What They Should Have Asked: McCain on 60 Minutes

Response to McCain's interview on 60 Minutes on Sunday.

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View the full transcript here.

See 9:21

When John McCain referred to Barack Obama as “the most liberal senator,” it raised a flag or two. Who says he’s the most liberal senator? McCain moved on before elaborating, but he’s probably referring to this National Journal survey. The NJ provides an explanation of how they formulated a “composite liberal score” – by calculating how many times they cast a vote on the “liberal” side or “conservative” side of an issue. Coming from an establishment of the conservative media, and the fact that NJ editors discuss their findings with dangerously loaded phrases like "insurgent presidential candidate,” it’s hard to establish this study as non-partisan and credible.

It’s also interesting to note that Obama earned a "composite liberal score" of 82.8 in 2005--making him the 16th most liberal senator--while in 2006 his liberal score jumped to 86, and by the time this report was issued, totally coincidentally just weeks after winning the Iowa primary and marking himself a major Democratic contender, his liberal score jumped to 99. That’s just to the left of self-described democratic socialist Bernie Sanders

Not surprisingly, more than a few bloggers took issue with this quantitative assessment of a thoroughly qualitative characteristic, particularly in the way it handles Obama’s skipping of votes.

See 11:40

The problem with bragging about cutting taxes in Alaska is that there aren't a whole lot of taxes to begin with. According to the Tax Foundation, Alaska ranks 50th in terms of the tax burden per capita – a ranking it’s held since 1989. Having enormous royalties from oil drilling and exploration will do that - even for Democratic governors. Palin has indeed cut taxes, but some might suggest that a $20 million tax credit for movie studios that shoot in Alaska or a $2 million tax credit for salmon fishing (a line of work Palin and her hubby, “First Dude” Todd Palin, have engaged in) aren't really the hard-hitting tax solutions conservatives are looking for.

Combine that with the fact that Palin actually introduced a $1.5 billion corporate tax increase for oil companies - and the per capita tax burden for Alaskans has risen since she took office – which further clouds McCain's claim.

See 13:00

It's true - sort of. Some Americans are really falling for Palin. Others really aren't, and what might be of more concern is that most, even the ones who like her, wonder if she's qualified. According to the results of a New York Times/CBS News poll (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/18/us/politics/18poll.html?scp=3&sq=palin...), Palin is doing wonders for exciting the party's base. Republicans who were planning to vote for McCain really like her, and that's no small thing; earlier this year, many Republicans were reporting that they felt apathetic about this year's race.
Unfortunately, the numbers show she's not drawing votes from outside the party, particularly among women. And the numbers suggest that most people wonder if she is as qualified as Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden:

This poll found evidence of concern about Ms. Palin’s qualifications to be president, particularly compared with Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Mr. Obama’s running mate. More than 6 in 10 said they would be concerned if Mr. McCain could not finish his term and Ms. Palin had to take over. In contrast, two-thirds of voters surveyed said Mr. Biden would be qualified to take over for Mr. Obama, a figure that cut across party lines.

Perhaps worse news for the candidate who portrays himself as a "maverick" who goes with his gut rather than what his party wants, is that three-quarters of Americans are cynical about his reasons for picking Palin:

And 75 percent said they thought Mr. McCain had picked Ms. Palin more to help him win the election than because he thought that she was well qualified to be president; by contrast, 31 percent said they thought that Mr. Obama had picked Mr. Biden more to help him win the election, while 57 percent said it was because he thought Mr. Biden was well qualified for the job.