McCain Calls MoveOn Attack Scurrilous

Matt Lewis | September 12, 2007 4:02 PM

On today's blog conference call, Sen. McCain started off by criticizing the MoveOn add, and describing it as scurrilous.

I asked him about the recent GOP debate, and the little disagreement he had with Mitt Romney. As you'll recall, McCain corrected Romney for saying the surge was "

apparently" working. I asked the Senator if Republican candidates had a responsibility to be leaders in terms of supporting the surge, because the American people are taking thier cues from our leaders.

McCain said he can't control how others run their campaigns, but that he believes candidates do have the ability to influence foreign policy debates. He also noted that when Reagan called the Soviet Union an "Evil Empire," not even all Republicans thought it was a good idea.

When Robert Bluey asked him what he might do different from President Bush, McCain said he would go on TV at least once a week ... even if only on CSPAN ... to describe in detail the situation on the ground. He also said he would admit when mistakes are made, because mistakes have been made in every war we've been in ...

McCain also stressed that winning the war on terror is much more important to him than winning an election.

... More on the call from Jim Geraghty, Instapundit, Powerline, EyeOn08 here, Race 4 2008 here, and Jennifer Rubin.