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NBC News Transcripts June 19, 2005 Sunday SHOW: Meet the Press 10:00 AM EST NBC MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to Guantanamo. In October--excuse me, December of 2003, "John McCain said he is concerned about the failure to move ahead with prisoners' trials at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. ...`These cases have to be disposed of one way or another. After keeping someone two years, a decision should be made.'" That was a year and a half ago. It's now been three and a half years. Should we close it? SEN. McCAIN: I don't think necessarily. But I think the important thing...

June 13, 2008 Exclusive: McCain Should Pick Michael Steele for VP Jonathan StrongThere is a great deal of speculation over who the two nominees for President should pick as their running mates. I couldn't care less who Obama picks because whomever his choice is can be guaranteed to be a liberal in favour of higher taxes, bigger government, more regulation, and a weaker America (whether they admit it or not). Sadly for conservatives, McCain, in many ways, is Democrat-lite on a host of issues. It is McCain's unpredictability and untrustworthiness as a conservative on domestic issues that worries so many...

WASHINGTON – President Bush was the headliner last week at three fundraisers for Sen. John McCain. But as happy as he was to accept the help to raise badly needed money, McCain did everything he could to push the unpopular president out of the headlines. Events in Arizona and Utah were moved out of big public arenas and into private homes. The only public sighting of the two men together was the briefest of handshakes at an Arizona airport, timed late in the day after the network news broadcasts. For Bush, it reflects his status as a lame duck with...

Union City -- Facing a pile of controversial campaign troubles - including incendiary comments by televangelist John Hagee that forced him to reject Hagee's endorsement - Sen. John McCain tried mightily to shift the focus to economic issues and his Democratic opponent Barack Obama on Thursday during a California campaign swing. McCain, speaking at a Silicon Valley forum on economic issues alongside Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, issued a renewed call for "comprehensive immigration reform" as a top agenda item for the next president. He called for a "temporary agricultural program," saying, "We need a way for an ordinary person to apply...

Columbus, Ohio (AP) -- Republican John McCain has been slow to take advantage of his potential head start for the presidency against Democrats, who are better organized and generate more excitement among voters. McCain enters a November-focused campaign with distinct disadvantages, his aides and advisers acknowledge: his party's unpopular incumbent president, his unwavering support for the war in Iraq and the Democrats' unmistakable fundraising potential. Yet the Arizona senator and his party have inched toward blunting the shortcomings instead of racing to erase them. "This has given us time," said Frank Donatelli, vice chairman of the Republican National Committee and...

First, my friends, a reminder of what was printed right here on January 23, 2008: After spearheading a disastrous, security-undermining illegal alien amnesty bill last year with Teddy Kennedy, “straight-talking” GOP Sen. John McCain claims he has seen the light. In TV appearances, he vows to put immigration enforcement first. On the campaign trail, he offers a perfunctory promise to strengthen border security and emphasizes the need to restore Americans’ trust in their government’s ability to defend the homeland. “I got the message,” he told voters in South Carolina. “We will secure the borders first.” But how can McCain cure...

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, on Friday is scheduled to meet with two Republican governors who have been prominently mentioned as potential running mates, according to Republicans familiar with Mr. McCain’s plan. Charlie Crist, the governor of Florida, and Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, have both accepted invitations to meet with Mr. McCain at his home in Arizona, according to Republican familiars with the decision. One Republican said that Mitt Romney, a former rival of Mr. McCain for the presidential nomination — is also expected to visit him this weekend. Mr. Romney’s advisers declined to comment.

His lead strategist says if McCain were to get 20 percent of these voters he will win. WASHINGTON - With the other party still waist-deep in its presidential nomination fight, John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, has been quietly courting the white working-class Democrats who have proved elusive for Barack Obama, his most likely rival in the fall. In the two weeks since Senator Obama's loss in Pennsylvania, Senator McCain has visited the struggling steel town of Youngstown, Ohio, to promote programs to retrain workers. He has gone to Allentown, Pa., to push a gas-tax holiday and argue that the...

McCain MirageThe senator is not ready-for-prime-time commander-in-chief.By Andrew C. McCarthySenator John McCain’s ascendancy in the Republican presidential race has been truly remarkable. Yet, it’s no groundswell. To this point, about two out of every three primary and caucus participants have voted against him. If the Democrats and independents some states permit to crash the Grand Old Party were factored out, his standing in the Republican base would be even less impressive. Still, you have to hand it to his admirers: They have parlayed his thin support into an aura of inevitability. The glow could intensify this week, when McCain is...