Thursday, January 10, 2008

John McCain Says He Can Win Over South Carolina's Religious Conservatives By Ben Szobody, Greenville News




January 10, 2008



Article Excerpt:



McCain heavily emphasized his promise to take better care of veterans -- a signature part his South Carolina speeches -- and reminded the throng that he called for a troop surge in Iraq when others said it would kill him politically, saying he’d rather lose a political campaign than a war.



In a marked departure from previous campaign stops and a twist on McCain’s hard-fought 2000 primary in South Carolina, a packed house of more than 500 included Bob Jones University employees wearing campaign stickers, homeschoolers and a large sampling of students and recent graduates.



McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has repeatedly campaigned for McCain here, told reporters afterward that despite the bitter 2000 primary fight between McCain and President Bush circumstances have changed -- most notably the war -- and that McCain is poised to win over the state’s religious conservatives.



McCain also defended his controversial stance on illegal immigration while telling a visibly skeptical slice of the crowd that he now understands that the government must first prove it can secure the border.



In response to a question about South Carolina’s drain of manufacturing work, McCain said, "The textile industry is not coming back to the United States of America."



"I'm no liberal," McCain said, but if an older worker was forced to take a lower paying job after losing manufacturing work, he said he’d be willing to compensate him for the difference. He also said the federal government’s displaced worker programs don’t work, and that he’d connect laid off workers with technical colleges to give them second shots at employment.



When reporters asked about the McCain qualms among some Christian conservatives, Graham jumped in to note Bush supporters from 2000 who have now endorsed McCain. He singled out state Sen. Mike Fair, calling him the state's "preeminent social conservative," and Bob McAlister, chief of staff for former Gov. Carroll Campbell and "one of the most prominent evangelical Christians in South Carolina."



McCain said he won all sections of the Republican base in New Hampshire, and said he can do the same here.



"We're going to stop this disgraceful
squandering of your tax dollars to start with,"
he told the crowd, returning to the theme of why he said Republicans lost the 2006 elections and claiming to have "never asked for or received an earmark pork barrel project" for Arizona.



He told a woman who asked him about partial-birth abortion that
"I would do everything within my power to ban that
horrible procedure
."



To the numerous veterans in attendance, he said the Department of Veterans Affairs needs to be expanded to treat veterans of the current war, but that he’d also issue a "plastic card" that allows veterans to pick where they get their health care instead of driving hours and standing in long lines at VA hospitals.





"South Carolina Republican primary are Evangelical Christians, and 23 percent of this group says they are backing Huckabee and 22 percent McCain, followed by Romney at 16 percent."

McCain is helped by the fact that only about one of three voters say it is important for them to share their candidate’s religious beliefs. A 66 percent majority says it is not important.

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