McCain Talks to Bloggers

Matt Lewis | February 13, 2008 11:48 AM

John McCain held his first blogger call since becoming the presumptive nominee. He told us he would continue with these calls with bloggers, because,

"I'll never forget you were the only guys who would listen to me for a few months there ..."

Regarding calls for Mike Huckabee to get out, he said, "I will not in any way try to dissuade him..."

But McCain admitted he would prefer it to wrap this thing up, noting of Huckabee: "He is still a formidable candidate, and a lot of things could happen."

He declined to speculate on VP picks, saying, it would be "disrespectful to Governor Huckabee" to get into a discussion about a running-mate. In a response to my question, he wouldn't rule-in, or rule-out, either Tom Coburn or Mark Sanford.

He also said his staff was talking with Gov. Mitt Romney's staff about "getting together."

McCain also took this opportunity to take a few shots at Barack Obama, saying he is endorsed by Moveon.org, the same group who ran the Petraeus (Betray-us) ad. He also noted that National Journal rated Barack Obama the most liberal Senator in the U.S.

He stood behind the concept that the six 9-11 Guantanamo terrorists don't deserve the same protections as American citizens, and said they were some of the most evil people, "in the history of the world."

McCain also acknowledged he still needs to unite the base and unite the Republican Party, to win in November.

Update: Jim Geraghty has a good synopsis of the call.