John McCain,  President 2008

John McCain Blogger Conference Call with Carly Fiorina

May 23, 2008 /

RNC Victory Chairman Carly Fiorina comments on her new role with the Republican National Committee

Flap just finished up on a blogger conference call with former HP CEO Carly Fiorina. Today’s topic was the John McCain campaign and economic policy.

More to follow……..

Update:

The other bloggers on the call:

Flap Question: There are going to be a number of battleground states in the campaign. How do you and the campaign plan to tailor your economic message to the desperate type of markets like Indiana and Ohio versus the Far West, say Utah or the battleground state of New Mexico?

Carly Fiorini: First, it is an obvious statement to make that his election may be in many ways be of the economy. The economy encompasses many things – the high price of fuel, the plan for energy independence which McCain will be talking about next month, health care because health care costs are a huge part of an employer’s bill these days. And, fundamentally encompasses free trade. But, fundamentally the economy is an important message. And, clearly while Americans all over the country are hurting there are particular issues in each state.

One of the things, as an example of what you are talking about is talking in local specifics about free trade. An example, is a McCain speech this past Monday in Illinois. And, McCain talked very specifically about the number of dollars Illinois exports and the number of jobs tht are dependent upon free and open trade. One of the tings the campaign must continue to do is to speak about economic issues in very local terms notwithstanding the fact there are some economic issues that are common across the United States.

Another example, because we are in California, is to take the example of entrepreneurialism, access to capital and job creation. California, particularly in Silicon Valley, trying to apply some of those lessons to other areas of the country which you will be seeing him do as time goes on. in other words small business counts for 75% of job growth in this country – obviously we need to get our economy growing again and creating jobs. How do we make sure small businesses have access to capital that they need? And, continue to grow? That we are lowering the tax burden on small businesses and encouraging investment in technology because we know all of those things work and work better now in a state like California.

And, finally, McCain talks alot about the tax burden on the stump. And, uses as an example, the reality that governments matter – different business tax rates in different states. You can save auto jobs leaving Michigan and going to South Carolina in part because of the differentiated tax structures in those two states.

More to follow…….

Update:

Ok, James Richardson, over at the RNC has graciously put up the entire blogger conference on audio here.

Flap can stop his VERY poor transcription skills and you can listen to Flap’s and the other blogger’s questions and Carly Fiorina’s answers.

Most Striking to Flap:

John McCain favors a bi-partisan commission to solve Social Security and Medicare insolvency problems and will NOT be making specific piecemeal proposals of his own during the campaign. This may be wise from a policy perspective but Obama and the Democrat Party surrogates will continue to demagogue the issue and wage some class warfare in portraying the GOP as a “DO NOTHING” party.

Flap’s suggestion: Prepare a White Paper on what McCain would recommend to the bipartisan commission.