The McCain Train - A Town Hall Meeting @ X

Hello!

For those that do not know, i was invited to attend Senator John McCain's Town Hall Meeting at Xavier University (one of my alma maters) in Cincinnati this past Thursday (June 26th, 2008) and what an experience it was.

For a little personal-historical background, i also saw Al Gore speak at The Commons @ Mississippi State University (another am) back in 1992. Gore's speech was attended by about 3 high school classes and about 20-30 other attendees on a rainy day; though by no stretch a Mississippi rain which can be torrential. i received an invitation to Gore's speech by being in the 'right' (?) place at the right (?) time. While in my theatre design class, it was an elective that fit well w/ my major in Architecture (turned out i was pretty good at as the teacher asked to keep one of my designs for the complex comedy - Tartuffe), the head of the 'Young Democrats' came in and offered the professor two tickets to the event. After he left, the prof immediately offerred them to me. i was not really personally interested in going but a friend of mine was a Clinton/Gore supporter and i thought he would appreciate it and i have always been open-minded enough to go and listen; so i took the tickets.

Anyway, Gore was rambling on about how he and, at the time, Governor Bill "felt everyone's pain" (btw...in Arkansas Gov Bill was known as Slick Willy as my best college friend's father told me when i first inquired about this then unknown Arkansas Governor; my best college friend's family is from Magnolia, Arkansas) ". Meanwhile, standing not two feet from him in the pooring down rain was a woman translating his speech into sign language. He went on and on for several minutes while someone held an umbrella over his head w/o offering her the courtesy any gentleman should have been aware enough to offer her.

Of course, i could not just stand by and let this poor lady get soaked; after all she was translating for the deaf for God's sake. So, i started to take my umbrella up to her by stepping over the yellow rope strung up to provide space b/n the crowd (as i mentioned it was more like a small group most of which were forced to be there; sad state of our society really; when a potential and as it turned out actual VP of the USA comes to speak and less than 75 people show up). The Secret Service, of course, did not like my coming closer to Mr. Gore. Two SS agents came over to me very, very quickly i might add. i pointed out that this poor lady was getting soaked and suggested someone hold an umbrella for her as they were doing for Gore. Ten seconds later an SS agent comes out and holds an umbrella over her. It just goes to show that it takes a Conservative Republican to actually do what Liberal Democrats only talk about.

Jump forward to The McCain Train's Town Hall Meeting at X...
Earlier Wednesday a very good friend, Jennifer Miller, sent me an email about this Town Hall being held at our mutual alma mater. Later that night i received a phone call, answered their questions then was invited to attend. The meeting was for 'Undecideds' which i was at the time; leaning one way but still undecided. (BTW...i will continue to go to Sen. Obama's website to learn more about his policies, experience, and ideas but at this point, i just cannot imagine voting for him over a man like Sen. McCain. Feel free to contact me about my reasons for my vote.)

So i arrived early enough that i was able to choose a good seat that turned out to be the one best positioned at the door where Sen. McCain would enter/leave. At 11:50A.M., a voice said that the program would begin shortly and asked everyone to turn off their phones. At 12:01P.M. Senator McCain came walking in w/ zero fan-fare or even an introduction; not that he needed one. He spoke directly if not eloquently for about fifteen minutes then opened the floor up to questions. i will not run down all of the questions for you here (again if you would like more detail feel free to contact me or click on the links below).

The format was simple, respectful: those that had a question raised their hands, Sen. McCain choose people at random, they asked their question, he answered/had a conversation w/ them; then he choose someone else.

Something that has not been reported that occurred that i thought was really cool was when someone, obviously to me a plant, rudely tried to jump in and ask a question, Senator McCain cut him off by saying he was calling on people who were respectful and had their hand raised then went on to ask if he was an undecided voter or a reporter. After the guy/jerk admitted being a reporter, Sen. McCain respectfully but directly pointed out that this town hall was for voters and, as such, he would continue answering their questions. At this point, i and others started clapping and the whole room joined in sending the message that this kind of disrespectful badgering was unacceptable. (He did get back to him, though, which was another interesting altercation.)

After answering some uneducated, barely articulate professor's question that was more a personal statement about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars (sadly to say the prof was, of course, from X); Sen McCain went back to the rude reporter's question which involved some Arizona professor that sat outside Sen. McCain's office for 16-days w/o eating demanding that Sen. McCain meet w/ him for two hours; about what i have no idea and, frankly, i don't care.

Sen McCain said that the Arizona professor was "happy", his issue apparently being resolved to his satisfaction, the reporter beligerently tried to follow-up saying w/ an accusatory tone, "So, you met w/ him for two hours?"

At which point, Sen McCain very non-challantly yet directly said, "I don't respond to threats!" ending their conversation to another round of applause. In case i am not painting this picture as clearly as it was in-person, Sen. McCain's last comment made it clear that he was not going to be disrespected nor bullied by this type of accusatory questioning nor bow to someone's inappropriate demands of him or his time. Whether Sen. McCain had met w/ this Arizona professor was irrelevant.

For a composite video of this Town Hall click on this link (http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage ) then scroll down, you will see Senator McCain. BTW...i am in this video - about half way through, and the "in60" video where there is a pic of Sen McCain and i; when you see the woman taking a picture then looking at her camera in the composite video of the Town Hall - not the "in60" video; you will here my voice then see me. Watch to the end when he is just chatting w/ a few people about reading different books.)

After casting my vote for Dr. Condoleezza Rice as his VP and giving him the opportunity to announce who his VP candidate will be (this part is in the vid above); i asked him how he will differ from President Bush specifically in the areas of foreign and educational policies?

His first response was that "no one will be tortured under his command" and that he will close Guantanamo prison at which point i asked him what he would do w/ the combatants. He replied, "They are enemy combatants. I will bring them to the U.S., to prisons here. We have the" resources to hold them here. He went on to explain that Guantanamo is viewed by some here and around the world as a black-eye. Whether we won't those people guiding American policy and war-time solutions to difficult problems is, in my humble opinion, a question worth asking. In other words, we cannot just change when a few people express their opinions but Sen. McCain obviously thinks it is time to come up w/ a different solution and i can respect that particularly from a man that was a P.O.W. for seven years.

Personally, i disagree w/ the Senator on this point. Guantanamo was a perfect military solution to a military problem. If torturing occurred at Guantanamo, and one's definition of what is and what is not 'torture' obviously can vary, then that should not take place at Gitmo or anywhere else. But as far as a military solution to a military problem it was and is very, very sound.
(For more on this from someone that was there and knows: http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=1898138&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,373842,00.html .

It would be interesting if they do bring the enemy combatants here and put them in general population. If they do, the enemy combatants will be begging to go back to Guantanamo; if they make out alive. (BTW...have you heard/read that many of the enemy combatants are gaining weight at Gitmo b/c they are getting more food/nourishment than they were getting previously? How very interesting.)

Going back to the professor's semi-question about the Iraq War: The point Sen. McCain made about the Iraq War was that regardless of the reasons to go to war w/ Iraq in the first place, we are there now, and pulling out would simply be foolish and cause a much bigger problem now and down the road. Sen. McCain said we need to continue what we are doing and that despite the lack of media attention on it, we are having more and more successes in Iraq. (Another did you know from the book "Saddam's Secrets" by an Iraqi general: they have built 12,500 new schools in Iraq and teachers are now getting paid 100x...i will say that again, 100x what they were being paid during Saddam's regime!?!)

His answer to the other part of my question was short and lacked details. He simply said that President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" was a good program that he would keep but that it need a few "changes". He did not (could not b/c of time) elaborate on the details of the pros/cons of President Bush's "No Child Left Behind."

In short, i think the concept of a Town Hall is great and accomplishes the task of getting someone like Senator McCain to speak to and, as he pointed out - more importantly, to hear from those on the 'ground-level'. Town Halls simply need to be longer, w/o the media hovering around, and allow for more a conversation which Sen. McCain tried to do and did very well given the constraints.

As for my vote, i will say this: Senator McCain was and now definitely is the first and ONLY politician in my voting era which started w/ the first President Bush that i KNOW i can trust to do what is best and right for American and has the highest level of integrity of any modern-era politician.

In closing, i will say that Sen. McCain took a few well aimed shots at Sen. Obama. (If you care to hear what he said, again, feel free to contact me.)

Regardless of whether we agree on which candidate is best to lead our great country in a crucial period of our and the world's history, get out and vote! Learn as much as you can about both candidates. Talk to people from both sides of the aisle before, during, and even after you have decided. Take a stand but never stop the discussion!

It is ALL about furthering the discussion of life, liberty, the pursuit of happyness (and yes that is a reference to the great Will Smith movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" which everyone should see at least once), and the experiment that is our free-market economy and political republic-democracy; that we call these United States of America!!
Amen and GBA!