by Seth Michaels, May 28, 2008

Sen. John McCain headed to his home state for a fundraiser yesterday, alongside a guest who he’s stood with for many years: President Bush.

McCain’s campaign treasury reaped the benefits of Bush’s taxpayer-funded trip to Phoenix, but McCain tried to avoid the appearance of running as a third term to the least popular U.S. president on record.

McCain was willing to appear alongside Bush for all of 47 seconds, even though he’s been willing to vote with him 100 percent of the time in 2008. Maybe he’s trying to prove he’s not the “McSame” as we’ve had the past seven years—but his voting record isn’t encouraging.

McCain changed the venue from the Phoenix Convention Center to the home of a wealthy donor, although it’s unclear whether this was because of low ticket sales or a strategy to avoid protestors and keep away the media.

The Arizona AFL-CIO and the Arizona chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans organized a rally outside the convention center to raise their concerns about McCain’s record on issues like health care, Social Security and trade. Maybe these tough questions were the reason McCain wanted to avoid the convention center. He’s made great efforts to avoid working families across the country, from Florida to Oregon.

So who is McCain listening to on these important issues?

Here’s one example. McCain is under scrutiny yet again for employing a lobbyist on his staff. Former Sen. Phil Gramm, a Texas Republican who’s a top economic adviser to the campaign, was lobbying for UBS, a Swiss bank. UBS has billions invested in the subprime mortgage market, and Gramm was lobbying for the firm while he was helping McCain craft economic policy.

That’s right—the candidate, who says he “never really understood” economics, is getting his advice from the mouthpiece for a bank with interests in the housing crisis. As blogger Hilzoy puts it:

…it just defies belief that McCain would have, as his main economic advisor and one of the people responsible for his plan to deal with the mortgage crisis, someone who was a paid lobbyist for a bank that was heavily involved in that crisis, a firm that has just advised some of its employees not to travel to the US for legal reasons, and that stands to gain or lose a lot depending on what the federal government decides to do about it.

McCain has been touring the country in his race for president, and wherever he goes, working people are there to ask him for answers on housing, health care and the economy. In just this week, AFL-CIO union members have gathered at McCain events in Savannah, Ga.; Chicago; Miami; Irvine, Calif.; and Atherton, Calif.

McCain needs to pay attention to these working families, not to his army of lobbyists. He needs to propose real solutions to the crises in health care, housing and jobs.

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