McCain thinks voters won’t see him as Bush, part II

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Republican presidential contender Sen. John McCain expressed confidence Monday in Nashville that voters would see him as an individual and not as a third term of President George W. Bush.

From the national level down to the states, Democrats and their two presidential candidates, front running Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), have hammered McCain on the Bush issue, trying to make the case that he espouses the same policies as the unpopular Bush.

Monday, the Tennessee Democratic Party released a Web video in which the accusation that McCain would be a “third Bush term” was spoken five times and printed once.

“I think it’s pretty clear we don’t need a third Bush term,” speakers in the video state, referencing the nation’s fiscal deficit and McCain saying it was foreseeable the U.S. could be in Iraq for “100 years.”

Aboard his “Straight Talk Express” bus, McCain told local reporters that it was “clear” that he had disagreements with Bush on numerous issues, including climate change, the “mishandling of the war in Iraq” and federal spending.

“I think that the people really will judge the individual on how the candidate presents him or herself and a plan of action for the future of the country,” McCain said. “The country is hurting right now. I think we all know that. The economy is hurting.”

Campaigning in Nashville, McCain held a town hall rally Monday at the Ryman Auditorium.

Former Sen. Fred Thompson, a close colleague of McCain’s in the Senate and one-time Republican rival for the nomination, introduced the Arizona Senator. Former Sen. Bill Frist and U.S. Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Brentwood) and Zach Wamp (R-Chattanooga) also attended.

After leaving the rally, McCain was scheduled to attend fund-raising events in Nashville, first at the home of record producer Mike Curb and then a dinner.

Frist, the former Majority Leader who served with McCain for 12 years in the Senate, said the Democrats could have “stuck” any other senator but McCain with the charge that he would be simply a continuation of Bush policies.

“Issue after issue, he is independent, he is an independent thinker, and that’s what America wants today,” Frist said. “And so I think it’s going to be very, very hard. I think any other senator running you could link him to it.”

Wamp simply denied that McCain could be called “another George Bush.”

“Frankly, calling him another George Bush doesn’t meet the straight face test,” Wamp said. “He’s got scars all over his back from being different than George Bush. I mean he is such a maverick, such a reformer, such a thorn in the side of the establishment in our party. Who is actually going to say that with a straight face that he is another George Bush?”

Wamp added that McCain was the one that had called for the surge in Iraq that were the “changes that led to more success.”

Gray Sasser, the chairman of the state Democratic Party, disagrees.

“As I travel the state, I am reminded by Tennesseans who worry that Sen. McCain will only be as successful as his predecessor, arguably the worst U.S. President in history,” Sasser said.

The Tennessee AFL-CIO labor union also said they were protesting McCain for his “continuation of the failed Bush economic agenda that puts corporate profits first.”

On Iraq, McCain criticized Obama for having inexperience and “very bad judgment” on advocating the withdrawal of U.S. troops, not visiting the country in “876 days,” not sitting down with Gen. David Petraeus while being willing to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at least at lower levels.

According to press reports, the Obama campaign said McCain’s support of the war in Iraq had strengthened and emboldened Iran and made America and Israel less secure.

During the forum, McCain was asked what he would do if Iran bombed Israel.

“I will never allow a second Holocaust,” he said, not elaborating on the specifics.