McCain: A Distinct Change From 6 Months Ago
John McCain spent 2 hours in the yard of Maureen Barrows in Exeter on Saturday, and was very impressive. He handled the meeting with confidence, humor and grace. He's clearly in a different personal place than his last visit in the spring. He seems comfortable in his own skin and the star qualities he showed in '00 have started to show through. While I have substantive disagreements with him on many policy issues, I would be proud to have him as our candidate in the election. Policy disagreements are swept away in the face of his leadership qualities.
Iraq: a fair and compelling discussion of his trust in Patreus and the belief that of all the bad choices, leaving is the worst.
Climate change: a conventional, not very thoughtful discussion that doesn't deal honestly with the costs. He mangled a comparison with Pascal's Wager. I forgive most of this because at least he acknowledges that nuclear power is necessary.
Immigration: this is where he impressed me the most, because he really understands that we don't trust the gov't to secure the border. Until that is done, forget the rest. He was honest about his earlier tin-ear and made me feel that as a leader, he would have a flexible style that could adjust to changing circumstances.
I'm still undecided, but he really helped his cause this weekend. I sensed that most of the audience of ?50-100 people felt the same way
I personally admire McCain'sSubmitted by GuateUNH on Sat, 11/24/2007 - 03:37.
I personally admire McCain's unwillingness to engage in the kind of politicking that Romney, Giuliani,Obama and Edwards get engaged in to bash Senator Hillary. McCain thinks there are different ways to approach voters. McCain instead uses his time talking about his accomplishments and things that really matter. The other candidates are using their energy and point out Hillary's weaknesses. They are going to keep doing it, since she is the front-runner. For example, Giualini mocks Hillary's voice and Mitt Romney has a playbook in which it was proposed to link Hillary to France. Come on people. This is not new and everyone that knows about politics, know that this strategy of linking a candidate with france was previously used against Kerry when he was running for the 2004 election. Edwards and Obama accused Senator of not taking a position on an issue in the debate in Philadelphia. When Obama and Edwards were asked the same question in the debate that took place in las Vegas and they struggled to answer it.
McCain remarks show that he respects others, despite of their party affiliation, position and gender. He is not going to throw rocks at Hilary because she is the leading the polls. Many might think that McCain is too soft on Hillary,and that is not going to help him in the elections. I actually believe strongly that the fact that he is approaching Senator Clinton in another way, will help him in the primaries. Even though in the general election he has to change his strategy to beat the presumptive Democratic nominee
I saw John McCain at theSubmitted by rnperkins on Sat, 10/06/2007 - 22:43.
I saw John McCain at the Barrows's house in Exeter last week and was thoroughly impressed by the Senator's performance both on stage and off. I had never seen him speak, though I have been leaning toward supporting him for some time now. Perhaps above all, his honesty, sincerity and confidence emerged at that meeting, and I'd agree that much of the audience seemed impressed by his charisma and thoughtful answers to questions. I had heard through a variety of people that he had seemed "flat" and that his age was a hindrance to his performance. Though he may not exhibit the polished flashiness of a Romney or the more bombastic 9/11 rhetoric of a Giuliani, McCain certainly gave off a refreshing sense of seasoned experience and competence and managed to, at least in my mind, dispel questions of age and energy through his warm and humourous demeanor. Finally, on a shallow level, the Navy baseball cap he wore worked well for him and made him look younger, which can only help.