McCain Campaign Press Release - "In Case You Missed It": John McCain Talks Security And The Economy

John McCain On Senator Obama's "100-Years" Distortion And Iraq "Strike Force" Proposal:

MSNBC'S JOE SCARBOROUGH: "Barack Obama specifically continuing to talk about the fact that you want to keep us at war in Iraq for 100 years. Now, you've explained this time and time again, but they keep bringing it up. Do you think you're gonna be hearing this through November?"

JOHN MCCAIN: "I don't know, but it's been condemned by every objective media observer, these people who look at these things. And clearly, Senator Obama is being disingenuous because he knows better. Anybody who looks at the entire clip of the exchange I had with the gentleman at the town hall meeting in New Hampshire, clearly I said right after that, just as we've been in South Korea, Germany, Japan, et cetera. That's a presence after we win the war. But I don't think the American people will buy it.

"But, you know, Senator Obama in the last few days said he wanted a, quote, 'strike force' -- a 'strike force' in Iraq. I really would be interested, Joe, in hearing what exactly that means after he has continuously said he would withdrawal immediately or yesterday or whatever it is. But the point is, the American people know that I have said that I would much rather lose a campaign than lose a war and that there would be ups and downs. ... But see, [Senator Obama] just said you could have a strike force. So we really don't know. I think somebody ought to ask what in the world he's talking about, especially since he has no experience or background at all in national security affairs."

Watch John McCain On MSNBC's "Morning Joe"

John McCain On His Pro-Growth Economic Agenda:

CNN'S KIRAN CHETRY: "Much has been made, of course, of the comments that you made back in December that the economy wasn't your strong suit, but specifically how would you grow jobs in the climate we're in now?"

JOHN MCCAIN: "Well, first of all, let's clear that up. I said it wasn't my strongest because I spent 22 years in the military, and I have been a member of the Armed Services Committee and involved in every major national security challenge in the last 20 years. I've been involved as Chairman of the Commerce Committee. I have been involved as part of the Reagan Revolution where we cut taxes and restrained spending and embarked on one of the strongest periods of economic growth in the history of this country. I know economics very well, certainly better than Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. So let's clear up that.

"Obviously we've got to restrain spending. Obviously we need to give middle income Americans more tax cuts rather than less. We have to have balanced budgets. We can't keep borrowing money from China. We have to exercise fiscal discipline and make sure that every earmarked project and pork barrel project is vetoed and not allowed. And someone right now will say that's only a small part of the budget, that kind of spending has led to corruption, and it has led to members of Congress that are now residing in federal prison. We're going to have to sit down together and fix Social Security and fix Medicare and balance our budgets and exercise the kind of fiscal discipline that kept us and caused us and kept us to be on a very long period of economic prosperity. Right now Americans are hurting. So we have to make sure that people keep their homes and that we create more jobs and, by the way, I am a strong believer in free trade."

Watch John McCain On CNN's "American Morning"