Is McCain open to reenacting the draft?

At a town-hall event in New Mexico today, John McCain was asked about veterans’ care, but the questioner added a provocative point at the end of her question. Take a look:

For those of you who can’t watch clips online, a woman in the audience told the presumptive Republican nominee, “Senator McCain I truly hope you get the opportunity to chase Bin Laden right to the gates of hell and push him in as you stated on your forum. I do have a question though. Disabled veterans, especially in this state, have horrible conditions…. I think it is a sad state of affairs when we have illegal aliens having a Medicaid card that can access specialist top physicians, the best of medical and our vets can’t even get to a doctor. These are the people that we tied yellow ribbons for and Bush patted on the back. If we don’t reenact the draft I don’t think we will have anyone to chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell.”

McCain, without hesitation, responded, “Ma’am, let me say that I don’t disagree with anything you said and thank you and I am grateful for your support of all of our veterans.”

Now, it’s likely McCain was just being polite. But the woman who spoke at the event insisted we have to “reenact the draft,” and McCain said he didn’t disagree with anything she said.

And that is bound to cause some headaches for the McCain campaign.



Frankly, I find it unlikely that McCain would ever seriously propose reenacting the draft, but he has said a few things on the subject that have raised eyebrows. A year ago, for example, McCain told a New Hampshire audience, “I might consider [a draft], I don’t think it’s necessary, but I might consider it if you could design a draft where everybody equally would serve.”

VoteVets.org pounced this afternoon.

Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org said, “At least Senator McCain is being honest. A vote for him is a vote for the draft. Period. Unless Senator McCain radically changes his worldview, there would be a draft to implement his plans.” Soltz added, “When you take into account his indefinite military commitment to Iraq, his desire to send more troops to Afghanistan, record lows in recruiting and retention, and possibly more wars he is looking to get into, like “Bomb Bomb Bomb” Iran, his numbers don’t add up without a draft. Whether America likes it or not isn’t relevant — a draft is the only way to do everything Senator McCain wants to do. I give him points for being honest and upfront, though, that we’re going to need a draft if he is elected.”

I’m not sure if I agree with every word of this — I suspect McCain would be content stretching our military even further, and extending tours of duty to ridiculous lengths — but with his comments in New Mexico today, McCain has opened the door.