McCain put off his defeat in Michigan to low turnout and Romney's status as a "favorite son" in his home state. He also said he's excited about "job creation" in places like Detroit based on green technologies that give him "great optimism" about the future in that economically depressed state. Moving to South Carolina, he said he was happy with the way things are going there, despite having come down with a bit of a cold. All in all not one of the more exciting calls we've had with the senator, but when I asked him about his support for cap-and-trade regulation of greenhouse emissions and his opposition to drilling in ANWR--specifically whether these were "no surrender issues" for his campaign--things did get a bit...heated:
Always open to discussion but I don't know how any conservative could not support cap-and-trade. We did it with acid rain, the Europeans are doing it now. It's a capitalist, free eneterprise oriented process that encourages green technologies and improvement of our atmosphere. Suppose that we are wrong and all we've done is adopt green technologies...and then try to give our kids a cleaner planet. I'm glad that the debate goes on on climate change, but it is a fact that the majority of the scientific opinion in the world indicates that greenhouse emissions are affecting our planet. Now whether and how serious it is, is an excellent question. But frankly, I do not understand an argument against--we did it with acid rain. As far as ANWR is concerned, I don't want to drill in the Grand Canyon, I don't want to drill in the Everglades, and this is one of the most pristine and beautiful parts of the world. So we have a disagreement there. And I'll tell you what, if we want to win a general election, from my encounters with young Americans, we better do a better job on the environment.
I followed up by asking whether a carbon tax wouldn't be a more transparent method of reducing emissions and allowing Americans to see directly the costs. McCain responded:
How could a conservative advocate that when it's a regressive tax on the poorest Americans. That's a gas tax...I don't get that logic...how could an increase in taxes possibly be something that conservatives would favor.
I think the conservative argument here is that if people knew what all this was going to cost, they'd opt for no regulation at all and take their chances with mother nature. But McCain wasn't buying that. McCain was also asked about his time in the Hanoi Hilton--to recount a story of heroism by one of his comrades there. He told the story of Mike Christian, a Navy officer, who sewed an American flag into his shirt. McCain said they would say the pledge of allegiance every night before dinner until the Vietnamese discovered the flag and beat Christian to a pulp. Christian sewed another flag into his shirt. McCain assured Jim Geraghty that he would have plenty of money for TV advertising in Florida and beyond, and that the campaign had already made a substantial buy in the state. Asked about the economy by Jennifer Rubin, McCain said those waiting for old jobs to come back were no different than the "cargo cult in New Guinea" waiting for American planes to return with supplies--it ain't gonna happen. The straight talk was in full effect. Maybe it will serve him better in South Carolina than it did in Michigan.