OK, so here's the summary.
This was a small event, so he was pretty informal. He didn't abuse us with a canned stump speech.
He spoke about Iraq, Social Security/Medicare reform, and climate change.
He worked the room at the beginning and end. I spoke with him for about 10 minutes. I asked my question about winning the general election with the war being so unpopular, and then we spoke about baseball/steroids/Barry Bonds, boxing (last weekend's fight), and how bipartisan cooperation was going to be an essential element of the next presidency.
His responses:
On Iraq: his position is basically that Bush has completely botched this from the beginning. The war wasn't justified, the generals haven't been given the ability to do the job right, etc. He said that while Al Qaeda clearly had nothing to do with Iraq four years ago, they are without question active in Iraq now. So, he feels Iraq is NOW central to the "War on Terror". Twice he repeated the line "if we leave, they'll follow us home".
His response to my specific question about winning the election with an unpopular position on the war was that the situation in Iraq will be very different by the time general election campaigning is happening. He said, point blank...."Either there will be significant progress, or we will be out". He hinted that the party wasn't going to allow Bush to continue the current course indefinately. Ironically, I got home and there was a Drudgereport.com headline about republicans visiting the White House to fire a warning shot on Iraq policy. Hmmmmm.....
On Baseball/Bonds: He said he thinks it's a shame that Bonds is going to break the HR record. Said he was in awe of Hank Aaron when Aaron came to testify before the congressional steroid investigation. Said there are very few people who can blow him away with their charisma and Aaron was one of them.
On boxing: Said he was at the DeLaHoya/Mayweather fight last weekend because he's a fan of boxing, had a fundraiser in Vegas just before the fight. Claimed he was a "mediocre" boxer in High School and College, and has followed the sport ever since. We talked about a possible rematch and how it would be driven by the money. I mentioned that the pay per view numbers came in at 2.1 million households and he said "that's probably a record" (which it was).
Overall impression: he was relaxed, candid, convincing and friendly. He clearly had "rehearsed" lines, but I never felt like he was trying to fool me with clever words. He seemed very genuine.
I'm not a convert to the McCain camp yet, but it went a long way towards getting me there.
He also told some lame jokes and some very poignant stories (which you'd expect).
I hope my event report is satisfactory...
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