McCain Campaign Manager Rick Davis Strikes Out on Fox! Read the Transcript!

"WALLACE: According to a recent poll — and let's put it up — people rate Obama's ads as positive by a margin of 38 percent to 13. But they view McCain's ads as negative 31 percent to 19.

Mr. Davis, why is the McCain campaign spending so much time and so much of its money attacking Obama?

DAVIS: Well, first of all, I don't think that we are spending that much time and money attacking Obama. And I would say Obama is spending exactly the same amount of time attacking us and, frankly, probably more money.

Obama started negative campaigning on John McCain long before we started punching back, and I think a lot of our effort is really to get back into this game, try and galvanize some of the public attention back onto this race, make sure everybody understands there's two people in this race, not just one, and I think we've been successful in doing that."

Punching back?  Who are those guys fooling?

Inaccurate ads:

"WALLACE: All right. Let's take a look at one of your campaign's recent ads. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: Life in the spotlight must be grand. But for the rest of us, times are tough. Obama voted to raise taxes on people making just $42,000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Mr. Davis, especially that last sentence, isn't that misleading?

DAVIS: Nothing misleading about it. Barack Obama voted for a budget resolution that would have increased taxes on people, families, making $42,000. What's misleading about that?

WALLACE: Well, in fact, it only would be single people making $42,000. It would be families making over $60,000. But Obama — as you say, he voted for a non-binding budget resolution that overall talked about doing away with the Bush tax cuts.

In fact, he says, that's not his tax plan, that he supports a middle-class tax cut. And I want to put something up on the screen. The non-partisan Tax Policy Center says someone making $37,000 a year under Obama's plan would get a tax cut of $892. Under McCain's plan, they get a tax cut of $113.

DAVIS: Look, Obama wants to take away the current tax cuts that people now have. That includes a $1,000 child tax credit for people exactly in that category. It means doing away with the marriage penalty and many other things.

In the short period of time Barack Obama has been in the United States Senate, less than 300 working days, he has voted for 90 tax increases.

Now, we could have an ad on every tax increase he's voted on every single day between now and the election and still not get them all in. So I don't think anybody's going to question — who's going to raise your taxes as president of the United States? Barack Obama.

Who's going to cut your taxes and hold down spending as president of the United States? John McCain.

WALLACE: But again, when you have a nonpartisan group saying that, in fact, for the exact group that you're talking about, people making $37,000, $40,000 a year, that Obama would cut their taxes more than McCain...

DAVIS: Then Obama should put that in an ad. We're going to talk about the things Obama has said and done in the United States Senate and on the campaign trail, and that includes his vote to increase taxes on people making $42,000 a year.

WALLACE: You think that people should be held accountable..."

"WALLACE: All right. We're going to — I'm asking you that because we're going to come back on McCain votes as well. Let's take a look at another McCain ad. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: Washington's broken. John McCain knows it. We're worse off than we were four years ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Does Senator McCain really believe that, that this country is worse off than we were four years ago?

DAVIS: Sure. All along the trail, John McCain campaigns around real people. He goes to town halls and he hears what they have to say to him.

You don't have to be in very many town halls, Chris, to understand that people are pinched by the increase in gas prices. They're losing jobs because of some downturn in manufacturing. And the economy as a whole has been very hard on the American family.

That's what John McCain's referring to. He doesn't have to go very far every day to find those kinds of examples.

WALLACE: Given that, I want you to respond to this clip from an Obama ad. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCAIN: The president and I agree on most issues. There was a recent study that showed that I voted with the president over 90 percent of the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: In fact, Mr. Davis, Senator McCain is understating it. Last year, he voted to support Bush legislation 95 percent of the time.

Given that, if the country's worse off, isn't both the president and John McCain — aren't they both responsible?

DAVIS: Well, look. If you want to talk about history, then you can make all the cases you want to make...

WALLACE: But you're talking about history. You talk about the last four years.

DAVIS: Exactly. And what I'm talking about, though, right now is what the future holds and who's got a plan to cut taxes and get the economy moving again, because growth is the only way we're going to improve people's situation, whether it's in a family or small businesses. And so John McCain's got a plan for growth.

Let me remind you, too, there's been never a bigger maverick in this town than John McCain. I mean, we talk about how many times you voted for Bush or against Bush. But you've been in this town a long time.

Who was the biggest irritant to this administration for the last 10 years or last eight years? John McCain. He sided with Democrats when he thought they were doing the right thing for the country, and sided with the Republicans when he thought they were doing the right thing for the country.

So you can say all you want about the record, but who is the one proven commodity in this town who's willing to put his country first and take strong positions, sometimes against the current administration or his own party, in order to do what's right?

WALLACE: But I've got to come back at...

DAVIS: And that's been McCain.

WALLACE: But I've got to come back at you. If you say the country is worse off than it was four years ago, clearly the president has got to bear some of the responsibility. And by his own record, by his own admission, John McCain voted with the president last year 95 percent of the time.

DAVIS: Sure. But I mean, how many of these things actually had anything to do with the current economic conditions or where we are in other places?

Look, trade's a good example. John McCain's voted with George Bush for trade many times in the past and will support trade in the future. Democrats have opposed that. What's better for the economy, trade or no trade? It's very simple.

It doesn't mean everything George Bush has done in the economy has been bad. But look, everybody — it's a pox on everyone's houses. Why do you think the public has a low approval rating of the current administration and Congress? Because they figured out that no one person is responsible for what we're doing. They're all at fault.

And you have the one guy who's been screaming about spending by Congress and trying to get George Bush to veto some of these measures. Who's the one guy who stood up in the middle of that crowd and said we've got to fix this problem? John McCain."

O.K., let's try to get our arms around this.  John McCain is a "maverick" and he votes right with the President over and over.  It is hard to believe.

There are a few other issues there.  But overall, it makes for good reading. 

The best part are the lost jobs from the German-owned DHL buying Airborne Express.  You see Davis was a lobbyist that earned $600,000 in lobbying fees to facilitate the purchase.  In fact Senator McCain as chairman of the Commerce Committee helped make this happen.  Back to the interview:

"WALLACE: Finally, the Obama camp, I don't have to tell you, is pounding you for your work as a lobbyist. In 2003, you lobbied Congress, and Senator McCain in his job as chairman of the Commerce Committee helped you to allow the German-owned DHL buy Airborne Express.

You made from this German-owned company about $600,000 in lobbying fees. The Democrats are making a big deal of the fact that DHL is now talking about taking 8,000 jobs out of the state of Ohio.

Are you and Senator McCain going to do anything to try to prevent that?

DAVIS: Well, first of all, let me correct you. Senator McCain did not help me do anything. I represented Airborne, which was the incumbent in that location in Ohio, and they wanted to be bought by DHL. And there were people in Congress who didn't want to have that happen.

John McCain has always believed that foreign investment in this sector is fine, and unless there was something that was inappropriate about the deal it should go forward.

WALLACE: Well, that's how he helped you, is to agree that...

DAVIS: Well, but he didn't help me. He helped the people in Ohio, because those jobs were probably going to be lost if they didn't get taken over because of the competitive nature of this business.

WALLACE: But now DHL is talking about taking...

DAVIS: I haven't represented DHL or any of their entities since 2005 when I completely got out of the lobbying business.

So what you have here — and frankly, a typical situation by the Obama campaign, to try and change the topic.

John McCain has only the most, you know, kind things to say about the people there. He just came from a town hall with the people affected there."

O.K. so his campaign manager earned $600,000 from a German company, used his influence, and his continuing influence, with Senator McCain to make this all happen and now American jobs are being lost.

And we are supposed to believe that it is John McCain who has "kind things to say about the people there."  Huh?  I don't really get it.

Kind things to say aren't quite as nice as 8,000 jobs.  But what the hey, "...these jobs were going to be lost if they didn't get taken over because of the competitive nature of this business."

I am glad this lobbyist turned McCain campaign manager is so in touch with the American people.  He isn't really arrogant or elitist at all.  And hardly a celebrity.