McCain at the Opera - Granite Grok

McCain at the Opera

A bit late, but better that then never.  Sorry for the timing, but there’s been lots going on.  Effectively, a group of us went to Senator’s McCain’s Town Hall over at the Franklin Opera House.  For those of you who will never experience the retail politics of NH and why I believe it is special, here is a brief glimpse.  Will you "get it" from this single rendition?  Probably not, but there is an invitation embedded in the retelling.

Also, as with Doug, I have no idea of who I will be supporting…yet.  I know a few that I won’t, but not who THE guy will be yet….. 

3/23/07
Franklin Opera House

Senator John McCain

The event was supposed to start at 7pm….we got here at about 20 of in order to get a decent seat. Said the obligatory hellos to those that we knew (e.g., Ken Merrifield, Franklin City Councillor).

The "house" is packed. Built in 1892, it is known as the Franklin Opera House. Originally it started out as the Veterans Memorial Hall (Civil War) and was operationally combined with the function of an opera house. This is an old building, recently restored as a community gathering place. It is in the shape of the old style opera palaces….it sits about 100 or so on the main floor with a wrap around balcony with 3 courses of seats, 3 sets, with about 13-15 people per section.. Main floor is 7 rows in 2 sections of 4 people per row/section, and then 2 sets of outer alcoves with 3 rows of 5 each.

Doug is on the "press" riser, setting up his camera where there were a few others from the press. I am sitting with TMEW, Doug’s wife, and another political activist from our town. Up on the stage, I recognize Tom Guinta (former Franklin Mayor) and Ken Merrifield. There are a bunch of others up there, other local pols of note and / or supporting Senator McCain.

The sound system looks like it will overwhelm the crowd….but full of static (got better as the event progressed, but what looked fairly beefy turned out to be rather tinny). Somebody ought to tell the sound folks it sounds terrible (no one ever did). I wonder if the is the house system or McCain’s.

 

More after the jump…and it does "pick up".  He also took questions from the crowd – no, not from que cards but allowed to just ordinary folks to stand up and put him on the spot….

Men are dressed in all ranges – business casual to suits….but there are the NH obligatory flannel shirts too. It is obvious who the dignitaries are, the staffers, and then the rest of us from the haberdashery.

Just before 7pm, a half hearted attempt was made by one older gentleman on stage to get people going…stamping his feet in time with the music and clapping his hands….everyone ignored him.

The Master of Ceremonies finally got up to get things started. He should have done a sound check – his wireless mike is not working (good work by the sound tech…he had to come forward to look at it….finally got it working). The announcement was finally made that the Senator has landed and is on route…..preliminary remarks and introductions were given. One of the nice touches was that the M.C. asked for all of the veterans to stand and received a rousing hand of applause. Then he surprised me in asking that all family members of veterans, active or not, please stand as well.

Reason? Senator McCain has explicitly asked that the request be given, as he knows full well that those that serve(d) had to have the support of their families in order to do what they do (and yes, TMEW and I stood to honor our son the Marine (recently discharged). Doug Voy (former Marine) then led the pledge of allegiance, followed by the MC attempting to fill some time.

The local folks had 36 people working for McCain in 2000 in central NH. Now, 9/11 has changed things. Lots of people want to prevent it from happening again. It is very important to select the right Commander in Chief in this election – "this may be crucial". He then switched back to talking about the families of the those serving. His son served in Iraq for a year and is going back for another tour. Our next president has to be able to make hard choices…the M.C. believes that more shared sacrifice must be needed. We need straight talk. Someone that will not break the trust of our Commander in Chief to the public and the military. We need someone who is uniquely qualified to be president and Commander in Chief. He believes it HAS to be McCain, and then attempts to introduce McCain.

Guess he is faking people out, or he got faked out – no McCain. Everyone stopped clapping (however, still standing) but no McCain. Since Doug is not on the press riser, his wife thought he was filming in order to YouTube McCain outside! Two minutes go by and people are still standing. Those up on stage have the "silly looking faces" on – can’t stop smiling, but unclear what else to do either. The M.C. walks down off stage to see what is going on off, most of the crowd is still standing (I decided to sit down much earlier with the laptop). Still don’ t see Doug….knowing Doug, I wonder if he collared McCain to ask him to appear on the radio show! Or interviewed for the GG1 (no such luck on either count)?

Music just restarted….people clapping in time to the music by the Travelling Willburrys – "Won’t Back Down".

By looking at the stage folks, it is easy to tell the real McCain supporters versus those that are just present. All of a sudden, general applause breaks out instead of the rhythmic clapping and cheers break out. Typical political rally entrance as Senator McCain comes up on stage in a black suit and shakes everyone’s hands. Reaches down and puts on the "protect the primary " sticker and announces that he is glad to be back in Franklin. A few jokes and publicly thanks to the people on the stage.

Brief story about when he succeeded Barry Goldwater and mentions a lady by the name of Marcel Peterson (a VIP). After being in the Senate for a few months, McCain got a call from her about her garbage pickup at 2am. He told her to call the Mayor. The response (which got laughter) was "No, I would not want to bother such an important man like him!".

He loves being back in the town hall meetings…..loves being in the essence of democracy. He Comments on the move up dates of the other states in the primary and caucuses. He will do everything he can to keep NH first. He challenges those from other states to come along to NH with him to see the NH difference in retail politics – up close and personal. Not everyone agrees with him, but they come. Illustrated this difference with a story about Mo Udall and the guy that didn’t like him as he had only met him twice – and that was true…..only in NH.

Tonight, Senator McCain only wants to discuss only 3 issues: Iraq and Congress, climate change, and illegal immigration.

On the first, he announced that the House had just passed $125 billion supplemental spending bill but had to buy votes with $25 billion spent on pork. It was supposed to be emergency funding for Iraq, and then starts to list all of the pork. Senate added more hundreds of millions of more for lots of stuff not about the war. "Shameful and disgraceful when this kind of thing goes on" – I believe him as he says this, and his record can prove it out.

A Washington Post article talks that is it all about the money, yet the Democrats say it is their mandate from the election. The WaPo notes that while the Dems think they have a mandate to stop the war, some haven’t gotten message as they could only get the votes by using tactics normally reserved for highway bills. Even the WaPo nails them for an unconditional retreat that the majority of Americans disagree with.

McCain: we are torn over this….and mistakes were made. However, we now have a new general, a new strategy, and a new direction. If the Dems feel that the war is wrong, they ought to cut it off now, not in 2008. He really starts to rag on them to that if the war is truely a failure, they ought to kill the funding. It is not courageous to do things this way – no honor. McCain says that there is now good news that is being ignored. In Anbar province, the sheiks are fighting Al Queda now and assisting the Coalition. Our military are now doing walkabouts in the neighborhoods, living in those neighborhoods, and it is having an effect!

If we fail, the Islamists will follow us home (unlike Viet Nam). Just read Osama, et al, own writings – they are after us and not just Iraq. They use the Internet and propaganda and turn decent people into suicide bombers. He relates a story about having just met the head of British MI5. What concerns her the most are the latest crop of bombers in the UK were home grown – the problem in not necessarily from foreign lands. She says "It is a great challenge".

The good news – our best and most patriotic are in the military. He says that pundits say that his support for the war will kill his chances at the Presidency. He talks about a visit to Brookhaven in San Antonio – after being there, political ambitions fade when you see the wounded. During a trip to Exeter, a man stood up and said that he had just lost his son and wants to make sure that it was not in vain (Senator McCain was visibly moved over the memory of that guy).

Then Senator McCain switched to illegal Immigration and stated that the immigration process was broken. 30% of illegals are here on expired visas. He said that in 1986 that we would fix that but it didn’t. We have to secure the borders. Most illegals simply want a job. If people think t
hat they can get a job, they will come. He wants employers to hire Americans first and if they cannot, then they could hire guest workers. They would then get a biometric visa, work, and then goes home. Any employer not using this method should be prosecuted. Let the word spread.

What should we do? No one should reward illegal behavior. There are a variety of proposals….a comprehensive proposal will be out in a week or so. He believes that the new President of Mexico is a good man and wants to help. Senator McCain believes that he wants to fix the corruption…let’s see if he can do it (but not sure if he can).

Then he switched once again – to climate change.

Admits that he didn’t know anything in 2000. Joe Lieberman and he thinks that mankind is causing global warming and cites a National Academy of Science report. He thinks we should reduce green house emissions. He uses the precautionary principle (my words, not his) – What if he is right but we do nothing…what do we leave our children? He thinks it can be done with little economic costs. Industry can make money from green and cites GE as a primary example. He is not getting much applause on this stuff, and no applause when he mentions that we should have higher milage cars to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Believes in ethanol.

Nuclear power is a big YES for him…he believes in it. Mentions that the French produce 80% of their electricity with nukes. After all, it is for the children.

We live in a very dangerous world. Iraq, Iran want nukes..North Korea wants them…the Chinese and their economic and military power is rising….Chavez insults the US and President Bush. The 1970s were bad too. However, President Reagan didn’t believe that America’s best days were behind us. McCain says the best days are still ahead of us. All you have to do is look at the the kids, the military, silicon valley. He believes that he is qualified to lead the US.

He then gets a standing "O" from most of the audience. He graciously accepts the applause but stops the crowd after a couple of moments and announces that he will take questions from the audience

– After 9/11, the President told us to go shopping. There is still disagreement over the 9/11 memorial (in NYC). We wait in long lines at airport to take off our shoes. What are you going to do to make us stop being afraid in the world? Our only major decision was to create a bureaucracy (i.e., Homeland Security. Repeats – what are you going to do to make us not afraid?

I really wanted to go up, slap and shake that guy, and tell him that only HE can make him not afraid – no one else. What a loser.

That said, McCain said that we thought, at the time, that we were going to be attacked again. If he is President, he will ask the country to sacrifice. Americans have to do this…..look at the Greatest Generation…we can invoke that spirit again.

 

– Follow up – Everyone at home during WWII sacrificed…why are we not doing it here….why are we not paying higher gas prices?

McCain’s response was that he would not going to ask for unnecessary sacrifice just for the sake of sacrifice – it has to be needed.

 

– Two questions….you say that we should stay until we win in Iraq – what is winning? And if you are President, what would you do in making the White House and the Country run green? Making it more efficient?

Success is a stable capital, political and economic development with people living a normal life with security. We have problems here in the US, too, in big cities. Not quite the same, but kinda is. Iraq military has to become viable, we withdraw, and the Iraq government gets good, we withdraw to enclaves until needed. Notes that we still have 30K troops in S. Korea (and I add, in Germany, Britain, Japan, and lots of other places).

Wants a test for gov’t. Is the bureaucracies succeeding in their missions? There are 8 just for displaced workers; are they working? Are the managers efficient? Are they saving money like every small business? Have to reform it to do with less and be more efficient. McCain is embarrassed that Republicans have expanded government faster than anytime since Great Society. That’s why we lost.

 

– Someone held up his book – what did he learn from his parents and how it got him through… Courts are separating dads from kids…..

Fundamental problem of single parents….kids cannot grow in normal families. Need to focus on education…encourages two parent families. He would be famous if he had an answer to the problem. Faith has a role. he’s stumbling a bit…not really answering the question. Wants to talk about faith based initiatives instead. Talked about Katrina and the most effective program was not a government one but was the Celebration Baptist church and its focal point as others came in to help.

 

– Cost of insurance. what will you do about health costs ($100K for a hysterectomy)?

Believes that this is a major problem. One of the major reasons is that many believe they cannot keep their health insurance if they lose their job. He wants tort reform, insurance portability and to be affordable. Those who lose their jobs and the related insurance should have access to to cheaper insurance to cover catastrophic problems. Small businesses should be able to pool together to get better rates and coverages. Need to do more with information technology. Double digit increases every year is unacceptable.

 

– Part of the national budget is welfare, it continues to grow more and more…..what is it going to do to my bottom line?

Have to sit down and fix Medicare and SS. He wants bipartisan agreement to fix it. Congress has only a 15% approval rating. He really is not answering the question well.

 

– Majority of NH towns are poor. The questioner sees a lobbyist from big Pharm – how can government reduce the cost?

We should allow imported drugs. We should encourage more competition for prices. Talked about patents expiring on drugs and allow more generics.

 

– A question stemming from 1975 dealing with SS fraud…when they clean up their act?

"I don’t know". There is no lock box, there is no account in SS with your name on it.

Note: I was REALLY shocked when the Senator actually came out and said the phrase "Ponzi scheme"! Excellent exercise in telling the truth.

 

– Second wacko question of the night – given the dollar is worth 4.5% of a 1913 dollar, what w
ill you do to terminate the Fed reserve system and is the sole source of inflation on this continent?

This economy has the lowest rate of inflation in a long time. Not comparable to 1913. McCain said that he had liked Greenspan’s job. I noticed that the questioner didn’t agreed with McCain’s answer.

 

– From a twenty-something – what will you do to encourage my generation to do great things like Kennedy did?

"Not just Kennedy but also Reagan". Proud of our folks. We have to give people examples of great causes and leadership. We should revere and praise those examples. We have to ask them to do it, and tell them why it is needed.

 

– Does not like development of new nukes….will he commit to no new nukes and save the money?

He answered yes, no new nukes.

Is the VA going to be fully funded any time soon? And is there a way to prevent the Dems from dividing the country again like Viet Nam as it hurts us and helps the enemy?

Americans will have to demand this. Nations lose wars, and then the Nations suffer.

We have to fix the VA or people will not want to serve (based on what they see – quoted George Washington)

– A very bashful young girl had kept her hand up a long time but refused to talk at the right time (her Mom asked for her) – does he recycle?

Yes he does.

– A girl from Bishop Brady (FIRST robotics team captain) – Invited the Senator to attend LA competition. Then turned it over to a teammate – How will McCain promote math and science?

He will provide scholarships in science and math.

Called on Judy Tilton to come up on the stage.  During the Viet Nam war, bracelets were given / sold that had names of P.O.W.s.  She ended up with Senator McCain’s name and wears his bracelet.

 

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