Election 08 trivia bites The candidates, presumably

Presumably these guys, Senators McCain and Obama, will be the major candidates if they don’t get hit by a bus or swallow their foot before the party conventions. Our second list is a general overview of the candidates – a series of out-takes and out of context comments. Bits from them and bits about them.

Previous: Coulter and Huffington

“I don't think Obama's qualified and McCain's another Bush…” James Nauman, 55, from Lutz, Fla

From Obama

• I am someone who is no doubt progressive
• I believe in a whole lot of things that make me progressive and put me squarely in the Democratic camp
• On gun control; the Second Amendment protects the individual right to bear arms. “That doesn’t mean that I don’t think we need decent controls”
• “Those two positions are not contradictory.”
• “When I hear John McCain saying we can’t surrender, we can’t wave the white flag, no one is talking about surrender.”
• “I agree that immigrants should learn English”
• “You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual”
• “When I see Mexican flags waved at pro-immigration demonstrations, I sometimes feel a flush of patriotic resentment.”
• “When I’m forced to use a translator to communicate with the guy fixing my car, I feel a certain frustration.”
• "We have failed to seriously go after al-Qaeda over the last five years because of the distraction of Iraq.”
• "I think we are now seeing the consequences of that in Afghanistan."

About Obama

• now supports broader authority for the government's eavesdropping program and legal immunity for telecommunications companies that participated in it, supporting the bill after some protections were added
• became the first major-party candidate to reject public financing for the general election after earlier promises to accept it
• promised to expand Bush's program to give more anti-poverty grants to religious groups
• objected to the Supreme Court's decision outlawing the death penalty for child rapists
• support for the death penalty if used only for the "most egregious" crimes
• also said "mental distress" should not count as a health exception that would permit a late-term abortion
• "Senator Barack has been, um, talking down to black people on this faith based...I wanna cut his nuts off," Jackson said. The Reverend Jesse Jackson
• "There appears to be no issue that Barack Obama is not willing to reverse himself on for the sake of political expedience," said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the national Republican Party
• "Obama was labeled as more to the left than he probably is"

From McCain

• "economy-is-not-my-strong-suit"
• "To have two tax codes in America is not an unacceptable situation"
• "I've got Greenspan's book"
• “I count myself as a conservative Republican, yet I view it to a large degree in the Theodore Roosevelt mold”
• “Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today”
• “… that’s a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace, and it’s got to be fixed.”
• "I will not play election-year politics with the housing crisis"
• "We must also understand that there are 12 million people who are here, and they're here illegally and they are God's children"
• "Senator Obama went on at great length about how much he cares about women's issues. I believe him"
• “I think that we’ve proven that both parents are important in the success of a family so, no, I don’t believe in gay adoption”
• "We can now look ahead to the genuine prospect of success."
• "I cannot imagine why he would say it. It's not true"
• "I'm John McCain, and I approve this message."

About McCain

• But then the wheels fell off the Straight Talk Express
• "There is real concern that McCain hasn't found his genuine voice"
• “…they never know which John McCain will show up on a given day”
• expressed support for offshore oil drilling to increase domestic supply
• then confounded them by refusing to endorse oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska
• "… doesn't have the conservative vote really locked up, but he is already moving toward the centre on lots of issues"
• "One day he'll say something that's appealing to conservatives, and the next day he'll say something that's appealing to moderates"
• his campaign has staged events before older, unenthusiastic crowds
• "We have been declared dead many times. I think I'll be the underdog right up until a minute before the polls close in California."
• "It's definitely not time for Republicans to push the panic button"