Hillary Clinton vows to stay in the race even as political pundits call it all but over. Major takes a look at that story but first Carl sat down with Col. Bud Day and talked about his time sharing a cell with Republican presidential hopeful, John McCain in the Hanoi Hilton.

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Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Like John McCain, Col. George E. “Bud” Day spent over 5 yrs in Vietnamese POW camps. Day and John McCain were cell-mates for about 2 and a half years. Day is a legendary military hero with more medals and ribbons than anyone since General Douglas MacArthur.

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John McCain seldom discusses a defining aspect of his life: being a POW.
Colonel George E. “Bud” Day is the most decorated service man since General Douglas MacArthur.
Day has been awarded the Medal of Honor, Air Force Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Hearts, in fact, more than 70 medals and awards. He calls John McCain a hero, and thinks voters deserve to know more about his Hanoi Hilton cell mate.
alt=”Carl Cameron Interviews Bud Day” width=”300″ height=”270″ /> Col. Day, went under the call sign “Misty.” He was the first jet pilot to fly into North Vietnam and after more than 175 sorties he was shot down in August of ‘67, exactly 2 months before McCain was.
McCain, a man whose father and grandfather were renowned Admirals, was a prized propaganda prisoner for the enemy. The Colonel says their captors called McCain “the Prince.”
McCain was more than half dead when Day first laid eyes on his fellow POW.

“I took one look at him and my brain instantly said they dropped this guy off on me to claim that we let him die. He was just emaciated, very, very skinny, in this awful body cast.”

The colonel and John McCain were cell-mates in that tiny cell for two of their more than 5 yrs of torture in captivity. Day’s broken arm was re-broken during torture and healed in such a way he would not be able to fly again. McCain, broken and injured himself, helped his fellow cell-mates rehabilitate their ravaged bodies.

“so I got some strips of bamboo, smuggled em into the room, John put his foot in my arm pit and pulled on my wrist until we could get the bone forced back down.”

McCain himself today continues to suffer the injuries of torture. He still cannot raise his arms above his shoulders. But he does not like to talk about his time as a prisoner of war.

“he just doesn’t trade on that. I think he feels that it’s wrong to trade on being a hero, but he is.”

Check back here for Carl Cameron’s interview with Col. Bud Day and tonight on Special Report with Brit Hume we will have the complete story.

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Major follows up one day after the North Carolina and Indiana primaries where Obama had a better than expected finish.  First James Rosen reports on John McCain’s attempt to address those that say he is out of touch.

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John McCain talks Judicial appointments on the day of North Carolina and Indiana’s primaries.  Carl follows that story and Major Garrett previews expectations for the democrats on the day of two more important primaries.

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Wake Forest, NC:

On a stunning spring day on the campaign trail in North Carolina, I chatted up Fred Thompson who was on the stump for the first time since dropping out, campaigning for John Mccain. McCain was giving a speech at Wake Forest University on judicial conservatism (see earlier post.)
When I asked Thompson if he experienced any ‘crash’ or difficulty readjusting to the pace of a slowed down normal life after his campaign, he paused, grinned and with a twinkle in his eye said:

“That’s one of the advantages of the way I campaigned”

He winked and joked that you don’t have to make that many adjustments.

I laughed out loud, and reminded Thompson that he and I have history together with him dissing his own candidacy in front of an open mike, he laughed and barked amiably:

“Who cares?”

Back before the NH primary as Thompson and I waited for FNC to take our interview live after his remarks to the famed “Politics and Eggs” breakfast, I joked to the producers that we were keeping the ‘next president’ waiting too long and we should go live quickly.

Thompson quipped for all to hear that HE too had a busy schedule.

Reporters took it as proof that Thompson was not a serious candidate.

In fact, Thompson both then, and again today, was attempting a self deprecating joke. It’s funny in all sorts of ways.

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John McCain came to Wake Forest University in North Carolina hoping to grab a headline during Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s protracted duel. He tried to gain the upper hand on a key presidential issue: The picking of federal judges, 3 Supreme Court justices are over 70 years old and hundreds of positions are open for federal judges. The next president will likely have the ability to shape the bench.

“Senators Obama and Clinton have very different ideas from my own. They are both lawyers themselves, and don’t seem to mind at all when fundamental questions of social policy are preemptively decided by judges instead of by the people and their elected representatives”

McCain will reaasure conservatives he’ll appoint strict constructionist judges who, as he says, will apply the constitution rather than create new law in their courts.

“My nominees will understand that there are clear limits to the scope of judicial power, and clear limits to the scope of federal power.”

Though McCain helped get Chief Justice John Roberts & Justice Samuel Alito (both conservative!) confirmed, some Republicans didn’t like that he led a gang of 14 moderates to broker the deal.
He calls Roberts and Alito models for the kind of judges he’d nominate, and rips Clinton and Obama for having voted against both!

“Somehow, by Senator Obama’s standard, even Judge Roberts didn’t measure up. And neither did Justice Samuel Alito. Apparently, nobody quite fits the bill except for an elite group of activist judges, lawyers, and law professors who think they know wisdom when they see it — and they see it only in each other.”

While McCain expresses respect for the federal bench, his disdain for activist judges for being arrogant and dangerous is most pointed.

“Some federal judges operate by fiat, shrugging off generations of legal wisdom and precedent while expecting their own opinions to go unquestioned. Only their favorite precedents are to be considered “settled law,” and everything else is fair game.”

The next president could see as many as three (Stevens, Kennedy. Ginsburg) Supreme Court seats open up.

Though abortion politics can dominate such debates, McCain makes no mention of it in his prepared remarks. Like most Republicans, and unlike most Democrats, he has long promised he won’t have any abortion litmus test. He challenges Democrats to stop making confirmation hearings a partisan game of obstructionism and gotcha.

“Always hanging in the air over these tense confirmation battles is the suspicion that maybe, just maybe, a nominee for the Court will dare to be faithful to the clear intentions of the framers and to the actual meaning of the Constitution, and then no tactic of abuse or delay is out of bounds.”

Fred Thompson makes his first appearance on the trail with McCain since Thompson dropped out of the race. Thompson served as sherpa to both Roberts and Alito during their confirmation hearings, accompanying both men around the Hill as they courted senate confirmation votes.

Thompson has ruled out being both Vice President and Attorney General in a McCain administration.

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Carl Cameron reports on John McCain’s Healthcare plan…..Major Garrett continues to follow Barack Obama’s reaction to Pastor Wright’s appearance at the National Press Club

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Update to the previous post - RNC chairman Duncan writes DNC chairman Dean

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Get your mute buttons ready, the attack ads have begun.

Today John McCain provided more details on his healthcare plan in Tampa, Fl….he promised to work with states to find creative ways to cover approximately 7 million Americans with pre-existing conditions who would have difficulty getting insurance. At the same time his campaign released an ad touting the already released cornerstone of his plan…a voluntary alternative to employer paid insurance:

While McCain chose healthcare as the focus of his first issue ad as the presumptive GOP nominee, the SEIU in Ohio launched its first attack ad

The ads are not only on domestic issues, the DNC unveiled an attack ad against McCain for his “100 yrs” remarks at a NH town hall mtg in January.

The ad excerpts McCain’s remarks in context then follows with some tough political hits, but the RNC is screaming foul. They want networks to refuse to air the ad asserting that it is “false and defamatory.”

In addition the RNC is threatening legal action arguing that the DNC unlawfully coordinated the ads’ message with the Clinton and Obama campaigns. They are not showing their hand prematurely by presenting evidence of such illegally coordinated communication, but there are a few people who have worked for both the DNC and the campaigns in recent months.

The RNC complaint appears flimsy on the surface, but they may have more cards to play. In the meantime the RNC has pout out a web ad aimed at shaming Obama for countenancing attacks on McCain.

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