Columbus, Ohio:

Reported by Jake Gibson, Producer with the McCain Campaign….

McCain laid it all out today in a broad reaching speech on how he saw the world after four years of his administration.

It was a little prospective retrospection, fast-forwarding to 2013 in order to look back on his first four years in the White House.  He painted a pretty picture!

Columbus, OH—
In a speech outlining what the country and world will look like during and after his presidency, Senator John McCain said he believes that the war in Iraq will be won and troops will be home by 2013:

“By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won.”

This is the first time the presumptive Republican nominee has said that he hopes the war will end by the completion of his first term. He denied that he was setting a timetable for withdrawal.

“It is not a timetable. It is victory. It is victory, which I have always predicted. I didn’t know when we were going to win World War II, but I knew we were going win,” he told reporters aboard the Straight Talk Express. “Every conflict we have been in history I don’t know exactly when we were going to win, but we won and this one we are going to win and that will allow us then to bring our troops home with victory and honor.”

Days before the Florida primary on January 29, McCain accused Governor Mitt Romney of setting timetables for troop withdrawal. At the time, Romney believed it may have led to his loss in Florida.

In his speech, McCain went on to describe what Iraq will be like at the end of his term, “Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension. Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much reduced,” McCain said, “The United States maintains a military presence there, but a much smaller one, and it does not play a direct combat role.”

McCain also sees a future with no major terrorist attacks in America and sets the lofty goal of the capture or death of Osama Bin Laden.

His forecast: He sees the country experiencing “robust economic growth; “world food crisis has ended”; the country would be “well on the way to independence from foreign sources of oil”; the “southern border is secure.” He said he looks forward to the day when Congress sends him bills containing no earmarks–at all.

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Tampa, FL– Getting more Americans health insurance and rebuilding the ailing U.S. health care system is about giving more power to the individual, Sen. John McCain declared Tuesday.

“The key to real reform is to restore control over our health-care system to the patients themselves,” he said in a speech at the University of South Florida–as he touted the power of the free market as the solution to the problem of nearly 47 million uninsured Americans. “Families should only pay for getting the right care: care that is intended to improve and safeguard their health….Americans need new choices beyond those offered in employment-based coverage. Americans want a system built so that wherever you go and wherever you work, your health plan goes with you.”

Flanked on stage by nearly 50 medical professionals, many in white doctor’s coats, McCain restated a number of aspects of the plan he initially laid out last fall–albeit with some new details–which at it’s heart offers a tax credit ($5,000 for families and $2,500 for individuals) for health insurance. The goal he says is to offer an alternative to employer-based coverage (as he will eliminate the current tax exclusion for people who receive coverage through work) and create an open market that will require insurance companies to compete for customers. The speech came in conjunction with a new health care ad (see above) set to air in the key swing state of Iowa.

McCain took a few shots at his Democratic rivals’ plans, which offer universal or near-universal coverage, arguing that they “will replace the inefficiency, irrationality, and uncontrolled costs of the current system with the inefficiency, irrationality, and uncontrolled costs of a government monopoly.” McCain also called on both Sens. Obama and Clinton to support medical liability reform if they are “sincere” about putting “the needs of patients before the demands of trial lawyers.”

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New Orleans, LA — Sen. McCain repeated his demand that the North Carolina Republican party pull a TV ad using statements from Barack Obama’s controversial pastor, calling Thursday for all GOPers in the state to echo his call and repudiate their own leadership.

“I cannot in my role dictate to the North Carolina Republican Party what their message is but I can condemn it,” McCain said during a media availability following his tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. “I can appeal to the overwhelming majority of Republicans in North Carolina who also repudiate that kind of activity and I am calling on them to repudiate the people the small handful of people that have refused to understand that we are the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and that party–that Republican Party–there is no room for this kind of activity.”

The ad, which declares that Obama is “just too extreme for North Carolina,” was launched by the party on Wednesday.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is calling on McCain to exercise “real leadership” in getting the ad pulled.

“This is a test of leadership for John McCain,” Dean said Thursday. “If he can’t pick up the phone and make members of his own party stop airing a television ad he claims to oppose, how can he lead our country through an economic crisis or the war in Iraq? After shifting his positions on gun control, immigration and tax cuts throughout this campaign, McCain should not equivocate on this issue. Making a show of releasing your emails to the press is not leadership. If he is serious, he will get this ad pulled.”

Asked if he would limit the state party’s role at the GOP convention this summer if it continues running the spot, McCain was reluctant to “start making threats.”

“Lets see if they respond not only to what I have to say and virtually the entire leadership of the entire Republican Party but also lets see what average hardworking dedicated Republicans in the state of North Carolina are able to achieve too because I know they agree with me,” McCain said.

Inez, KY - The loudest applause line of the day at Sen. John McCain’s town hall in rural Kentucky Wednesday did not come in response to remarks by the GOPer but rather a local official.

Asked to comment on Sen. Obama’s “bitter” remarks, McCain first offered the state senator who served up the guaranteed grand slam question take the first crack at it.

“Do you think those comments reflect the views of your constituents?” McCain asked Kentucky District 30 State Sen. Brandon Smith.

“I think it reflects the views of someone who doesn’t understand this neck of the woods,” Smith responded, generating a thunderous standing ovation from the nearly 500 attendees in the Inez Courthouse.

McCain then slammed Obama for the comments, referring to them “elitist remarks to say the least,” and essentially calling the Democrat out of touch with “Americans who love this country” and have a “fundamental faith and believe in God and respect for the constitution.”

Arlington, VA-

The eagerly awaited McCain tax returns from 2006 and 2007 were released today. The documents, provided by his campaign (and posted on their website) showed that the GOP presumptive nominee  earned over  $400, 000 last year, and paid a total of $84,000 in federal income taxes. McCain also donated more than $100,00 to charity last year, and donated  $256,898 in book royalties combined for 2006 and 2007.The entire McCain family fortune, however, was not revealed as it is mostly held by his wife. Beer heiress Cindy McCain is the  chairwoman of the largest Anheuser-Busch distributors in the country.Her wealth is estimated to be over $100 million, but since the McCains have a prenuptial agreement, she holds the majority of their assets and they have filed their taxes separately for the majority of their 27-year marriage. This year was no different.

During a state of the race  press briefing this morning, campaign senior officials said that the decision to keep Mrs. McCain’s tax returns private was to protect the couple’s children who are “reflected in her return.”

DNC Chairman Howard Dean hit McCain for not divulging the family’s total amount.”John McCain’s lack of transparency is troubling and raises questions about what he’s hiding,” Dean said in a statement provided by the Democratic party.

McCain senior aide Steve Schmidt said that Democrats set a  precedent in 2004 when Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of then Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) , decided not to disclose her returns.

“There was a germaneness there because John Kerry would not have been nominee if not for the loan out of her assets in 2004, “said Schmidt.” She didn’t release her taxes and ,you know, they were treated as private. We think that’s a precedent.”

Kansas City, MO– After his campaign went to full battlemode this weekend regarding an Obama supporter who called Sen. McCain a “warmonger” prior to a speech by the Democratic candidate, Sen. McCain made clear Sunday he is ready to move on.

“I think it’s satisfactory, the statement by his campaign and I hope we can keep these things to a minimum,” McCain told reporters aboard his plane. Campaign aides had said earlier this weekend that Obama should personally denounce the remarks by radio talk show host Ed Schultz after an Obama spokeswoman put out a statement Saturday that condemned the remark but also took a shot at McCain on the war.

But asked if Obama is conducting a “respectful campaign,” McCain would only say that he is “disappointed” in the way Obama is arguing that the GOPer wants to fight a 100-year war in Iraq.

“It’s contradictory to his statements about the kind of campaign he would run,” McCain said.

For background, read more here and here

Kansas City, MO — While some Washington politicos were buzzing Sunday about the possibility that Condoleezza Rice is actively campaigning for a vice presidential slot, Sen. McCain said any push by the Secretary of State is news to him.

“I did not hear that. I missed those signals,” McCain said aboard his campaign plane Sunday during a flight to Kansas City. “I think she’s a great American, I think there’s very little that I can say that isn’t anything but the utmost praise for a great American citizen, who served as a role model to so many millions of people in this country and around the world…I think her overall record is really very, very meritorious.”

While he praised Rice, McCain also noted that he believes she bears some responsibility for the early failures in Iraq–along with President Bush, Don Rumsfeld and Colin Powell. The latest Rice4VP speculation comes after former administration spokesman Dan Senor said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday that Rice has been campaigning for a VP slot–even speaking to a meeting of economic conservative leaders including Grover Norquist.

Given that McCain will either face off against a female or African-American Democratic rival, VP tea leaf readers are debating what role gender or race may play in McCain’s selection. But the presumptive GOP nominee made clear Sunday that he is not quite there yet–still focused on the big picture.

“That’s a consideration that you might…take into consideration if you were anywhere along in the process. We’re not in any point in the process…but I think that Americans overall want the most highly qualified person to serve anywhere in government,” McCain said, when asked if he would be comfortable with two white men heading up the GOP ticket.

After McCain told the Don Imus radio show last Wednesday morning that he was starting to compile a list of potential running mates, his aides have attempted to reign him in regarding any VP talk and McCain downplayed most of the running mate questions today.

“We’re not talking about the process because it just then gets into things that could easily to spill over into an invasion of privacy,” he said at one point. Asked later about Mitt Romney as a potential VP, McCain reiterated, “we are just not talking about it. When you mention somebody’s name as being favorably mentioned or somebody else then all of a sudden it really can unfortunately result in invasion of privacy so were just not really talking about it. But I understand the curiosity but I think there is a very large number of very highly qualified people and we are not in any point where we would say ‘this person is more favored than another’ and to protect everybodys privacy, I don’t think we would ever say that.”

But McCain did chime in on the anti-Romney4VP advertising campaign launched by some former Huckabee supporters, joking that he could “save them some money if they’d just e-mail me. But if they want to make that statement through a paid political advertisement, that’s certainly their right.”

Hillary Clinton made her first trip to Oregon, speaking to a packed high school gym just outside of Portland. While they acknowledge that her rival Barack Obama is favored here, the Clinton campaign is playing hard — naming a state director and what the campaign calls a “very active” steering committee, ramping up field staff and opening a state headquarters in Portland next week and satellite offices in every congressional district.

They’re also tailoring their strategy around Oregon’s unique mail-in primary system; ballots will be mailed out on April 28th, and the majority of voters are expected to submit ballots through the post.

“I’m here to meet with you and talk with you and hopefully make my case to you,” she told the voters of Hillsboro, OR. “This is my first trip in a campaign of firsts, and I’m glad to be able to blaze a home in the land of the Trailblazers.”

But even in the Beaver State, she was focused on Michigan and Florida. She’s long argued that their delegates should count, but today she claimed their popular votes should count as well — a move that would put her much closer to Obama in that metric.

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Phoenix, AZ — McCain campaign officials are calling on Sen. Obama to condemn remarks made by an introductory speaker who personally attacked Sen. McCain as “a warmonger” at one of the Democrat’s events Friday.

While he warmed up the crowd at a Grand Forks, ND campaign stop, local liberal radio talk show host Ed Schultz referred to Sen. McCain as “a warmonger” prior to Obama’s arrival at a North Dakota Democratic party event.

During his remarks to a crowd of several hundred Democrats, the Illinois Senator thanked Schultz and called him the “voice of progressive radio.”

“Senator Obama has repeatedly said that words matter, they do, and for him to stand on stage and thank someone who just minutes before used hate filled and inflammatory language to describe John McCain, someone who has served his nation in and out of uniform for over 30 years, shows Obama’s true colors, liberal Chicago-style politics as usual,” said McCain campaign spokesman Jeff Sadosky. “Americans want more, they deserve better.”

The controversy arises about six weeks after McCain condemned conservative radio talk show host Bill Cunningham for launching a personal attack on Obama during one of the GOPer’s campaign events. Prior to McCain’s arrival at a Feb. 26 Cincinnati, OH town hall meeting, Cunningham repeatedly invoked Obama’s middle name, “Hussein,” and mocked him as a “hack” during his own introductory remarks.

After learning about Cunningham’s incendiary comments from advisers immediately after the event, McCain condemned and disassociated himself with the talk show host minutes later at a press conference. The presumptive GOP nominee has vowed repeatedly to run a “respectful” race and campaign officials are attempting to draw a contrast between the McCain’s quick condemnation of Cunningham’s remarks and Obama’s lack of reaction thus far.

Note: More details and context may become available from Schultz’s remarks in the coming days since the event was open only to pooled media, meaning most of Obama’s traveling press corps were not able to attend the event and have to base reporting on the event on limited sources.