Tuesday November 4, 2008

John McCain: Message of the day

By GLEN JOHNSON

A snapshot of one day – exactly two weeks before Election Day today – on the campaign trail with 72-year-old Republican presidential nominee John McCain. A polished orator he is not, the Arizona senator delivers the stump speech with a daily message on the campaign trail but 18-hour days produce both hits and errors.

FOR a guy who spent time in the “Hanoi Hilton’’ as a Vietnam prisoner of war, the Four Seasons Hotel has to feel a world apart. From its pressed sheets to its 24-hour room service to its overnight shoeshine, the pampering is complete.

Yet for John McCain, it was only a brief way station between the 18-hour days that represent life on the campaign trail.

Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain gesturing as he addresses supporters during a campaign rally at Robert Morris University in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, the United States, on Oct 21.

On this particular day, exactly two weeks out from Election Day, McCain awoke in his Philadelphia hotel to his usual routine: Starbucks coffee delivered by his travelling press secretary, Brooke Buchanan. The vente cappuccino would be a distant memory by 8pm that night, when he entered a decidedly more pedestrian 12th-floor room at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, New Hampshire.

In between: Three rallies across the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Five satellite interviews with TV stations elsewhere. Five sit-down interviews with local TV reporters. Six radio interviews. Roughly 1,336km travelled, either by motorcade or his “Straight Talk Air’’ charter plane. Countless handshakes. At least three babies kissed.

Along the way, there were Cheerios for breakfast, a Philly cheesesteak for lunch, and nibbles from cheese and fruit platters before unwinding by watching ESPN. He and his wife Cindy turned in about 10.30pm.

The demanding schedule may help explain why, at the end of a typical long day on the road to the White House, McCain, 72, stumbled verbally during his final public appearance.

John McCain shaking hands with supporters after a campaign rally at The Forum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Oct 21.

Deriding his Democratic rival, Barack Obama, for saying that western Pennsylvanians “cling’’ to guns and religion to cope with economic fears, and chastising Pennsylvania congressman John Murtha for labelling the area’s residents racist, McCain stood in the western Pennsylvania community of Moon Township and defiantly proclaimed: “I couldn’t agree with them more.’’

Most in the crowd stood bewildered.

McCain fumbled a bit more before finding his way out of the verbal rabbit warren.

“I couldn’t disagree with you,’’ he tried.

“I couldn’t agree with you more than the fact that western Pennsylvania is the most patriotic, most God-loving, most patriotic part of America,’’ he continued. “This is a great part of the country.’’

Finally, he got where he’d meant to be from the start: “My friends, I could not disagree with those critics more.’’

The resulting cheer drowned out the one down moment in a day that otherwise typified the press-forward approach, tone and focus of McCain’s campaign in the waning moments of the 2008 race.

McCain waiting for a satellite uplink with a Denver TV station to begin, after a campaign rally in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, on the morning of Oct 21. McCain’s day consisted of six radio interviews, five satellite TV interviews, five one-on-one TV interviews with local reporters and three campaign rallies.

Stump speech

In many senses, the former US Navy man is a happy warrior on the trail. Nearing the end of his second White House campaign, he is upbeat with his staff and those attending his rallies. He also is cheerful with the local anchors he addresses via satellite, a method he and Obama use to reach more places than they can personally visit in a day.

McCain used to be gregarious with his travelling national press corps too, but he has ignored them for months as his campaign seeks better control of his message. As soon as his plane takes off, an aide gets up and unfurls a brown curtain to separate the staff compartment from the passenger section where reporters and Secret Service agents ride.

A polished orator he is not. McCain is robotic as he manages the fundamental responsibility of any candidate: delivering the stump speech.

On Tuesday exactly two weeks ago, his setting was a dusty warehouse of TCI Millwork Inc in Bensalem, a manufacturer of cabinetry and moulding.

McCain arrived in a 19-car motorcade and soon tried to rev up the crowd of hundreds by mocking how Obama had expressed allegiance to both World Series contenders – the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays – when he visited their home states in recent days.

“Now, I’m not dumb enough to get mixed up in a World Series between swing states,’’ McCain read from the TelePrompTer, a visual speechmaking aid that Obama also uses. “But I think I may have detected a little pattern with Senator Obama. It’s pretty simple, really. When he’s campaigning in Philadelphia, he roots for the Phillies, and when he’s campaigning in Tampa Bay, he ‘shows love’ to the Rays. It’s kind of like the way he campaigns on tax cuts, but then votes for tax increases after he’s elected.’’

The skewer was part of the campaign’s “message of the day’’. In an area gripped by World Series fever, the campaign decided the poke at Obama over sports loyalties was an effective means to question both his character and his true intentions on taxes.

Presidential candidate John McCain buttoning his jacket as he steps out of his US Secret Service vehicle upon his arrival at Philadelphia International Airport after a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Oct 21.

The line was inserted into the “Joe the Plumber’’ anti-tax speech that McCain had been delivering for about a week, which itself reprised the climax of his Republican National Convention speech. McCain closes each speech by imploring his audience to “fight’’ with him for a number of different causes, chopping his hand at the air for emphasis.

Wartime president

Cindy McCain, wife of Arizona senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain, introducing her husband at a rally at Robert Morris University in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, on Oct 21, after which McCain enthused: ‘Won’t she make a great first lady?’

Later, in Harrisburg, McCain switched tacks. Cindy McCain introduced her husband, noting that between their family and that of running mate Sarah Palin, there were three sons in the US military. The remark drew cheers and chants of “USA, USA’’ in The Forum Auditorium, home to the local symphony. It also set the table for another takeoff from his usual remarks.

This time, McCain noted that Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joseph Biden had predicted Obama would face a “generated crisis’’ on the world stage within six months of taking office. He cited the example of a young President John F. Kennedy facing the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962.

“My friends,’’ McCain began, with a verbal tic that conveys a sense of closeness with his audience. “I have a little personal experience in that. I was onboard the USS Enterprise. I sat in the cockpit, on the flight deck of the USS Enterprise, off of Cuba. I had a target. My friends, you know how close we came to a nuclear war. America will not have a president who needs to be tested. I’ve been tested, my friends.’’

The remark triggered a roar from the crowd, which banged together “thunderstick’’ noisemakers and waved pom-pons. McCain revels in the applause. But unlike Palin, he rarely lingers with his audience. He left after shaking hands for about five minutes. Backstage, he posed for photos as he usually does with volunteers and police officers who assist with security.

After the flight to Pittsburgh, McCain disembarked the Straight Talk Air into blustery fall air. Cindy McCain was wrapped tightly in a black wool shawl as she and her husband shook the hands of a customary set of greeters at the bottom of the stairs. Sometimes they include governors, other times party leaders, but more often they are composed of McCain volunteers who have earned special recognition.

At Robert Morris University in Moon Township, Cindy McCain again repeated her introduction in a noisy gymnasium. “Won’t she make a great first lady?’’ McCain enthused.

The candidate then reprised his stump speech for the third time that day, this time inserting the remarks about western Pennsylvania designed to win over the audience. The supportive crowd ended up forgiving his flub, but it gnawed at McCain when he got back aboard his plane for his flight to New Hampshire.

“He said, ‘Wow, I stumbled over the line’,” recalled senior adviser Mark Salter, one of those who ride up front with the McCains.

The group quickly dropped the subject and focused on a few drinks and light snacks. When it comes to beer, it’s Budweiser-only aboard the Straight Talk Air, out of deference to Cindy McCain’s beer distributorship in Phoenix.

“He’s a human being. Everybody stumbles over lines,’’ said Salter. “And it was a long day.’’ – AP

The Promises

> Double the income tax deduction for children from US$3,500 to US$7,000 per child.

> Cut the capital gains tax in half.

> Lower the maximum corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%.

> US$300bil plan “to protect the value of your home and get it rising again by buying up bad mortgages and refinancing them, so if your neighbour defaults he doesn’t bring down the value of your home with him.’’

> Waive rule requiring senior citizens to start taking withdrawals from tax-deferred retirement savings at 70½.

> Suspend taxes on unemployment benefits.

> Provide every American family with a US$5,000 refundable tax credit to help them purchase health care insurance; workers who already have insurance from their employers will keep it but have it taxed as earned income.

> Bring US troops home from Iraq “in honour and in victory”.

> Expand offshore drilling now and invest in all energy alternatives, including nuclear, wind, solar and tide.

> Encourage manufacture of hybrid, flex fuel and electric automobiles and invest US$2bil in clean coal technology.

The Whoppers

> Throughout a week focused on Obama’s tax proposals, McCain cited the example of Joe “The Plumber’’ Wurzelbacher, and said the plumber had been attacked by the Obama campaign. In truth, Obama and his running mate questioned whether Wurzelbacher made enough money for his taxes to go up under Obama’s plan, and the plumber later acknowledged that he did not.

> McCain also lambasted Obama by saying: “I’m not going to spend US$750bil of your money just bailing out the Wall Street bankers and brokers who got us into this mess.’’ McCain failed to note that he voted for the US$750bil plan himself.

> And while pledging to “freeze government spending on all but the most important programmes like defence, veterans’ care, Social Security and health care,’’ he had told an audience on Florida’s space coast earlier that he would spend US$2bil on a space vehicle to fill the gap between the retirement of the space shuttle and the launch of the Ares vehicle. – AP

Related story:
Barack Obama: On track

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