I'm going to a McCain "Meet and Greet" this evening

[Scooter]

What should I ask the Senator from Arizona?

I've already got:
"How do you expect to win the general election when your position on the Iraq war immediately alienates 65% of the voting public?"

Need some more....

For the record, I'm a Republican. I'm undecided on who I will support. I am attending to learn more about the candidate. I have contributed to the McCain campaign, but only to attend this event (it's a $100 per person reception). I have no problem asking tough questions.

Anyone have some ideas for me?

 

[jillian]

What should I ask the Senator from Arizona?

I've already got:
"How do you expect to win the general election when your position on the Iraq war immediately alienates 65% of the voting public?"

Need some more....

For the record, I'm a Republican. I'm undecided on who I will support. I am attending to learn more about the candidate. I have contributed to the McCain campaign, but only to attend this event (it's a $100 per person reception). I have no problem asking tough questions.

Anyone have some ideas for me?

How about, you were always a moderate. Why are you now appeasing the radical religious right?

 

[hjmick]

Ask him if he would please convince Fred Thompson to run.

 

[actsnoblemartin]

Congratulations, have fun

What should I ask the Senator from Arizona?

I've already got:
"How do you expect to win the general election when your position on the Iraq war immediately alienates 65% of the voting public?"

Need some more....

For the record, I'm a Republican. I'm undecided on who I will support. I am attending to learn more about the candidate. I have contributed to the McCain campaign, but only to attend this event (it's a $100 per person reception). I have no problem asking tough questions.

Anyone have some ideas for me?

 

[Annie]

I'm just hoping that Scooter posts his reactions to the coffee and discussion.

 

[Dirt McGirt]

Hey Scooter what happened at the meet and greet? Give us details...that is unless you were forced to sign an RNC loyalty agreement and had to pledge not to disclose the results of the event. ...........

 

[Scooter]

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...

 

[maineman]

"if we leave, they'll follow us home".

I have to say that comment makes little sense to me.

Is he suggesting that Al Qaeda would somehow "get lost" between the middle east and the United States....that they don't know the way here without following our troops back? Doesn't he know about all those great driving directions websites?

Is he suggesting that Al Qaeda is somehow incapable of killing Americans inside America just because we have 150K troops in Iraq?

now, if he said something like, "If we leave, then if they want to easily slaughter Americans, they will need to once again attack us closer to home because we will have pulled 150K targets out of their backyard shooting gallery", I would understand that more.

 

[Scooter]

now, if he said something like, "If we leave, then if they want to easily slaughter Americans, they will need to once again attack us closer to home because we will have pulled 150K targets out of their backyard shooting gallery", I would understand that more.

I think that what he said is a 7 word version of this.

I think it's an excellent point. It doesn't fully justify our continued presence in Iraq (at least in my mind), but it's an excellent point.

 

[maineman]

So rather than take substantive steps to actually address the root causes of islamic extremism and win the war on terror, rather than take substantive steps to make America truly safer at home by IMPROVING border and port security, you think the more "cost effective" solution is to put 150K surrogate targets with bullseyes on their backs and place them in the arab's back yard to distract them? Like sending one cow across the piranha infested river upstream of the rest of the herd to attract all the little carnivores?

 

[Dirt McGirt]

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...

Good story Scott! Thanks for sharing.

I used to be high on McCain. Somewhere after the 2004 elections he lost me though.

 

[maineman]

Good story Scott! Thanks for sharing.

I used to be high on McCain. Somewhere after the 2004 elections he lost me though.

It IS a good story and I can imagine it was lots of fun to just hang with McCain and get a sense of his real personality!

 

[Scooter]

So rather than take substantive steps to actually address the root causes of islamic extremism and win the war on terror, rather than take substantive steps to make America truly safer at home by IMPROVING border and port security, you think the more "cost effective" solution is to put 150K surrogate targets with bullseyes on their backs and place them in the arab's back yard to distract them? Like sending one cow across the piranha infested river upstream of the rest of the herd to attract all the little carnivores?

You're jumping to conclusions in a rather dramatic way here.

I simply said I thought it an excellent point that removing troops from Iraq might result in Al Qaeda finding more opportunity to target us closer to home. I also said that I wasn't convinced that alone was justification to remain in Iraq (though it appears Senator McCain thinks it is).

I never said anything about choosing to stay in Iraq over taking "substantive steps to make America truly safer at home" nor did I mention any judgements on "cost effectiveness".

And neither did Senator McCain.

 

[Scooter]

Good story Scott! Thanks for sharing.

I used to be high on McCain. Somewhere after the 2004 elections he lost me though.

Interestingly, one of his funny moments was when he discussed 2004.

He said (paraphrasing):

There was talk of me running for Vice President in 2004 with the other guys.
I went on Letterman and Dave asked me about it.
My response was "I spent five years in the dark getting fed scraps, why would I want to do that again?"​

Needless to say, that got a chuckle out of the crowd.

 

[maineman]

You're jumping to conclusions in a rather dramatic way here.

I simply said I thought it an excellent point that removing troops from Iraq might result in Al Qaeda finding more opportunity to target us closer to home. I also said that I wasn't convinced that alone was justification to remain in Iraq (though it appears Senator McCain thinks it is).

I never said anything about choosing to stay in Iraq over taking "substantive steps to make America truly safer at home" nor did I mention any judgements on "cost effectiveness".

And neither did Senator McCain.

point taken...it does appear, from my vantage, that the administration has made those sorts of decisions.....

 

[Scooter]

point taken...it does appear, from my vantage, that the administration has made those sorts of decisions.....

On that we might find common ground.

It was abundantly clear to me last evening (if it wasn't already) that McCain is no George W Bush fan.