Bullet Point Election News: McCain Gambles on Failed Campaign Tactics of the Past

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

McCain Gambles on Failed Campaign Tactics of the Past

Since Mitt Romney suspended his campaign, John McCain has declared that he will use two campaign tactics that failed for past Presidential candidates. He vowed to campaign in every state and promised "no new taxes".

Campaigning in Every State

Richard Nixon was the last Presidential candidate to vow to campaign in all 50 states when he lost to John Kennedy in 1960. Among other things this tactic forced Nixon to spend time in areas of the country that were not strategic to the overall election win. For example, on the weekend prior to the election he spent his time traveling to Alaska rather than reaching out to more densely populated states that could have yielded more electoral votes.

No New Taxes

I'm sure we all remember Bush 41's faux pas when he uttered the words "read my lips, no new taxes" during his speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention when he received the party's nomination. On Sunday's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" McCain was asked if he was a ""read my lips" candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?".
In order not to interfere with the context of the question and answer the following is the full transcript of that part of the interview:

STEPHANOPOULOS: So on taxes, are you a "read my lips" candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?

MCCAIN: No new taxes. I do not -- in fact, 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, giving people the ability to write off depreciation in a year, elimination of the AMT. There's a lot of things that I would think we should to relieve that burden, including, obviously, as we all know, simplification of the tax code.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But under circumstances would you increase taxes?

MCCAIN: No.