The Presidency of America's Maverick

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McCain names who will join his foreign policy team:


Secretary of State: Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman



National Security Advisor: Former Deputy Chief of Staff Robert Zoellick



UN Ambassador: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Susan Golding



Shaw: While many were surprised at the fact that President McCain selected a Democrat to be his next secretary of state, remember that when the President was a senator, his best friend in the senate was indeed Senator Joe Lieberman and arguably when it comes to foreign affairs Senator Lieberman is closer to the President ideologically than even many Republicans are.

The other two picks really weren't that surprising though Susan Golding going from a position like HUD to the UN is a pretty big change but given she does have a degree in  International relations it is an appointment that does mak sense.

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Something I will add to this TL is I’ll add updates about  the Canadian and UK election results that take place in this TL (just do an update about the result of the election not the campaign itself)

The 2001 UK election results will remain the same as OTL while the 2004 Canadian election has the Tories winning 12 more seats than OTL(so they have 111) and Libs winning 12 less(so they have 123) but it’s still a liberal minority government .

I can also potentially add Australian, German , or French results on here too so if someone is willing to help with that , we can work out something through DM about that

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McCain names new heads of Labor, HHS, HUD and OMB

Secretary of Labor: Deputy Labour Secretary Elaine Chao




Secretary of Health and Human Service: Congresswomen Nancy Johnson




Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Former Phoniex Mayor Skip Rimsza




OMB Director: Congressman Paul Ryan




Note: Rimza photo is from youtube

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Senate Passes Cap and Trade Bill with support of 41 Democrats and 20 Republicans after group of senators come to bipartisan agreement:

Shaw: The Senate earlier today passed a bipartisan cap and trade Bill that garnered the support of 41 of the 46 Democrats in the Senate and 20 of the 54 Republicans in the Senate and now will be sent back to the house or both chambers will meet in conference committee in order to iron out the differences. One of the major differences between this bill and the house bill is that C02 emmissions will be capped at 2000 levels in 2013 instead of 2010 and wont be required to go back to 1990 levels until 2020 rather than in 2015.

This Bill will introduce tax credits to incentivize R&D research as well instead of direct government subsidies for it. Thanks to the fact this bill received 61 votes it was able to stop any potential filibuster of the bill and will pass.


House passes Senate version of Cap and Trade Bill and President McCain signs it into law:


Woodruff: The President earlier today signed a law that would implement a cap and trade system into law getting a huge goal he had set early on his presidency accomplished before the end of his first term and the start of his 2nd one. He also made these remarks while signing the bill

McCain: I first want to thank our scientists and economists who first did the hard work of researching ways we could reduce CO2 emmissions without harming our economy as this law would never have been proposed let alone passed without their hard work. I also want to thank members of both parties for coming together in the past year and a half to work on passing such legislation into law and while it may not have been easy and resulted in many arguments, our nation is pleased that both sides made the compromises needed for this bill to pass and it is another example that there is nothing our nation cant do if we come together. Now there is one thing left for this bill to become law and that is for me to sign it so lets not waste anymore time and finish the task
(McCain signs Bill)

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McCain names new heads of Transportation, Agriculture, and  VA


Secretary of Transportation:[/size] Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jack Quinn



Secretary of Agriculture: Former Congressman JC Watts



Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Former Navy Secretary Jim Webb

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McCain finishes picking his 2nd term cabinet with his environmental team:

Secretary of Energy: Congressman Bart Gordon



Secretary of Interior: Deputy Secretary of Interior Lynn Scarlett



EPA Administrator: Former Deputy EPA Administrator F. Henry Habichit

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Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark announces he will lead Suddam Hussain's defense team in his ICC trial set to begin next summer:



Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkZacSGBhc0

Shaw: Former Attorney General for the Johnson Administration, Ramsay Clark, has announced he will lead the defense team for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussain who is set to go on trial at the International Criminal Court sometime next summer. He has said that he believes everyone deserves a fair trial and for that, they deserve the best defense possible and he will defend the former Iraqi leader at the trial.


Now lets bring in our Justice correspondent for more info

CNN Judicial Correspondent: The Former Iraqi Leader, Suddam Hussain, has been charged with multiple crimes against humanity and war crimes and if convicted will almost certainly be sentenced to life in prison but will not face the death penalty as that court does not allow for such sentencing. We are told the McCain administration has gotten reforms made at the ICC to allow the trial to be conducted in a quick matter but despite that its likely the trial will take many months to conduct.

As for the prosecution, we are told it will be  led by Former Attorney General and interim Supreme Court Justice Dick Thornburgh .

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President McCain holds a press conference in lead up to 2nd term inauguration:



Source: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/404543-medias-praise-for-mccain-is-warranted-but-where-was-it-in-08

Media Member 1: President McCain you talked about wanting to accomplish a lot in your campaign trail, so what will be your first legislative priority over the upcoming months, and how do you plan to accomplish them.

McCain: Since the election, I have been spoken many times with both Speaker Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Gorton as well as chairs of various committees to come up with a plan to pass legislation such as tort reform, immigration reform, tax reform, education reform and we decided rather than come up with just one legislative priority we push through all these major reforms in committee over the upcoming months and we will see what the main priority should be from there.

The agenda we plan to push is ambitious and will require a lot of hard work but the fact is our party has been given the largest mandate we have ever gotten in my life and with that will come huge responsibilities and hard work and I am looking forward to it.

Media Member 2: What do you say to people who question why you nominated Joe Lieberman for a position as high ranking as Secretary of State given he is a member of the other party.

McCain: Well the fact is we have to keep in mind that the issue of foreign policy unlike the issue of the role of the federal government role in the economy which has always cut across party lines. If you remember, Senator Henry Jackson and Senator Patrick Moynihan despite being Democrats were strong believers in having a strong US presence in world affairs while Republicans such as Senator Robert Taft were not so the foreign policy is an issue where you have to look much deeper than party identification to get someone's view on it. Knowing Senator Lieberman for a long while I can tell you while we may disagree on economic and social policy we are largely on the same page when it comes to foreign policy and I can tell with full confidence that he will do a great job as Secretary of State.


Media Member 3: President McCain you have said that you believe that it is critical that a trade deal with Latin America be passed. So what is the status of those negotiations and when do you plan to send it to congress to ratify

McCain: Well I cant tell you the date of when such negotiations can be complete cause If I knew it probably would have been done by now. As I mentioned in one of the debates, my belief is it is critical that we pass a trade deal with Latin America as it would help both our nations economically plus it would increases ties diplomatically which would be a great thing as well.

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President McCain appoints outgoing Chief of Staff Mark Salter to head RNC:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZqeAjOFxBg

Woodruff: Earlier today President McCain announced that outgoing Chief of Staff Mark Salter will be taking over for Alan Simpson as head of the RNC . Mr. Salter we are told was expected to join some role at the AZ GOP but the President announced he will be taking over for the RNC instead.


Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean becomes the presumptive winner of DNC chair race after last opposition candidate drops out



Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Dean

Shaw: In a huge win for progressives and particularly the Feingold wing of the party as Former Presidential candidate and Vermont Governor Howard Dean will become the presumptive winner of the DNC chair race after his last remaining opponent dropped out. He was endorsed by Senator Feingold himself and polls had him as the overwhelming choice of Democratic voters too which is why the other candidates dropped out

Greenfield: Don't forget he was Endorsed by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid too who are the congressional leaders for the Democratic party and the fact he ran for President unlike the rest of the candidates in this race gave him an edge no other candidate had which is why this is no surprise.

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The second inauguration of John Sidney McCain :

Former President Bill Clinton gives his thoughts and advice about a 2nd term:



Wallace: President Clinton , many say the 2nd term is tougher than the first so what would you say about that

Clinton: Well in some ways it can be as you dont get the same honeymoon from the other side as you do in a first term , and some of the consequences of your decisions which no matter how good you think they are will have some negative effects which you will have to deal with and people are trying to make you a lame duck. At the same time given you no longer have any elections to run for dont have to make the same political calculations you had to earlier and can push your agenda in someways more than you were able to in the first.

Now that can be either a positive or negative as you have to make sure you dont get too overconfident about that because the public can turn on you fast and can result in you losing party support as well since you no longer have to run for elections but they do. So my advice for President McCain is that yes he can push for more sweeping reform now he doenst have elections to run for but not to get too overconfident about that either.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVqKggHxSLk

President McCain gives his inaugural speech after being sworn in for a second time:



Source: Youtube

Danforth Sworn in by Justice Thomas:

Thomas: Mr. Vice President, put up your right hand and repeat after me

Danforth: I, John Claggett Danforth, do solemnly swear
that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States
against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;
that I take this obligation freely,
without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion;
and that I will well and faithfully discharge
the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.
So help me God.

Thomas: Congratulations, Mr.Vice President

McCain sworn in by Chief Justice Rehnquist :

Rehnquist: Mr.President , put up your right hand and repeat after me

McCain: I, John Sidney McCain, do solemnly swear
that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States,
and will to the best of my Ability,
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
So help me God.

Rehnquist: Congratulations, Mr. President

President McCain gives his 2nd inaugural address:

McCain: Mr.Chief Justice, Mr. Vice President, President Clinton, President Bush, President Carter , distinguished guests and my fellow Americans, every 4 years we mark this day by celebrating the genius of our founders, the strength of our constitution, and the spirit of American Freedom on inauguration day(Applause). It is that very spirit that has sustained us from the American Revolution to this very day and is why our nation has been able to accomplish so many great things in our history and why every enemy of freedom from the Fascists in WW2 to the Communists in the Cold War and terrorists today have tried to destroy that spirit but have failed every time(Applause). Instead, it is us who freed millions of people in Western Europe during WW2, millions of people in Eastern Europe during the cold war and now have freed millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan(Applause) .

That spirit of freedom has made the lives of people living in those nations better than it ever has before because human beings at the end of the day want to be free(Applause). That makes it our responsibility to not only defend freedom wherever it exists but actively oppose enemies of freedom across the world(Applause) not only cause it is the right thing to do but because failure to do so can endanger our own safety like it did on September 11th but potentially even worse.

To keep that spirit stronger than ever not only must we fight to strengthen it overseas but continue to strengthen it here at home as one of the best ways to strengthen it around the world is by showing the example of it here at home(Applause). That means we must continue to reform systems that no longer work to keep your trust in our system of government in solving problems you face(Applause). It may not be an easy challenge but we have faced far tougher ones before and overcame them and we will overcome the challenges facing this generation(Appplause). Thank You May God Bless You and May God Bless America

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I think Rehnquist would address McCain as Mr. President since he's being sworn in for a second term.

thanks for catching that

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All new Cabinet members easily confirmed with exception of Ryan who still gets confirmed:

Shaw: All of the President's new cabinet appointees were easily confirmed to their new roles except Paul Ryan like expected. The Democrats tried to filibuster Mr. Ryan's confirmation to the role calling him to radical but a filibuster was broken thanks to 3 Democrats voting for cloture and those 3 Democrats were Senator Ben Nelson for Nebraska, Senator Evan Bayh from Indiana, Senator Inez Tenenbaum from South Carolina . One Republican who voted to sustain the filibuster though was Senator Jim Jeffords from Vermont

Secretary of State: Joe Lieberman Confirmed with 80 Ayes and 20 Nays

Secretary of Interior:   Lynn Scarlett Confirmed with 91 Ayes and 9 Nays

Secretary of Agriculture: JC Watts Confirmed with 77 Ayes and 23 Nays

Secretary of Labor: Elaine Chao Confirmed with 93 Ayes and 7 Nays

Secretary of Health and Human Service: Nancy Johnson Confirmed unanimously

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Skip Rimza Confirmed with with 95 Ayes and 5 Nays

Secretary of Transportation: Jack Quinn Confirmed unanimously

Secretary of Energy: Bart Gordon Confirmed with 96 Ayes and 4 Nays

Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Jim Webb Confirmed with 88 Ayes and 12 Nays

OMB Director: Paul Ryan Confirmed with 60 Ayes and 40 Nays

EPA Administrator: F. Henry Habicht Confirmed unanimously

UN Ambassador: Susan Golding Confirmed with 86 Ayes and 14 Nays

Special Election set for June 30th for the seats of vacating members of the house and senate who left to join President McCain's cabinet:


Connecticut Senate:
Date: June 30th
Interim Senator: John McKinney
Rating: Lean D

CT-5:
Date: June 30th
Rating: Tossup

TN-6:
Date: June 30th
Rating: Lean R

WI-1:
Date: June 30th
Rating: Likely R

Woodruff: Until these special elections the new balance of power in the House will be 245 Republicans to 187 Democrats and 58 Republicans to 42 Democrats

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Excerpts from President McCain's 2005 state of the union address:



Souce: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/app/uploads/2019/02/RTX6LFXE-1024x683-e1549455385158.jpg

Speaker Hastert: Ladies and Gentleman , its my high honor to welcome to you , the President of the United States!!

Congress Floor: Standing Ovation

President McCain: Mr. Speaker, Vice President Danforth, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: and want to start of this address by congratulating all the new members of this great body and let you know that I look forward to working with you to make our nation a better place(Applause). Over the past few years the men and women in our uniform have shown the world why the state of the union is not only strong but as strong as it ever been(Applause) and I can tell you as someone who has the honor of being their commander in chief, nothing makes me more prouder than seeing the courage and honor of our troops(standing ovation). That is why it is all of our duty to do whatever we can to make sure they have the support needed to finish the mission of destroying terrorism and those who Abbett terrorism(Applause). Thanks to the hard work of our soldiers Iraq is set to have democratic elections for the first time in decades later this year(Applause) and as we have seen across the world the best way to so is by working to implement a democracy where people are free(Applause).

It is also important though we are able to improve our nation here at home as well and address issues such as high healthcare costs and the only way we will be able to do that is if we reform our tort system(Applause). Our tort system according to multiple studies has cost the nation hundreds of billions of dollars annually which is a price tag that gets passed on to the American people in terms of higher insurance costs and it is time we fix that(Applause). Some reforms we can make is to cap the number of punitive damages that are allowed to be awarded , the repeal of the collateral source rule that prohibits the fact the plaintiff has already received compensation from other sources into court which again makes no sense cause the point should be to see if the person filing the lawsuit has received compensation or not and shouldn't matter if they got it from a third party or not( applause). These reforms along with others should reduce the costs of healthcare in this nation, and fix an unjust legal system in general which is why it must be passed (Applause). 


We also must reform our immigration system which for over a decade now has been broken but nothing has been done about it while the border states had to deal with the consequences of that failure(Applause). In states like California it has poisoned the political discourse where it has caused in different election cycles for one side of the aisle to blame hardworking immigrants for the problem, and the other side to call other Californians xenophobic for bringing up the problem . All I can say is there is a problem but it is not your fellow Californians causing the problem , it is Washington who for too long has ignored the problem and left you to deal with it but I can promise you it will no longer be ignored(Applause). To reform our immigration system we first must secure our borders:  by building a fence in vulnerable areas at the border, increasing border agents at the border itself, and penelizing employers who hire undocumented immigrants so we can stop illegal crossing from taking place to begin with(Applause). Then to deal with the millions of illegal immigrants who are living here, my proposal is to offer those who have been here for 5 years a potential pathaway to citizenship for those who havent committed crimes, pay the requisite fines, and can show they can speak and write English(Applause). For those of you who call it amnesty, I can tell you it is not as it does impose penalties for those illegal immigrants, and while they will be allowed to stay here they will be put at the back of the line so they dont become eligible for regular permenat resident status before those who have already waited for years(Applause). The time for ignoring this issue has come and gone and it is time we finally adress it, and I look forward to working with both sides of the aisle over the next two years to get this done(Applause).

Thank You, May God Bless You and May God Bless America

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House Republicans release sweeping Tort Reform Plan

Woodruff: House Republicans earlier today released their plan which would significantly reform the tort system in the United States, and here are some of the details of the plan.

Details of Bill:

- Would cap Punitive Damages at $300,000 or 3 times three times the compensatory damages, whichever is greater

- Eliminates the Collateral Source Rule

- Tightens Statue of Limitation frame

- Reforms Forum shopping by requiring plaintiffs to bring their cases where they live or where they were injured, or where the defendant’s principal place of business is located.

- reduces contingency fees lawyers are allowed to charge

- Replaced Joint and Several Liability with Proportionate liability

- expands federal subject-matter jurisdiction over many large class-action lawsuits and mass actions


Woodruff: Democratic leadership responded by saying they would oppose this bill, charging that it would hurt working and lower-income Americans in the United States. So Bill this proposal likely will pass the house, the question is will it get the 60 votes in the senate

Schinder: Well right now Republicans have 58 Senators at least until June 30th  which is short of 60 and given how sweeping it is, it almost certainly will be filibustered so the question is can it get a few Democratic senators to vote for it. In its present form probably not but given how close they are to the 60 they probably can keep most of the main proposals in a final bill but we will have to see

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Former Action Hero Star Arnold Schwarzenegger elected mayor of Los Angeles in Stunning landslide  




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FES7QLDVLKo


Blitzer: An political earthquake hit the city of Los Angeles yesterday when former action hero star Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected mayor of Los Angeles on the first ballot in a stunning landslide over mayor James Hahn and city councilman Antonio Villaraigosa. Despite the fact he had large leads in the polls throughout the campaign , Democrats were hoping to keep him under 50% of the vote as many anaylsts believe that due to the nature of Mr.Schwarzenegger campaign, anyone who didnt vote for him in round 1 likely wouldnt in round 2 either . Their efforts failed due to the fact that California Governor Richard Riordan who was a former popular two term mayor of the city of Los Angeles in the last week came out and campaigned for Mayor-elect Schwarzenegger in multiple rallies and events in different parts of the city .

Schwarzenegger in his victory speech promised to do all he could to bring the city together to solve its problems over the next 4 years.


So Bill was this election purely local or does it have any national implications

Schnider: It was purely local due to the fact that one the current mayor of Los Angeles James Hahn isnt popular and due to the nature of Mr. Schwarzenegger campaign, the rest of the Democrats opposing Mayor Hahn really weren't able to get the traction needed and that allowed Mr.Schwarzenegger to run away with things. Then add in the fact Governor Richard Riordan who was really popular in Los Angeles as mayor, came in and campaigned hard for Mr.Schwarzenegger really we believed pushed him from the 45-46 % range to 52% and gave him the win. While the Republicans nationally are of course happy to have control of the mayor's office in LA , it has nothing really to do with anything going on nationally and everything cause of the unique nature of this race.

For fun exit polls asked voters of LA how they would vote in say a rematch of the 2004 election and the results were basically the same as they were here in LA back in 2004 so that shows this election was about the unique circumstances of this race that wont be replicated in any race nationally .

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President McCain releases Immigration Reform Plan:

Woodruff: The President today released his 3 part immigration reform plan and said this plan would help secure our borders , reform our legal system and deal with the problem of illegal immigration in a humane way . So here’s the plan

What it does to prevent new illegal immigration:

- Would provide funding to construct a Fence on the most vulnerable parts of the Southern Border

- Would provide funding to increase border patrol agents at the border as well

- Would increase penalties on employers who hire illegal immigrants, with repeat offenders facing higher fines and sanctions

How it would deal with illegal immigrants already in this nation:

- Would deport illegal immigrants who have been here for 5 years or less, and those who have committed crimes after coming to the US

- Would grant Z visas to illegal immigrants who have been here for 5 years or more which would let them stay in the US and apply for permenant residency status but would be put in the back of the line

- Would also require those illegal immigrants to pay fines before they would be eligible to receive Z Visas

Legal immigration :


- Creates blue card program which will allow for more agriculture workers to immigrate here

- Requires companies who apply for program to prove they are unable to fill jobs with American citizens and residents first

- Let’s Kids of Immigrants who have been here for more than 10 years to stay in the nation after they turn 21 even if their parents haven’t gotten green cards yet

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Breaking News: Pope John Paul II Passes Away



Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvJO4QzAZBc

Blitzer: We have some breaking news to report and that is Pope John Paul II has passed away. He had been the 2nd longest-serving pope in modern history being in that position for 27 years and many credit him with the ending of communist rule in Poland and along with that he was known as an outspoken opponent of Apartheid in South Africa as well. He was also known to be anti war and against the death penalty .  The President released a statement as well


McCain: The death of Pope John Paul II is very sad news for not only Catholics all around the world but all of us in general, as we will miss one of the best advocates for freedom and democracy we have ever seen. His fight against communism in Poland was critical in the eventual collapse of the Soviet Empire and we will always be grateful for those efforts .

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President McCain signs bill that will greatly reform intelligence agencies as well as strengthen counter-terrorism laws:


Shaw: The President Earlier today signed a bill that would greatly reform the intelligence system in the US as well as would strengthen counter-terrorism laws as well. Here are some of the main provisions of the bill

Main Provisions of Bill:

- Established a cabinet position called Director of National Intelligence which will be the head of the US intelligence community as well as in charge of producing the President's daily briefing.

- Created new intellegence agencies such as the National Counterterrorism Center, National Counter Proliferation Center, National Intelligence Centers, and Joint Intelligence Community Council

- Beefs up Security Clearance requirements

- Increases transportation security

- Increases funding for border security

- Strengthens Anti-Terrorism laws by giving agents more tools to go  after terrorists and financiers of such groups as well


For more detail we have provided a link at our website:  https://www.congress.gov/bill/108th-congress/senate-bill/2845

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UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Labour party win 3rd consecutive landslide in UK Elections:



Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg9aEV9bcxs

Election Results:

Labour Party(Tony Blair): 384 Seats(-19)
Conservative Party(Michael Howard): 173 Seats(+8)
Liberal Democrats(Charles Kennedy): 58 Seats(+7)
Others: 31 Seats(+4)

Result: Labour Majority of 122


King: Yesterday's election in the UK resulted in a 3rd straight landslide for Tony Blair's Labour party like many of the polls expected and is an election that probably will be welcomed by President McCain given how closely he has worked with Prime Minster Blair over the last 4 years. The Conservative Party the party that domianted politics for much of the 20th century including an 18 year stretch of power from 1979-1997 were defeated by a huge margin once again. With us is Richard Quest who will discuss more about the results

Quest: Yes these results were no surprise as polling did indicate this but to show how bad this was for the Conservative party in the UK, keep in mind in terms of seats totals the conservatives got the 3rd lowest out of any of the major parties in any election since WW2 with the only two worse totals being the conservatives in 1997 and 2001. Yes that means they are still below Labour in 1983 which if you remember spent another 14 years out of power after that election so this result is not good news for the conservative party at all.

King : It also is kinda weird to see Republicans allied with the Labour Party given in the past how close of a relationship Ronald Reagan had with Margaret Thatcher

Quest : It indeed is which is  why many reports even said that Prime Minister Blair rooted for President McCain in last year’s election while the Conservative party privately backed senator Biden according to many reports .

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King : It also is kinda weird to see Republicans allied with the Labour Party given in the past how close of a relationship Ronald Reagan had with Margaret Thatcher

Quest : It indeed is which is  why many reports even said that Prime Minister Blair rooted for President McCain in last year’s election while the Conservative party privately backed senator Biden according to many reports .

Why would the Conservative Party back Biden?

Cause a Democratic win in 2004 was viewed to be bad for Blair

https://www.politico.com/story/2010/09/blair-rooted-for-bush-to-win-in-04-041766


Maybe it may be a Bush thing more than a Republican thing but Howard I believe was also considered to not be liked at all by national security conservatives either so I think it’s more the GOP FP vision at the time being out of step with Howard’s conservative

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Houses Passes Tort Reform proposal after months of debate :

Blitzer: The House of Representatives earlier today passed a sweeping tort reform proposal after months of debate. While their were some changes made to the bill since the original proposal , we are told that pretty much all the main provisions are present in the bill. Most of the amendments we are told had to do with details of how provisions could be implemented rather than the provisions it self. So Bill what do you think the chances are in the senate

Schnider: Well I think it does face a few hurdles in the senate as remember unlike the house, the senate has something called a filibuster and Republicans dont have 60 votes so likely they probably will have to get a few of these provisions if they would want to pass it. Second is the special election in Connecticut next month as if Democrats win that seat as polls expect them to then Republicans drop from 58 to 57 senators meaning they will have to make more concessions to pass this bill. Given how the senate works its very hard for me to see it passing before the special election so I think we will see some things removed from the bill though I believe some variation of this bill will pass by last week of July or so.


Blitzer: Another big deal we are told is OMB Director Paul Ryan is putting in a lot of effort to get this passed as well

Schnider: Yes he is, as this was a long time goal of his, so lets see now how much of it passes.


President McCain's approvals remain steady in upper 50s

President McCain's approvals:

Approve: 57%(-)
Dissapprove: 40%(+1)


House Generic Ballot:

Republicans: 48%(-)
Democrats: 42%(-1%)

Greenfield: So far really not much has changed since November with the House generic ballot remaining where it was last November and President McCain getting the sorta of boosts reelected presidents generally get. Some good news for the Democrats is things have started to stabilize much quicker then they did in the last two cycles at this point so maybe it is a piece of optimistic news for the Democrats.


Schnider: These special elections coming up in 6 weeks should be able that question but a huge part of this is the fact other than President Clinton Being easily reelected , Republicans have pretty much dominated the political landscape since 1994 and maybe 1980 so I dont know how much things really would change or not.

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Latin American Free Trade Agreement in Jeopardy as Brazil, Argentina announce opposition to free trade deal :


Blitzer: A Free Trade Deal the President hoped would involve the vast majority of Latin America is on the verge of falling apart as both the leaders of Brazil and Argentina have come out in opposition to a deal that has already been agreed to by the United States, Central America and the Dominican Republic. Lets go to out Latin American correspondent to find out why

Correspondent: The reason is that Brazillian President Lula de Silva has accused the US and other developed nations of pursuing protectionist policies while claiming they are for free trade. The example he gave was US farm subsides which he said are very protectionist and would undermine Brazillian farmers and urged other South American nations to come out against it and so far it has worked as Argentina has also come out against it and Venezuala as we all know was never part of this to begin with.

Blitzer: So Does that mean we will not get a deal

Correspondent: Well as you mentioned President McCain, along with the leaders of Central American nations and the Dominican Republic have agreed to a tentative deal.  The question then is will the President make the calculation that instead of waiting and risking this tentative deal to fall apart , to send this deal to congress and deal with trade with South America at a later time

Blitzer: What would you say the chances are at this point

Correspondent: At this point I believe he will have to for now abandon the trade deal with South American and go with what you have but we will see. Remember though something similar happened with NAFTA as orginally Mexico was refusing to join that agreement, so then President Reagan decided to just sign a deal with Canada and a few years later Mexico did join in. So I believe its very likely at this point President McCain will make a similar calculation.

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Good thing that tort reform passed. And what about medical liability reform?

Well it still has to pass the senate where democrats could force some provisions out through the use of the filibuster but I beleive this reform would also address medical liability reform too .

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Democrats win Connecticut Senate Race while Republicans win two of 3 special house races:

King : In last night special election democrats were able to gain back the senate seat in Connecticut but ended up losing two of the three house races as well putting the house composition back to the 247 for Republicans 188 for democrats that existed before 3 members of the house joined the President’s cabinet , and the senate composition is 57 republicans to 43 democrats that existed before now Secretary Lieberman left the senate .

Here are the results on board

Connecticut Senate:

Richard Blumenthal 53.7%(D)
John McKinney 45.4%(R)

CT-5: Chris Murphy(D) wins 51.1%-48.3%

TN-6: Dianne Black(R) wins 54.1%-45.1%

WI-1: Stephen Nass(R) wins 52.1%-46.8%


King : With us now is DNC Chair Howard Dean who will tell us how he interprets the results

Dean : Thanks for having me on Larry but what I can say from these results are , they basically keep in line with how they voted during last year’s presidential election, with areas that votes for Senator Biden going for us , and areas that voted for the President going for the Republicans.

King : Given how bad 2004 was for you guys in congress , isn’t this a bad result

Dean : Not at all Larry , as remember we are still a little more than 100 days into this new term where incumbents usually make gains in the polls like Republicans did back in 2001 and the fact they aren’t this time shows they aren’t really getting a honeymoon period from the public .

King : So are you confident about the possibility of making double digit  gains in the midterms

Dean : Well I am confident we will make gains but there is a long time till the election and our job right now is too expand our party’s message in areas that usually don’t vote for us or haven’t over the past 5 years and give the people some alternative whenever the President and his party push policies we don’t think are good .

We have to do that first before we can have a possibility of making those types of gains and we will

[OSR stands with Israel]

New York Real Estate Mogul and Apprentice Star Donald Trump questions whether or not the President is a hero:



Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7nrU4cEWRk

Trump: Listen for the past 6 years we have heard non stop from people in the press that John McCain is a hero and the fact is I have to question whether or not he is even a hero.

Rather: Well wouldn't you say the fact he refused to be released ahead of fellow prisoners who had been imprisoned longer make him a hero. He could have secured his freedom years before he actually did but put his fellow soldiers lives and freedom before his.

Trump: The fact is there are many questions of whether or not McCain gave up valuable information to the enemy and the fact you guys in the press haven't done an investigation into that is frankly ridiculous. In fact, I along with many people have serious doubts into the story of him refusing to be released and its very possible it was a story made up by the political and military establishment to make one of their own look good.

Rather: That is a beyond ridiculous statement and I think you should apologize for believing in such nonsense conspiracy theories like that

Trump: I'm not saying I believe in them but the fact is many do and all I want to see is them being investigated to find out whether they are true or not and the President can make this all go away if he asks the military to release the transcript of what really went on in that prison.