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Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) said Sunday that winning the White House would be an uphill battle for him. McCain is faced with two Democratic candidates who both have raised significantly more money than any of the Republicans in the race and an electorate that has shown up in much greater numbers to the Democratic nominating contests than the GOP ones. “This is going to be an uphill battle all the way,” McCain said on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, adding, “I can out-campaign them, and I can out-debate them, and I can out-perform them in what I think my vision for America is more in keeping with the majority of Americans.” The senator also sought to draw clear distinctions between himself and President Bush as both Democrats have asserted that a McCain presidency would be a mere continuation of the past two terms. He pointed to climate change and spending as two major issues that he differs on with Bush. However, McCain reaffirmed his support for the Bush tax cuts and vowed to not raise taxes during his own presidency. The Arizona senator also said that he will have “respectful but spirited” debates with the eventual Democratic nominee and addressed remarks he made in 2005, in which he said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), who is battling Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) for the Democratic nomination, would make a “good president.” “She would be a good president in the respect that I think she has integrity, I think she has all of the qualities that are necessary, but she has a very different philosophical view, the liberal Democratic view, than I have, which is conservative Republican,” McCain said. The senator, who admits that he is superstitious, also stated that he has not begun the search for a vice presidential candidate yet because he has not formally locked up the nomination. |
