Sanford: I'm not being vetted for VP

Gov. Mark Sanford said Sunday he is not being vetted as a vice presidential candidate by the campaign of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

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Sanford told CNN he has not been asked for his personal income tax records or other documents, which are standard when a campaign conducts a background check on potential vice presidential candidates.

Sanford was interviewed on CNN this morning, billed by the network as a candidate on McCain's short list of vice presidential options.

Appearing on CNN's "Late Edition" program from Philadelphia, where Sanford is attending the National Governor's Conference, the governor was asked by Wolf Blitzer, the show's host, about Iraq, the economy and free trade.

Sanford said former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, McCain's economic adviser, should be forgiven not fired for his remarks last week in which Gramm said the nation's economic woes are all in the heads of the American people, who he called "whiners." Sanford also called the remarks "stupid."

Sanford said he doesn't think there should be a timeline for withdrawing from Iraq.

In an awkward exchange, Sanford, asked about how McCain can draw distinctions between he and President Bush on the economy, Sanford lost his train of thought and then cited NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, as a policy where McCain and Bush disagree.

Blitzer pointed out that both McCain and Bush have both historically stood for free trade.

Sanford did take a few shots at presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. Sanford said Obama had softened his criticism of NAFTA and, as a U.S. Senator, voted for massive pork spending in the Farm Bill.

Comments

[Jim]

Gramm has created great destruction in the US. McCain has showed how much he cares about only the wealthy by having Gramm as his top financial adviser.

McCain was in Congress during the Enron investigation.

Gramm's name was in 95 Enron email discussions about Gramm pushing the commodity futures law changes in 2000

http://www.enronexplorer.com/focus/19185#focus=/search/Phil%20Gramm&

The article on McCain & 'Foreclosure Phil' has an excellent analysis between the severe damage that Phil Gramm, McCain's chief financial adviser, has caused for everyone and "what has Rev Wright done that has affected your life."

"2,620 YouTube videos call Wright, Barrack Obama's former pastor, a "racist" and an "anti-American" - in comparison to only 58 that accuse Gramm of being an economic "manipulator" and financial "scam artist." These results are curious. You'd think Americans would be more outraged over Gramm's controversial economic policies than Wright's racially charged sermons."

Think about it. How has Jeremiah Wright had a direct effect on the average American? How has he made our lives harder, more expensive? Sure, his use of racial slurs is shocking to those not familiar with "black liberation theology," but on a daily basis, Wright's sermons don't make much difference.

But ex-Sen. Gramm - "Foreclosure Phil" - is a whole different story. We feel the aftershock of his reckless policies regularly.
Regardless of whether you're liberal or conservative, socialist or capitalist, one thing's very clear: Gramm's policies are associated with the Enron scandal, the subprime mortgage meltdown and the fiasco on the energy futures market.

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/24443494.html

[zeke]

Hey nut cases! Why don't you critisize Jesse and Al for extorting $ billions from reputable companies? Why don't you browbeat the aclu for all of it's unamerican activities? Why don't you demand the disbanding of the aclu. the naacp, rainbow/push, sierra club, greenpeace, southern poverty law center, southern environmental law center, southern christian leadership conference, and, all the other radical anarchist groups only intent on destroying America and the things that made it, us, the greatest nation in the history of the world!!

[Dean Allen]

Senator Phil Gramm was a distinguished professor of economics at Texas A & M University; served our country honorably first as a Congressman and then as a Senator.

To the rabid foam_at_the-mouth leftist idealogues his sins are conservatism and patriotism. The nutcase above probably also wants to know if Senator Gramm has an alibi on the days Abe Lincoln and John Kennedy were shot?

[Anonymous]

Okay, why isn't Sanford's "Blank Moment" being reported on? Everyone else is talking about it EXCEPT the state he represents

Biased media

[Jim]

John McCain & Phil Gramm: It's All In Your Head

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1mHsuL6FfY4

Fiorina continued to make false statements.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11611.html

"According to the Tax Policy Center, only 1.4 percent of people defined by the Treasury as small-business owners are in the top two tax brackets and could be subject to Obama’s tax proposal."

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/tax_tally_trickery.html

Carly Fiorina continued with the pandering about a gas tax holiday, which McCain knows Congress will not pass because it is a bad idea.

Why hasn't anyone ever asked McCain when he is going to propose the bill. Summer is half over.

Fiorina continued the bull about McCain balancing the budget without any facts, except using the money saved from stopping the wars without any plan for when the wars stop.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/07/11/mccains_budget_figures_dont_add_up/

McCain's budget figures don't add up

[martin]

remember a few weeks ago when discussing Sanford as a possible VP and Chris Matthews said he had heard Sanford had a "Quayle" problem? I quess Sanford has proved the rumor correct.

remember the Peter Principle of " rising to their level of incompetence"? I guess ole Mark has proved that, too.

[martin]

oh, who drives a black Range Rover with House Judciary Committee plate 1B? They literally passed me (i was going 55 to save gas) doing at least 80 near Greeleyville heading toward the beach. Out of curiousity, I did speed up to 80 for a minute and could not begin to catch this law breaking public offical. (I was thinking of making a citizen's arrest).

[Stephen Skacall]

Governor Sanford is great, he's a TRUE conservative unlike McCain, and if he were on the ballot with McCain it would help him out a lot. BUT... I think he made a fool of himself on TV, he didn't come across as very intelligent this time around.

In the end though, I don't think it matters who McCain picks as his running mate--There's only one conservative in this race and it's not McBama... It's Bob Barr. That's where my vote is going.

[Bob]

Hey Brad, why not play some of the DOZEN PLUS mumbling, flip-flops that Obama is now doing as he dashes head long from the far left to the middle. Jesse Jackson wants to "cut his (Obama's) nuts off" and the press just glosses over the comments!!! Obama, in an attempt to pacify white voters, castigated - "talked down to"- blacks for abandoning their children and families - silence from the media. One can only IMAGINE the feined "outrage" by you and others of like mind had ANY WHITE person uttered these words!!!!
So,I an not "shocked" by the little Samy Davis Jr. tap dance by Sanford when the people around Obama - media included- are dancing like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly!

[Ray Bickley]

He reminds me of last year's Junior Miss contestant from our state -- the one who said high school students needed more maps to find places like Iraq and who strangely kept ending each one of her dumb comments with "such as."

Sanford is about as smart as a bag of used cat litter. Only in a state such as -- such as -- such as -- South Carolina -- and maybe Mississippi, such as -- could someone of his demonstrably low caliber ever get elected to anything other than Dead Possum Patrol.