Highlights of The McCain Camp’s Conference Call With Bloggers

By Jim Geraghty

No Senator McCain this week (and it’s been a little while since the last conference call). Instead, Jill Hazelbaker and Steve Schmidt laid out McCain’s upcoming “Service to America” tour, or as Patrick Hynes noted, “what we’re internally calling the bio tour.”

The tour will begin at McCain field, named for the family in Mississippi. McCain will note in a speech there that a distant ancestor served on George Washington’s staff, and “it seems that my ancestors served in every conflict this country has fought.” One of the themes in that speech will be how government should support parents, and how it should help, not complicate, how parents pass on their values to their children.

The next stop is Alexandria, Va., to Episcopal High School, where McCain will talk about teachers that inspired him.

The third stop is the U.S. Naval Academy, where a McCain event near the Academy will trace “the journey from a young man who was more interested in breaking ranks than rising through the ranks” to a man who ..

The final stop will be Pensacola, Florida where McCain attended flight training school.

“What you’ll see is Senator McCain connecting his past to the present and to the future,” Schmidt said, promising “stories that have not been told before.”

The strategists took some questions. (MORE HERE)