POLK CITY, FL -- I spent most of yesterday on the McCain roadshow as it wound through the back roads of Central Florida. Huge crowds, friendly, with overflow. A happy press corps enjoying the 60 degree sunshine. Nice backdrops. Special guest appearances by Joe Lieberman and others. A contended candidate. Even the trappings of something greater: a ropeline, something that McCain usually recoils against and his staff never bothers to erect.
McCain is attacking the problem of building a plurality in the state in an unorthodox way, partly born of necessity, partly because of style. There aren't Marshall Ganz-style house parties. Unlike Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, the campaign barely bothered to think about early and absentee voting. Where Guiliani (think catastrophic insurance fund) and Romney (think the economy) are responding to what the polls and editorial boards say are on the minds of Floridians, McCain largely sticks to one big theme, national security, and one obsession, which is spending. (If you ask a McCain adviser why he talks about spending, they will, first, laugh at you because McCain talks about whatever he wants, and secondly, point out that it really bothers Republicans of a certain stripe.)
The controversies of the moment barely seem to faze him. For days, the conservative blogosphere has been buzzing about McCain's Hispanic outreach adviser, Juan Hernandez, whose written and spoken positions on illegal immigration seem to be more liberal than McCain's. A woman named Joan from nearby Valrico, FL, nervously prefaced her question about him with magic words: "straight talk," as if trying to persuade McCain to answer the question even more honestly.
"He’s on my staff because he supports my policies and my proposals and my legislative proposal to secure the borders first," McCain said. Not a satisfying answer, but Joan probably wasn't inclined to support him anyway.
There were notably few immigration protesters, and when they did show up to McCain's events, they tended to stay on the periphery.
At a press availability, reporters wondered why McCain seemed to bristle at the notion that he's less comfortable talking about the economy. He used the opportunity to goad Romney.
"I’d be glad to compete and debate on those issues," he said. "My record on the economy is very strong. From being part of the Reagan revolution to cut taxes and restrain spending to my latest efforts that I have been involved in as chairman of the commerce committee and many other economic issues. So I’ll be glad to debate that side of the equation with Governor Romney. And his record of Governor of the state of Massachusetts is not one that I would want to imitate.”
(Translation: you wanna some of this, boy? Come get it.)
Then he was asked to justify his contention that Romney once supported a withdrawal timetable for Iraq. (I wrote this morning that McCain "stretched" history with the remark, and a few moments before this particular question received a stern talking to by two McCain aides and one reporter.)
McCain pulled out a notecard with blue cursive writing.
“I think that it’s very important because the Romney campaign has been trying to interpret his remarks in a way that can’t be interpreted."
He looked down at the note card.
"The statement is quote: you don’t want the enemy to understand how long they have to wait in the weeds until you’re going to be gone. You can only interpret that as having timetables at that time were what the democrats and people who wanted to get out of Iraq were pushing. It was that time, when Harry Reid, the majority leader of the Senate said that the war was lost. It was that time when a few of us said the lowest point, said we’ve got to make sure that we send the message to al Qaeda - we will not send any timetables, we will win, we will increase the number of troops which is the way we will succeed in Iraq,”
An hour and half by bus to the Villages, a mammoth Truman Show-esque retirement community organized into gated communities with names like "Spanish Landing." An hour late, McCain arrived to find an overflow crowd laughing at Sen. Joe Lieberman's well-worn jokes. A Lake County, FL sheriff's deputy said that about 1,000 people crammed into the building.
From there, the roadshow toll-boot hopped to a pizza joint in Orlando.
At 7:00 pm, the press corps was wheels up to Jacksonville, and McCain was done for the day.
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McCain - My record on the economy is very strong. From being part of the Reagan revolution to cut taxes and restrain spending to my latest efforts that I have been involved in as chairman of the commerce committee and many other economic issues. So I’ll be glad to debate that side of the equation with Governor Romney.
Translation:
"In my 30 years Inside The Beltway, I have cast a lot of votes. Some were on the economy. And while I wanted Intelligence or Armed Services Committees to sit on - but after the Keating 5 they gave me Indian Affairs and Commerce. Where I also made many important votes. Indian casinos and their campaign contributions once I helped set them up...confirming those economical guys with their fancy degrees. Not a one them who was a jet pilot who leads by his gut, and needs no so-called expert advice."
"As far as I understand the economy, that Congressional record decades long is showing I know at least as much as some guy who shirked the 55 years of public service I had and worked in mere private sector jobs. When he was flying around the planet negotiating deals with his little companies with little foreign executives, bankers, and trade ministries, I was on no expenses spared VIP junkets that met with the generals and the leaders who count for constructive luncheons...When Romney was turning around companies, and no doubt firing some workers as he grew those companies into huge ones, only to enrih his bastard self I might add in the interest of straight talk - my staff was hard at work looking for a wasteful project I could stand in front of the media cameras on."
"I proudly have never gotten or issued a payroll check that did not have "US Treasury" on top of it since age 17. I know the economy, and I'll wipe the floor with him if we debate it from that side of the equation of being a lifelong government employee and all foreigners who toasted me on my visits and applauded my POW greatness."
"I'll get Romney. I'll get him! After 5 minutes, we can wrap up the distraction of talking about nickle and dime economic stuff and get to the real issue of military defense. We have more wars to fight under the next President. I know. I am ready for those coming wars the next President will have to fight..."
Posted by chris ford | January 28, 2008 10:57 AM