prompted John McCain and Hillary Clinton -- or, at least, some enterprising members of their staffs -- to toss out statements this morning.

We'll warn you right now there's not a whole lot of innovation here, mostly just using the moment to score already familiar points. And while Barack Obama's campaign didn't issue a statement, he wove the jobs report into a prepared speech in Indianapolis this morning. It's interesting to line them all up. First, McCain:

"Today's job numbers are another clear indication of the economic challenges facing our country. With Americans hurting, we must act to strengthen our economy for families and small businesses. We must help Americans now through gas tax relief, which provides immediate relief from rising energy prices. We must also help those facing home foreclosure by enacting a HOME plan. At the same time, we need to act to lower taxes, streamline regulation, lower health care costs, ensure energy independence and open foreign markets. To help those who have lost jobs, we must focus on promoting effective worker re-training programs.

"The wrong course for our country would be to follow Senators Obama and Clinton and their siren songs of higher taxes, bigger government, greater isolationism and a government-run health care system."

Mind you, the new numbers show fewer people out of work than analysts expected, and the unemployment rate fell a tick from 5.1% in March to 5% in April ...

Obama's day off, but he still hits a crucial corner of Indiana

Sen. Barack Obama allegedly took the day off back home in Chicago today, but he still managed to get in some campaigning in Indiana -- without even being there.

On a day he was supposed to refrain from campaigning and stay home, his campaign alerted news organizations that he'd be making an unexpected speech at Chicago's McCormick Place convention center.

That speech was to the annual convention of the United Food and Commercial Workers, a union organization with more than 1 million members in the United States that endorsed him earlier this year.

It was the latest example of Obama's home field advantage in Indiana, where the upcoming May 6 primary is viewed as a critical test for both him and Sen. Hillary Clinton in their marathon struggle for the Democratic nomination.

Twenty percent of Indiana's Democratic voters live in the Chicago media market up in the northwest corner branching out from Gary. That means they'll likely see extensive coverage of Obama's appearance on the news tonight and tomorrow morning.

The Illinois Democrat sought to rally the union vote, a critical part of the Indiana electorate. "You were fighting with me in Wisconsin," he told the members today. "You're fighting with me in Indiana, and I understand some of you just came back from Pennsylvania."

Obama never mentioned his Democratic opponent. Instead, as he is increasingly doing, he kept his focus on Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee. He specifically mentioned tax cuts McCain once opposed.

"They may have stopped offending John McCain's conscience somewhere along the road to the Republican nomination," Obama said, "but George Bush's economic policies still offend my conscience."

Obama heads back to the Hoosier State on Friday. Clinton will be there as well, campaigning in Bloomington, and then up to that crucial northwest corner in Gary and East Chicago.

-- John McCormick

John McCormick writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune Washington Bureau.                                                 Photo Credit: AP

John McCain makes gas prices a political issue

John McCain took a look at the price on the neighborhood gas pump (OK, somebody probably looked for him) and decided a little relief is in order -- so he's introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate that would suspend the federal gas tax for the summer. This is no small thing -- 18.4 cents per gallon for the unleaded most people use, and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel, on which the nation's trucking industry runs (think strawberry prices). The potential consumer savings are huge -- assuming they'd get passed along.

Of course, in the Democratic-controlled Senate the chances of the bill getting through in an election year are slight -- about the same, we'd guess, as the chances of gas falling below $3 a gallon. But this is where it gets fun. Come fall, McCain will be able to say that he tried to do something and the Democrats wouldn't cooperate. He even sent a letter to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama -- his colleagues in the Senate before they were his rivals for the White House -- asking them to join him.

Shrewd move, that. Lovely placing of the piece on the chess board while Obama and Clinton are still squabbling over who gets to play their side of the board. And the counter-move, if there is one, will likely be pressing McCain on the financing. McCain says he'll replace the lost revenue to the Highway Trust Fund from the general fund -- which is already facing a massive budget gap.

A footnote of interest: One of the cosponsors of McCain's bill is Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic vice presidential nominee and former Democrat. Technically, he's an independent senator from Connecticut now but is usually included in the vote count that determines the Democrats control the Senate. He endorsed McCain in December, so that bridge is already burned. But it has to be galling to some in the halls of Congress to have their former veep nominee -- Al Gore's running mate -- stumping for the other guy.

-- Scott Martelle

John McCain releases his tax returns -- but not hers*

John McCain has just released details from his tax returns from 2006 and 2007, and possibly the most interesting tidbit is that he did not release his wife's returns -- and McCain married into wealth. According to the campaign:

"Since the beginning of their marriage, Senator McCain and Mrs. McCain have always maintained separate finances. As required by federal law and Senate rules, Mrs. McCain has released significant and extensive financial information through Senate and Presidential disclosure forms. In the interest of protecting the privacy of her children, Mrs. McCain will not be releasing her personal tax returns."

Now you just know that's going to kick up a little dust storm. The Obamas and Clintons have made their returns available, filing jointly. So expect some political fencing over that. It's one thing to keep that kind of financial information in reserve when you're running for a safe Senate seat. It's another thing to not divulge your spouse's potential financial conflicts -- or gains -- with policy decisions you would make as president.

As for the details, McCain took in about $321,000 in 2006 and about $420,000 last year. The big jump came in book royalties, though the oldest candidate in the field also received $23,000 from Social Security last year, up slightly from the year before. And he gets a Navy Air Force pension.

In 2006, McCain and his wife donated, from community assets, about $129,000 to charity and $211,000 last year. Most of that money, though, went to the John and Cindy McCain Family Foundation, which the campaign said in turn makes contributions.

*UPDATE: No surprise, Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean is already teeing off on the issue, releasing this statement a little while ago:

"John McCain's lack of transparency is troubling and raises questions about what he's hiding.  From his willingness to skirt FEC law to releasing less information about his tax returns than any other candidate since Ronald Reagan, John McCain continues a troubling pattern of thinking the rules don't apply to him. McCain should hold himself to the same standard set by past presidential candidates, both Republican and Democrat, and the example already set by both Democratic candidates.

"In 2004, the Republican National Committee called on the Kerry campaign to release Teresa Heinz Kerry's tax returns, saying 'Americans value disclosure and transparency in campaigns.'  We expect the RNC will call on John McCain to release Cindy McCain's records just as they called on the Kerry campaign to do so in 2004.  The connection between the McCains' business ventures and their political ties have been well documented and the American people deserve to know how McCain's role as a public official may have benefited their bottom line."

-- Scott Martelle

The Obamas quadruple their income in one year, to $4.2 million

Wow, now we know why some of these folks are perennial candidates for president!

Campaigning for president has been very good in the money department for the 46-year-old Illinois senator and Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama.

With most of the media and public attention focused on Philadelphia on Wednesday and the last nationally-televised debate between Obama and his rival, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, before Tuesday's important Pennsylvania primary, the Obama campaign quietly released the family's tax returns.

They showed his household income with Michelle more than quadrupled in the one year between 2006 and 2007, multiplying from $991,296, which wasn't all that bad, in 2006 to a whopping $4.2 million in 2007.

Clearly, the campaign worried that numerous detailed stories about the candidate's sudden explosion in wealth could detract and...

John McCain, income taxes and you

This is, after all, Tax Day, and many of you are probably in line at the Post Office, or still printing out your tax returns and planning the 11:55 p.m. drive to the drop-off box. But John McCain is thinking about you, and wants you to know that if a Democrat is elected president, "you can be certain your tax rate will increase across the board," according to a fund-raising pitch that went out this morning.

But according to the folks at the Gallup Poll, only about half of Americans feel they pay too much in taxes, raising questions about whether banging the tax drum will help McCain (though it could help pry a few more dollars from the hands of antitax supporters). The details are on the Gallup site, but this summary graph wraps it all up:

"Notably, the 10-point rise in the percentage saying their taxes were too high from April 1994 (56%) to December 1994 (66%) coincided with the 1994 midterm congressional campaign and election, in which the Republican Party championed an antitax theme in its successful 'Contract With America' strategy. Dissatisfaction with taxes remained high until January 2003 -- after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and just before the start of the Iraq war -- when it dipped to 47%. It has continued to remain relatively low (with no more than 53% saying their taxes are too high) in each subsequent year. However, whether that is because of the impact on public attitudes of 9/11, of the U.S. involvement in Iraq, or of recent tax policies is unclear."

The "recent tax policies" likely refer to the Bush tax cuts, which McCain initially opposed (as do both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama) but that he now wants to make permanent. But the poll also reports that only 43% of respondents thought the middle class paid too much in taxes -- suggesting Clinton's and Obama's promises to lighten the middle-class tax burden might not resonate that well, either.

Overall, 60% thought that the amount of tax they were paying this year was fair, and 35% said it was not fair. So while the economy will likely be an issue through the fall election, it doesn't look like taxes will take up much debate time.

-- Scott Martelle

Where there's more Republican VP smoke, there's more Condi Rice

Now that everybody is dismissing it, we know there's really something up for sure about Condoleezza Rice possibly becoming a vice presidential candidate with the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain.

Obviously, the choice is his. He's stubborn enough not to be pushed.

And he's said publicly that his campaign team has just begun to assemble a long list of possibilities. (You don't want any party VP wannabes thinking they were overlooked, even if ultimately not chosen.)

The Arizona senator wants the No. 2 choice to be well-prepared when the announcement time comes, unlike, say, a certain former senator from Indiana whose name is the same as those helpless little birds that all the current vice presidents like to blast with large guns.

The speculation about Rice began two weeks ago, chronicled in detail on The Ticket, when within days in between foreign trips she complimented Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on his race speech, spent a long time with the editorial board of the conservative Washington Times and published the transcript of the session on the State Department website.

Then she spoke at the regular Wednesday conservative brainstorming session presided over by the bearded and ubiquitous Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform.

Because it is THE place for conservatives to present themselves and programs before a wide array of important....

Why did LA billionaire Ron Burkle pay Bill Clinton $15 million?

There's an interesting nugget of political and financial information -- or, rather, missing information -- buried deep within the Hillary and Bill Clinton tax papers finally released the other day.

The struggling Clinton Democratic presidential campaign seemed to gloss over this part when it released eight years of tax returns on Friday.

Our veteran blogging colleague Thomas Edsall, the political editor over at Huffington Post, points out that Bill Clinton has received something on the order of about $15 million in payments from local billionaire Ron Burkle since 2002.

The Los Angeles-based mogul has long been tied to the Clintons and has been one of the most prolific fundraisers for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign this past year.

In a press statement accompanying the release of the Clinton couple's tax returns, the campaign summarized where much of the couples' money came from over the last eight years -- a Senate salary, a presidential pension, some book royalties and a whopping sum of $51.9 million in speaking fees earned by President Clinton. And who wouldn't love to talk for that kind of money?

But glaringly missing from the summary, Edsall points out, is....

BREAKING NEWS: Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton took in $109 million since 2000

It pays to be an ex-president. The Clintons -- Bill and Hillary -- reported $109 million in income from 2000, his last year in office, through estimates for 2007, the campaign said this afternoon. The couple paid more than $33 million in federal taxes and donated more than $10 million to charities.

That left post-tax earnings of a little over $57 million -- a pretty good Lotto jackpot. Specific income included just over $1 million from Hillary Clinton's Senate salary, and $1.2 million from a  presidential pension. An additional $10.4 million came from  Hillary Clinton's book income, a third of what her husband took in -- $29.6 million. The big cash cow: President Clinton's speech revenue: nearly $52 million.

All the details are available here. The campaign release is after the jump* ....

-- Scott Martelle

*item has been edited

Barack Obama thinks higher taxes are a good thing

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama went after the "We're not paying enough taxes to the government" vote today during a television interview in New York.

First, he said the Bush tax cuts ought to die. He likes that top marginal rate of 39%. Although the non-partisan National Journal recently declared him the most liberal of the 100 senators, Obama denied being a "wild-eyed liberal," which wasn't what the Journal called him, but it sounds good on TV where everything moves by so quickly.

Maria Bartiromo on CNBC's "Closing Bell" asked, "Who should pay more and who should pay less?" Predictably, the politician chose to talk about who would benefit from his higher tax plan, not who would get socked the hardest. But from his answers it sounds like the "wealthy" in his mind are those making more than $75,000.

"I would not increase taxes for middle class Americans and in fact I want to....

He didn't say "Read my lips" ...

... but during an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week," John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate, did utter those three little words so beloved of conservatives:

"No new taxes," the Arizona senator told host George Stephanopoulos.

McCain's statement came during a discussion of his support for making President Bush's tax cuts permanent. He initially opposed the tax cuts, twice voting against them because, he has said, they were not accompanied by spending limits. More recently he has contended, as he did Sunday, that allowing the cuts to expire would impose "what essentially would be a tax increase of thousands of dollars per family in America."

In fact, he continued on ABC, "I could see an argument, if our economy continues to deteriorate, for lower interest rates, lower tax rates and certainly decreasing corporate tax rates, which are the second-highest in the world." He also supported allowing individuals to write off depreciation in a year and eliminating the alternative minimum tax, which was created to prevent the wealthiest from avoiding the long arms of the Internal Revenue Service but has increasingly ensnared middle-class taxpayers.

Last year, McCain refused to sign a "no new taxes" pledge sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative group that, according to its website, "opposes all tax increases as a matter of principle." He defended that action in September during a Republican candidates debate at the University of New Hampshire. "I stand on my record," he said then. "I don't have to sign pledges."

McCain's verbal "no new taxes" pledge came the day before he is expected to receive an endorsement from former President George H.W. Bush, who spoke those same three words -- preceded, for emphasis, by "Read my lips" -- during his speech accepting the GOP presidential nomination in 1988. (And we all know how that turned out.)

The whole McCain video is available here.

-- Leslie Hoffecker

Mitt Romney plays softball at the GOP debate

Mitt Romney must have read today's New York Times article that probed why his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination seem to especially dislike him. That's because, presented with an early opportunity at tonight's candidate debate in Florida to recycle faults he's found in two of his opponents, he decided to play nice.

Meanwhile, his vigilant campaign team made sure, through e-mails, that John McCain would catch at least some grief.

The debate began on friendly ground for Romney, with questions about the nation's economic problems and how he would address them. Much as he tried -- with mixed success -- virtually all of last year to persuade his party that his conversion to conservative positions on abortion, gay marriage and the like was sincere, much as he tried to show he would be tough on fighting terrorism by refusing to disavow waterboarding as an interrogation technique, his business background makes the economy the subject he is most comfortable talking about.

As part of the discussion, co-moderator Tim Russert noted that Romney had criticized McCain and Rudy Giuliani as, based on their records, insufficiently committed to tax cuts. Russert asked if Romney ...

What's this? An unexpected forum question?

The small audiences that presidential candidates encounter on the campaign trail in New Hampshire are mostly friendly and intimate. When the candidates do a Q&A-type town hall meeting, the Q's usually play right into the candidate's talking points. It's a technique perfected by President Bush and, in this election cycle, Hillary Clinton.

But, occasionally, someone in the audience violates the rules, sending campaign aides into head-shaking mode because unexpected turns violate their event game plan.

Friday night, as a Times staffer watched, Mitt Romney got one of those questions in the American Legion Hall in Rochester, N.H. It came from the middle of an audience so friendly that one member had Mitt's name sewn onto the back of his sweatshirt.

Having lauded Bush's tax cuts as a "courageous thing" and "a great thing for our country," Romney was asked by one man why he had refused to endorse the tax cuts when Bush first proposed them. Wasn't that being hypocritical? the questioner wanted to know.

No, replied Romney, stumbling briefly. What he had said back then, the former governor said, was "Look, I'm busy being governor ... and I'm not weighing in on federal issues." Recovering rhetorically, Romney added: "Sen. McCain is different. He voted against the tax cuts twice. I was governor of a state, not a senator."

The questioner, identifying himself later only as "Sam," was surrounded later by tsk-tsking Romney aides, who accused him of being a plant from the McCain campaign. Gee, who would suspect such antics could happen among grown-up campaigns competing to lead the entire country?

--Andrew Malcolm

Thompson targets the leading teachers group

Restrained and constrained.

If this campaign season's YouTube debates -- and a few others -- often provoked free-wheeling and unpredictable exchanges, today's forum in Iowa among the Republican presidential candidates was about as buttoned-down as they come.

Want Mike Huckabee to better explain his 1992 comment that AIDS sufferers should be quarantined? Want to hear more about what he meant by recently wondering aloud, ''Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?''

We did, but the producers and questioner for today's debate decided not to go there. Presumably, those and other controversial topics will get a full airing in the coming days, but that won't happen in face-to-face encounters (the forum was the last for the GOP candidates before the Jan. 3 caucuses).

The Times' Mark Z. Barabak and Michael Finnegan covered the debate, and their story can now be found here (as well as in Thursday's print editions).

We do have to give moderator Carolyn Washburn credit for asking a good question about education -- not only because the subject is often ignored on the campaign trail, but because ...

Amid an often confusing debate, a few instructive answers

Was or was not New York a "sanctuary city" for illegal immigrants when Rudy Giuliani was its mayor? We're still not sure.

Does Mitt Romney bear responsibility for work done at his home by a company whose crew included illegal immigrants, thereby sanctioning what Giuliani sneered was a "sanctuary mansion"? We're stumped over that one, too.

The charges and counter-charges were flying fast and furious at Wednesday night's CNN/YouTube debate, often generating far more heat than light -- especially on the immigration issue, which dominated the proceeding's first 30 minutes or so. You can read more about the evening's give-and-take here.

But on at least two occasions -- on the key topics of tax hikes and abortion -- the forum produced some worthwhile moments.

In one instance, a YouTube question came from a major player in U.S. politics -- Grover Norquist, a conservative activist who heads Americans for Tax Reform. He posed the query for which he is most famous: would the candidates pledge that, as president, they would oppose and veto any tax increase Congress might send them?

Tom Tancredo, Mike Huckabee ...

Snake hunting aside, the Huckabee surge continues

All praise is due the dynamic duo who pen the Washington Post's Reliable Source column, Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts. When an obvious follow-up was called for, they rose to the occasion.

Like many, we think, the pair was struck by a line that leapt out of a Post story Sunday on the dramatic hike in support for Republican Mike Huckabee in Iowa. The surge has been so surprising, the piece noted, that during the extended Thanksgiving weekend, his Iowa state director was "in Costa Rica hunting snakes."

The aide, Eric Woolson, was back on the job at the start of this week and, via the Reliable Source, he expounded on his unusual avocation here. He noted that as a political operative, some folks might consider his recent trip "a working vacation." But he charitably added: "I wouldn't be quite so kind."

The good tidings continue for Huckabee, meanwhile.

Today, he was endorsed by Jerry Falwell Jr., son of the well-known televangelist who passed away earlier this year. Also, for the first time, a poll shows Huckabee atop the GOP presidential field in Iowa (though his lead over Mitt Romney -- whose camp once though it owned the state -- in the new survey by Rasmussen Reports, is within its margin of error). For a look at the results from several recent Iowa polls, go here.

Here's another shocker...

Thompson tiptoes toward entitlement debate

In slow motion Wednesday, Fred Thompson bellied up to a politically perilous subject: requiring some senior citizens to pay more for Medicare. No other leading candidate in either party has raised it.

And there may be a good political reason for that. It's explosive.

The idea dribbled out during the day, with only a few details; campaign officials said the policy was still being developed and would be debuted at some future date.

In his speech today to the Club for Growth in Washington, Thompson made only a cryptic comment: "Can we stick with the same premiums and deductions for higher-income recipients on Medicare?"

He called entitlement spending unsustainable, and repeated an earlier proposal that...

Clinton learns a lesson from California's governator

Back in the early '90s as first lady, Hillary Clinton's first steps into the political swamp that is the American healthcare system proved rocky and, in the end, doomed. As she often notes on the campaign trail these days, "I have the scars to prove it."

One of the lessons she learned from that controversial experience that nearly derailed her husband's presidency was to keep any new plan simple.

Today, when she announced her presidential campaign's new universal healthcare plan in Iowa, she was much more aware of marketing its positive sides. Among the first words out of her mouth were, "This is not government-run."

But also, as The Times' Peter Nicholas points out, it appears the New York senator has been paying close attention to California's Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Democratic presidential front-runner made use of one of Schwarzenegger's main talking points in selling his own plan to revamp California's healthcare system.

Like Schwarzenegger, Clinton mentioned the "hidden taxes" present in the existing healthcare system. That is when, for example, uninsured people go to the emergency room for treatment. They can't be turned away but also can't pay for that expensive treatment, so the charges are divvied up and included in charges assessed on others who can.

Schwarzenegger invoked the hidden taxes argument to make his proposed healthcare fees look more appealing -- or less unappealing. Clinton says her $110-billion plan would be financed through that old political favorite, cost savings, and by rolling back President Bush's tax cuts for people earning more than $250,000.

But her reference to hidden taxes suggests she and her political advisors like Schwarzenegger's savvy marketing methods. Never mind his different party. At a briefing later for reporters, a Clinton campaign aide, Gene Sperling, repeated the hidden taxes line. Mentioning Schwarzenegger, Sperling said the Clinton plan would "reduce some of the hidden taxes."

But now they're not hidden anymore.

--Andrew Malcolm