The McCain camp sent out an email today announcing they'd be having another blogger call with the candidate just a half hour before the call was to take place. The scheduling was unusual. Given that McCain led by affirming his support for Justice Alito, saying that Alito "was a magnificent choice" and that he was proud of his role in pushing through the confirmation, it would seem the senator was attempting to minimize any damage from this piece by John Fund. Fund quoted McCain as saying he would not nominate a justice like Alito because "he [wears] his conservatism on his sleeve." The quote was unsourced, and today McCain said he didn't remember making the statement. (Does anyone think McCain would lie just to avoid incurring the wrath of conservatives?) Further, he insisted he would appoint justices "along the lines of Roberts and Alito," and that he would "try to find clones" of the two if possible. He said he didn't "want to sound too defensive," but he that he was "astonished" by the charge that he had not done his best to support the confirmation. McCain described endorsements from Charlie Crist, Mel Martinez, and Stormin' Norman as a "coup." When I asked for his view of the Democratic race, he punted before proclaiming his eagerness to debate the differences between himself and whichever candidate emerges from the Democratic primary to wave the white flag in Iraq. McCain didn't downplay the importance of winning Florida--he said it was "critical"--but he also didn't call the state a must-win, which makes me think that the surprise call was more a case of jitters than outright panic. But unless McCain knows something we don't, the polls give him a better than 50-50 shot of winning in Florida tomorrow, and If he does win, I'll be surprised if he has much use for these blogger calls anymore. More from Jennifer Rubin at Contentions and Jim Geraghty at the Campaign Spot. Update: On the other issue of the day--whether McCain had mischaracterized Romney's position on timetables--Steve Hayes follows up on his earlier piece with this:
The biggest problem that some national security conservatives have with Romney -- not all of them McCain supporters -- is that he refused to take a position on the surge at its conception and did so in a pusillanimous manner. As the surge was first being discussed, Romney evaded the question, claiming he was not yet running for national office. It was a silly thing to say. Although Romney had not yet made his formal announcement, he was running hard at the time he dodged the question. Reasonable people can disagree about whether or not Romney advocated secret timetables for withdrawal, but he was hardly unwavering in his support for the surge.
Read it over at the Campaign Standard