Sen. John McCain’s “town hall” meeting at the F.M. Kirby Center for the Performing Arts is the subject of this very special WILK report. Nancy tells me we’ll be together more often as I will be stepping up my efforts in penning them. That’s why Nancy SHOULD NOT be allowed to have ANY vacation. She gets all kinds of ideas about blogging, internet content, show prep, etc.
The last time I was in the F.M. Kirby Center, another older gentleman was on the stage, performing miracles. His name is Ted Neeley and he played a 65-year old Jesus in “Jesus Christ Superstar.” The place was packed to the rafters and patrons wandered around like they were at the Circle Drive flea market.
Today’s audience to see Sen. McCain was a pretty stationary. If I was a decent artist, I probably could have painted them.
I arrived at the Kirby Center at 8 a.m. almost sharp, and there was a decent line of folks waiting for their chance to get searched by the Secret Service.
There was free water available to the media, by the way, but I know better. I was right! I didn’t leave my seat until noonish.
My seat was in Orchestra Center, row R. That’s a pretty good seat, if you ask me. The “press armada,” a term coined by WILK’s Steve Corbett, took up a chunk of several choice seats in the orchestra center. This is a wonderful setup for the media, but pretty lousy for the audience who might have to sit behind this obstruction. It’s more distracting than two people dancing and lip locking in front of you, believe, but that’s a topic for another blog entry.
We did part of the show from the Kirby today and spoke to some interesting folk. Paul is a die hard Democrat who won’t vote for Sen. Obama. He’s a PUMA who puts videos on You Tube about his thoughts and feelings. He was part of a New York Times story on the PUMA movement. There was another young lad whose name escapes me who has had campaign memorabilia autographed by the other candidates who came to NEPA. He hoped to get Sen. McCain to sign a book. WILK News Director Joe Thomas asked him if he had an ebay page. Joe Thomas should have known the answer, because he’s read the entire internet. Twice. Wisely, the kid said he didn’t have any financial motive. I ask: What kind of future Republican will he be? LOL/JK.
Chris Hackett, Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in the 10th Congressional District, emceed the event and did a very good job. Chris is a highly accessible individual and goes out of his way to help WILK. He would not tell any jokes on the advice of his 16-year old daughter, who doesn’t think he’s so hilarious. I thought that statement by Chris was funny.
State Sen. Lisa Baker introduced John McCain. Sen. Baker should be on the disabled list after a dog-related tripping incident, but she was a real trooper and gave a gutsy performance despite her need for a fashionable black cast.
Sen. McCain graced the stage at 10:20, which gets high marks from moi. We have seen politicians show up three hours late, two hours late and one hour late. He came out to the strains of Van Halen’s hit “Right Now.” Do me a favor: Don’t look up the lyrics to this song on the internet. Your head will ache and your I.Q. will drop six points. Also, how many people think Sen. McCain grooves to VH? I laughed a little. I also asked the guy who does the music to play The Plasmatics at one of these campaign appearances when I was chatting with him at an appearance by former President Bill Clinton. I mean, c’mon, “Life is a Highway?” “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic?” “Centerfield?” Is this a campaign appearance or a visit to the dentist? Maybe that’s why people were sitting in their seats with half-open mouths.
I feared Sen. McCain wouldn’t be able to overcome the adult contemporary flavor of the crowd, and it did take him some time to crank their engines. He touched on something called “The Lexington Project,” a revolutionary approach to energy independence. He talked about coal, nukes and wind. He mentioned a tax credit of up to five thousand dollars for those who would embrace new, cutting edge cars. He expressed disappointment congress wouldn’t give the American people a gas tax holiday. The audience was mixed on their response to this suggestion. Some simply said it’s not enough.
Sen. McCain also spoke about his views on the Iraq War. He told the crowd four years of the war were not fought correctly and the “surge” strategy was necessary to change the dynamic of the fight. Some told him this would doom his campaign. “I would rather lose a campaign than lose a war,” he told the crowd. Many agreed.
The “town hall” style meeting meant a good exchange between the crowd and the people. Not all agreed with the senator and he allowed them to tussle with him.
Sen. McCain was funny. He said the 9 percent congressional approval rating means only “paid staffers and blood relatives” are satisfied with their representatives. When the volunteers manning the mics in the aisles were slow, he muttered something about people being out on work release doing the work. It was funny stuff, believe me.
Most impressive about Sen. McCain is his refusal to accept any government earmarks during the course of his career. He said Sen. Obama has raked in about $900 million, which makes him look lazy compared to Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Overall, I thought Sen. McCain showed great command of the issues and listened to the concerns of the people in the seats. That’s what good leaders should do. He also talked about solving problems with people on the other side of the political aisle and giving them credit when everything goes right. I was also happy we were downtown, because we enjoyed a Chinese buffet.
What did you think of the visit? Email me at Suehenry@wilknewsradio.com. Heck, email me if you read these things so Nancy can say, “I told you so!”
Corbett
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