McCain, Romney Offer Cattle Prods To The Economy

John McCain's we know about; Romney's will be unveiled in short order. (Remember: Fred Thompson thinks economic stimulus plans are kind of girly).

McCain would chop the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% -- some sort of cut is common to all the Republicans. He'd allow a first year deduction of tech and equipment investments and give a 10% tax credit equal to the first 10% of the investment a company spends on R and D.

Interesting that McCain, while supporting an extension of the Bush tax cuts, does not list them in his plan.

Comments

Hello, Marc-

This is not favorable terrain for McCain. But not b/c of Michigan. I don't think that the Michigan vote went the way it did, primarily b/c of the paramount issue of the economy in the state. Mitt was able to do well in it, primarily b/c of his personal ties to the state. He did extremely well in metro Detroit, and far less well outstate...

But national security/defense will always be McCain's strongest suit - whereas the economy is Romney's. The longer McCain can keep the conversation on it, the better off he is...

Posted by ElectionNightHQ.com (McCain site) Publisher | January 17, 2008 3:46 PM

McCain is running on his "hero" record. He did well in the War and we are grateful, but that doesn't mean he will be a good President. He does not walk the talk, especially on the economy

MCCAIN: NO MORE MR. STRAIGHT TALK?
Wed Jan 16, 6:28 PM ET
Did Mitt Romney just derail John McCain's Straight Talk Express? Not all the Democrats' and independents' votes in Michigan were enough to canonize John McCain, who barreled through Dearborn and Detroit congratulating himself for nobly ignoring voters' real concerns. In Michigan, Mitt "fight for every job" Romney trounced John "I cannot tell a lie" McCain.
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Romney's victory in Michigan was surprisingly broad: He beat McCain among both men and women, older and younger voters, Catholics and Protestants, people with incomes above and below $50,000, college graduates and those with just a high school degree. Romney even bested both McCain and Huckabee among white evangelicals.
What kind of Michigan voters preferred McCain? Voters in the GOP primary who don't like President Bush, who oppose the war in Iraq and who report that they have no religion at all. Oh, and those who say they are not, in fact, Republicans.
Will the Straight Talk Express power back up and chug through South Carolina? If the Michigan contest was partly a test of the brand's power, the South Carolina campaign may derail its essential credibility.
The Annenberg Foundation's nonpartisan FactCheck.org just delivered a powerful rebuke to the basic honesty of a McCain mailer used in South Carolina (and defended by Sen. McCain after reporters called it to his attention).
In particular, FactCheck.org called McCain's assertion that Mitt Romney "provided" taxpayer-funded abortions "simply false."
"Romney never pushed for taxpayer funding for abortions. The state law he signed provided greatly expanded state-subsidized health insurance for low-income residents," Factcheck.org explained. An independent body -- the Commonwealth Connector -- not Romney, decided that abortions would be covered (a move required by two Massachusetts state supreme court rulings).
McCain also had the chutzpah to charge Romney with failing to verbally support Bush tax cuts that McCain himself actually voted against .
FactCheck.org concluded that on the whole John McCain's portrayal of Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts was "so distorted as to discredit McCain's claim to be the candidate of 'straight talk.'"
St. McCain -- distorting the record and misleading the public? If you listen to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, that may not be as surprising as the branders want you to believe. In an unprecedentedly frank evaluation of a former GOP colleague. Sen. Santorum, who hasn't endorsed a candidate, said McCain is "very, very dangerous for Republicans" on domestic issues.
"The bottom line is that I served 12 years with him, six years in the United States Senate," he told WABC radio talk show host Mark Levin. "And almost at every turn on domestic policy, John McCain was not only against us, but leading the charge on the other side."
Sen. McCain apparently had a nasty habit of leaving one impression in public on social issues like abortion and marriage, and another behind closed Senate doors, according to Santorum:
"That discussion is held in private, where you're jostling and jockeying to get your legislation into the queue so that you can have your time on the floor to get something done. And I can tell you, when social-conservative issues were ever raised -- whether it was marriage or abortion or a whole host of other issues -- there were always the moderates who said: 'No, no, no, we can't. They're divisive, divisive, divisive.' And more often than not, John McCain was ... with them."
"That's wrong," Santorum added. "And that gives me an insight into what he would really be like if he were president of the United States."
The next night on the Mark Levin show, another even more respected and distinguished conservative voice, Judge Robert Bork, called McCain a "liberal."
Johnny, we hardly knew ye.
________________________________________

Posted by Wendy731 | January 17, 2008 4:05 PM

Ann Coulter said yesterday in her column that after researching Romney's record in detail, the only thing she can see he's flip-flopped on is abortion, which is less than the rest of the candidates, and even then only in whether his views ought to legislated. She's thinks he's the guy for the GOP, and Coulter is as Bible-thumping a Christian as anyone I've ever seen.

My friends who work for McCain tell me that McCain considers Huckabee to be a "useful idiot" and that propped up Huckabee in Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan only to try and take down Romney. I hope the evangelical "jesus hates you and loves me" crowd don't ruin the party trying to put a fool like Huckabee in the White House. They'll prove what the Dems have always said about their blind intollerance is right is trying to do so, lose the White House, and ruin the GOP. I'm starting to think we a third party, the "Jesuscrats" who stand only for making sure a protestant is in charge.

Posted by Steven Rinehart | January 17, 2008 7:54 PM

Steven, it's a real shame that you think of evangelicals that way. Coulter and Romney sure don't think of them like that -- they see evangelicals as their natural base.

I'm a Mitt fan, and once he wins the nomination, evangelicals are going to be his best friends and greatest supporters, providing you haven't convinced them to leave the GOP to start a third party by then.

Please don't let this tight primary season sow lasting divisions within the party.

Posted by Gyrd | January 18, 2008 8:36 AM

Gyrd, right on. The scariest thing about this race for me has been how divided our party seems to be. So much so that candidates with policies in open opposition to our beliefs are being considered as viable. Return to conservative leadership, if we nominate a liberal it will be a hard road back to nominate a true conservative in the future. Vote Mitt Romney 2008!

Posted by Eric | January 18, 2008 4:15 PM