McCAIN IN NH - STANDING ROOM ONLY

It's been a month since I posted McCAIN DOWN BUT NOT OUT and what I saw in New Hampshire on Thursday leads me to believe I may have been right.

I haven't been posting as often as I would like with recovering from surgery, volunteering for John McCain and recently becoming Director of Communications and Blog Manager for a local mayoral campaign. Add to that the fact that I have no internet connection at our summer house. Well you get the idea. However, I did want to share this.

Thursday night I was in Merrimack, NH for a Town Hall Meeting with Senator John McCain. My son and a friend of his came along and they were put to work directing traffic and showing people where to park. About 30 minutes before the scheduled start time, my son’s friend John came running in to tell the McCain staffer running the event that the parking lot was already full.

We had set up 100+ chairs and quickly broke out 20 more. When those filled we found an additional 30 folding chairs, pushed back the sign in desk and set those up. We still ended up with 20-30 people standing. 175+ people (The Manchester Union-Leader reported the attendance at 250.)instead of the 100 who had RSVP’d and these weren’t just hand picked invitees. I was greeting people at the door and a couple of other volunteers were offering McCain lapel stickers and more than a few people declined saying they hadn’t made up their minds yet.

Senator McCain spoke for about 15 minutes touching on property rights (The Kelo Decision), Pork-Barrel Spending and of course Iraq before taking questions for more than an hour. He was in great form, with clear concise answers and cracking jokes. One of the best was when one man started out his question by saying the reason so many people support the Senator is because he is a man of principle. Because of the crowd, a staffer was a little slow getting to the man. When she did, McCain quipped “Make sure he says that again now that he has a microphone!”

Of course one guy really came after McCain on immigration. As he went on and on, people in the crowd started yelling at him “Do you have a question?” and “We came to hear McCain speak, not you!” but the Senator quieted the crowd down and urged the man to keep talking. I was impressed that McCain was willing to stand there and take it in. He siad that the American people had lost confidence in the government to secure the border and he said that any future action would have to start there. He also made it a point to speak with the man one on one after the event.

I had a chance to speak with a reporter from the Manchester Union Leader after the event. As we stood there watching the crowd file out, I asked him rhetorically, “Tell me again how the McCain Campaign is dead?”

PS...If you ever find yourself in Merrimack on a hot summer night make sure you stop by King Kone for soft serve ice cream.

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