McCain: You know, it's stagecraft...
Posted: Friday, June 13, 2008 9:21 AM by Domenico Montanaro
McCain foes are, unsurprisingly, jumping on the fact that the senator's town hall tonight wasn't exactly the gritty, contentious, free-wheeling style that John McCain claims to love, NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann reports. An average town hall meeting, as evidenced by today's earlier event in Nashua, N.H., is peppered with colorful back-and-forths, rambling questioners, and frequent interruptions. Last night’s event at Freedom Hall in New York City, however, was populated mainly with McCain fans; aides to the campaign said that tickets were distributed to McCain supporters, the office of Mayor Bloomberg and "independent groups."
VIDEO: A Race for the White House panel debates: What will we learn from John McCain and Barack Obama's joint town halls?
The warmth of the audience was evident in the reaction and some of the comments from attendees. McCain won big applause for slams on Obama like this one: "He wants to raise your taxes in very difficult times. I don't think you should raise people's taxes in any time."
And then there was lavish praise from some questioners. "When I looked at your record in particular, Senator, that energized me. I was a McCain guy well before this campaign."
And, after McCain had responded to an earlier compliment about his military service by saying that he does not see himself as a hero: "The only thing that I disagreed with you on tonight is that I think that many people in the room -- including myself -- do believe that you ARE a hero."
The DNC jumped all over it (and attached a clip of
FOX's "critique"). "Once again John McCain's campaign is trying to mislead the American people," DNC chair Howard Dean said in a statement. "Senator McCain should understand that after seven years of a President who has divided Americans and pursued a scorched earth policy full of misleading propaganda campaigns, we need a leader who understands he is the President for all Americans not just his supporters. Copying the Bush campaign model of stacking events with his prescreened supporters is not the transparency Americans are looking for. If that is Senator McCain's idea of straight talk, the American people are in for a long and disappointing campaign season."
The
Washington Post seems to hint that McCain's town hall last night was designed to allay concerns among Republican insiders that McCain was up to the task of putting on a compelling campaign visually. Noting the joint town hall proposal: "The idea has helped soothe concerns among Republican strategists, who have been distraught over McCain's inability to compete with Obama's rhetorical flair. That contrast was never more evident than on the day last week when Obama clinched the Democratic nomination. In a widely panned speech in Louisiana designed to kick off the general election, McCain flubbed some lines and smiled awkwardly at moments. He stood in front of a green banner and spoke to a crowd of a couple of hundred, a setting that was lampooned by Democrats and Republicans alike. An hour or so later, Obama spoke in the center of a St. Paul, Minn., arena in front of 17,000 screaming supporters.
“ ‘McCain has the potential in town hall meetings to be really good. He has almost no potential to be really good in a big speech and zero potential being better than Obama in a big speech,’ said one Republican consultant, who asked for anonymity to discuss the campaign's strategy on the town hall challenge. ‘It's the one format where he could legitimately shine.’
“But the risks are huge for McCain. He is essentially betting the presidency on a series of side-by-side performances with his rival in a largely uncontrolled environment."
This morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Obama Communications Director Robert Gibbs said the campaign "gave them [the McCain camp] a proposal just yesterday they're looking through" on the joint town hall idea.
“McCain is ramping up his efforts to win over disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters who could hold the balance of power in several swing states this fall,” the
Boston Globe writes. “McCain's campaign yesterday announced a virtual town hall meeting tomorrow aimed at independents and Democrats, particularly backers of Clinton who aren't enamored of the presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama. The event will feature, along with McCain, Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and one of his highest-profile female supporters. ‘As a woman I take great pride in the fact that Hillary Clinton ran for president,’ Fiorina said in a Web video, adding that bold women and women in power like Clinton are treated differently.”
The
N.Y. Sun notes how McCain's tone on economic issues is very populist sounding.
RNC Chair Mike Duncan said the
party would make an issue out of Obama's relationship with people like ex-domestic terrorist William Ayers.
