Sen. John McCain Delivers Remarks in Lima, Ohio.

CQ Transcriptswire
Friday, August 8, 2008 4:31 PM

MCCAIN: I need your help. I need your support. And we can win in November if we can carry Ohio and Lima. And I need you. And I'm asking for your support. (APPLAUSE)

And by the way, I wish Senator Obama was here with me today, because I've asked him to come with me to the American people in a town hall meeting, one I think the most beautiful part of democracy, the best part of the process, because after I make relatively brief remarks -- remember, I'm a senator -- but relatively brief remarks, I want to do what's important about a town hall meeting, and that's respond to any questions or comments you might have for me.

And before I go any further, there's no more patriotic part of America than right here. And I'm honored. I'm honored and grateful for the presence, not only of Admiral Tom Lynch (ph), but every veteran who is here today and comes from this state.

(APPLAUSE)

Would you raise your hands so that I can say thank you, thank you for your service? Thank you.

Just stand up, will you? Just stand up, please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and God bless you, and thank you for being here.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you, and God bless you.

It's pretty obvious to me we have veterans of every war here. And thank you to our greatest generation, and thank you to our Iraqi war veterans. I'm very grateful.

Now I'd like to speak to you very briefly about the issues that are at stake in this election and about the choices we face.

Now, my friends, you may have noticed that I've been called a maverick. Sometimes it's meant as a compliment, sometimes it's meant as a criticism, sometimes worse. But what it really means, that I understand who I work for.

I don't work for a party. I don't work for a president. I don't work for special interest. And I don't work for myself.

I work for you and the country we love. That's who I work for, and that's who I'll work for as president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

I spoke up against the administration for the mistakes in Iraq. I fought for the surge strategy that's going to bring our troops home with victory and honor not in defeat, but with victory and honor. I spoke up.

(APPLAUSE)

I spoke up against out-of-control spending. I spoke up against the administration and Congress and Senator Obama when they gave us an energy bill with more than giveaways to big oil and really no solution to our energy problems. I want to take a minute here on this issue because I think Senator Obama might be a little bit confused.

Yesterday, he accused me of having President Bush's policies on energy. That's odd, because he voted for the president's energy bill and I voted against it. I voted against -- it had $2.8 billion in corporate welfare to big oil companies, and they're already making record profits, as you know.

Senator Obama voted for that bill and its big oil giveaways. I know he hasn't been in the Senate that long, but even in the real world, voting for something -- voting for something means you support it and voting against something means you oppose it.

Anyway, my friends, just like on the energy bill, I've argued for reform and change in Washington for years, and it hasn't made me friends. It hasn't made me friends in Washington.

My friends, I was not elected Miss Congeniality again this year. But I don't answer to them, I answer to you. I answer to you.

You will always know exactly where I stand and you will always know, no matter what, I always do what I believe is right for our country. I will put my country first. If there's anything you take from this meeting, I will put my country first.

(APPLAUSE)

For his part, Senator Obama is an impressive order. I applaud his talent and I applaud his success. All Americans should be proud of his accomplishments.

But Washington is full of talented talkers, my friends. And unfortunately, on issues big and small, what Senator Obama says and what he does are two different things.

Senator Obama says he's going to change Washington, but his plan is to raise your taxes and spend more of your money. It's not my idea of a solution of what troubles Washington. In fact, it sounds a lot like the problem.

In the few years he's been in the Senate, he has requested nearly $1 billion in earmarked pork barrel spending. That's $1 million almost for every day that he spent in office.

We need to end this out-of-control spending in Washington, and when I'm president, we will stop it. And I'm proud to stand before you to tell you that I have never asked for nor received a single earmarked pork barrel project for my state. I'm proud of it.

I will veto. I will veto.

(APPLAUSE)

I will veto every pork barrel bill that comes across my desk. I will make them famous, and you will know their names, my friends. You will know their names. We will stop this corruption.

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We'll stop this corruption in Washington. And it is corruption. Former members of Congress now are residing in federal prison because of this system.

You know, I often steal a lot of lines from Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan used to say, "Congress spends money like a drunken sailor, only I never knew a sailor drunk or sober with the imagination of Congress." That's a pretty good line. It gets a laugh.

I use it so often -- I'm not making this up -- I received an e- mail from a guy that said, "As a former drunken sailor, I resent being compared to members of Congress." You know, you can't blame him. You can't blame him.

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Senator Obama says he'll only raise taxes on the rich, but in the Senate he voted for tax hikes that would have impacted people making just $42,000 a year. He's proposed increases on income taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, Social Security taxes. Pretty much anything you can tax, he wants to tax more.

We have, my friends, the second highest business taxes in the world. Second highest. And Senator Obama thinks the way to keep jobs here at home is to make taxes higher. Raising taxes in a bad economy is the worst thing that you can do, because it will kill even more jobs and send more jobs overseas.

What we need are policies that create jobs. What we need is an economic strategy, an economic surge, a successful economic surge to keep jobs here at home and create new ones.

And I don't have to tell anybody in Lima, Ohio, I don't have to tell anybody how tough things are. I don't have to tell you how difficult it's been. And I want to look you in the eye and tell you that I'm going to restore our economy, and I'm going to restore it in the heartland of America, and we're all going to be part of a team in a bipartisan fashion that gets it done.

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We need to open new markets to U.S. products. We need to reduce the cost of health care. We need to end the out-of-control spending that's putting the debt on the backs of our children and our grandchildren. That's unconscionable.

Senator Obama says he wants energy independence, but he's opposed to new drilling at home, he's opposed to nuclear power. He said the high cost of gasoline doesn't bother him, only it just rose too quickly.

Tell that to the people that are driving the oldest automobiles the furthest to work. Tell them that the only problem is the price of gas rose too quickly.

He actually thinks that raising taxes on oil is going to bring down the price at the pump. He's claiming that putting air in your tires is the equivalent -- is the equivalent of new offshore drilling. That's not an energy plan, my friends. That's a public service announcement.

My friends, we need to...

(APPLAUSE)

We need to drill offshore here and now. We need to drill offshore, and it can affect the price of a gallon of oil -- of gas.

And my friends, when we exploit and find these new reserves of oil off our coast, it will reduce the price of a barrel of oil. That's just a fact. When you increase supply, obviously the price of whatever it is is going to go down.

So we've got to do it, and we've got to do it quickly. We don't have to wait.

And by the way, Jim mentioned with an energy crisis, with people in this room deciding how they're going to be able to go and fill up their gas tank and do the things that they planned on doing in this month of August, Congress does what? They go on a five-week vacation. A five-week vacation, and not address the energy crisis that's facing this country.

And by the way, the speaker of the House of Representatives will not allow a vote. Will not allow a vote on offshore drilling. Is that democracy? I don't think so. I don't think so.

So, my friends, when I'm president of the United States, I'll call them back into session and I'll keep them there until they get the work done, get the job done for you.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, we all agree, we need to aggressively develop advanced alternative energies: wind, solar, tide, and biofuels. But we also need to understand that the United States of America's sitting on the world's largest coal reserves.

Clean coal technology is part of our energy future. And, my friends, a lot of that is here in the state of Ohio, as we know, and in the heartland of America.

Clean coal technology, we can invest money in acquiring that technology, developing it, and creating thousands of jobs here in the heartland of America. We can do that.

And by the way, we need to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much. Some of that money ends up in the hands of terrorist organizations, and it's got to stop. It's got to stop. It's got to stop. (APPLAUSE)

Thank you, sir. Thank you. We'll give you a schedule of our next town hall meeting. We look forward to having there.

And by the way, finally, my friends, in Iraq, Senator Obama says he wants peace. But today, he still will not acknowledge that the surge has worked and that Americans are winning, and we are going to come home with honor and with victory and not defeat. Remarkable.

(APPLAUSE)

His policy -- his policy of unconditional withdrawal regardless of the facts on the ground could result in renewed violence and a third Iraq War. My friends, I'm proud of this success, but I also want to say again, al Qaeda's on the run, but they're not defeated. OK? Let's make sure of that.

You will see more of these spectacular -- tragically, more of these spectacular suicide bombings. Don't underestimate the nature of the enemy. And thank God for the service of the brave young Americans that have done so much in uniform in this country.

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Behind all the words, Senator Obama's agenda can be summarized as this: Government's too big. He wants to grow it. Taxes are too high. He wants to raise them. Congress spends too much, and he proposes more.

We need more energy, and he's against producing it. We're finally winning in Iraq, and he wants to forfeit.

The bottom line, Senator Obama's words, for all their eloquence and passion, don't mean all that much. And that's the problem in our nation's capital today.

It's not just the Bush administration and it's not just the Democratic Congress. It's that everyone in Washington says whatever it takes to get elected or to score the political points of the day. And that's the problem in Washington.

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We don't need another politician in Washington who puts self- interest and political expediency ahead of problem-solving. We need to start putting our country first and come together to keep American families safe and help them realize their dreams for a better life.

Now, my friends, before we start our discussion, which is so important, I just want to tell you this. We will disagree on specific issues. We should. We need to have the dialogue and discussion in America. I learn more from my encounters with you than I can ever tell you.

These are tough times for America. And I want to tell you there have been times in my life when I've had the opportunity to put myself or my ambitions first. But I have always put my country first. And even if we disagree, I will put my country first.

I'm proud to be here. Thank you.

I'm proud to be in Lima, Ohio, proud to be with the Lynches (ph) and with Congressman Jordan. And I'm most proud to be with you.

Thank you very much. And God bless you. And God bless America.

Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

VELSHI: And that's John in Lima, Ohio, speaking to a crowd, getting a standing ovation from them now that he's finished the initial part of his remarks. He's going to open this up to questions and we're going to keep an eye on this. We may be staying with this for questions.

But even when we leave a live event like this, you can always go to CNN.com/live and follow these speeches, because they are important to listen to. In this particular case, Senator has been speaking a great deal about energy and energy policy and what he would do to change things. He's opening up to questions now.

: We have work release program persons here.

You want to give her the mike? There you go. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have like a double question. How come you don't respond more aggressively to not just Obama's questions, but some of the media questions when they accuse you of flip-flopping, when mostly what you do is listen to your constituents, and then because you listen to them, you change your mind? Specifically like on immigration, the fuel -- the fuel, economy and so forth. And then instead of -- you don't get -- you don't get negative, but you just don't respond aggressively enough.

So it's a very careful balance you have to maintain. And I think when -- what Americans really want, what they really want to hear, is how are we going to fix these problems? How are we going to keep them in our homes?

How are they going to keep health care? How are they going to keep it affordable and available? How are we going to reduce this energy independence, which is environmental and economic and a national security issue?

So it's a careful balance between the two. And could I just mention, on the issue of offshore drilling, of course. I mean there's people in this room that may be a year or two ago didn't care that much about offshore drilling, much less support it.

But when we saw the price of a gallon of gas go up over $4, we said, look, what are our options here? What are our options? And one of our options has to be offshore drilling.

And by the way, on that subject, on that subject, I met with a group of independent petroleum executives. And they said -- despite what you'll see from others -- but the people in the business said using existing capabilities and facilities we have, within months we could increase, within months. It's their statement, not mine, that we could increase our supply.

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And in a period of a year or two -- in a period of a year or two, we could see significant increases. And my friends, if they say that it takes a number of years, well, let's start now. Let's start now. Why say it'll take too long when it won't?

So all I can say is -- and I'll be glad to hear your follow-up -- you've got -- Americans want to hear positive things. Americans are very pessimistic now. Americans want a restoration of hope, of trust, and confidence. So you can't get into this game where you just are going back and forth.

And also, I want you -- I want you and every person in this room that supports me to be proud of our campaign at the end of it. That's a very, very highly important thing to me.

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