…drinking some coffee with senator john mccain
February 21, 2008 – 12:27 pmthis morning… me and some friends; whitlow, mark and i headed to charlie’s diner on route 25 in perrysburg, ohio. whitlow found out last night that senator john mccain would be stopping there for a meet and greet sometime around 9am. thankfully, mark got there stupid early, like 7am, and got us a booth.
now for some full disclosure, i openly support barack obama, and hope to convince as many other people as i can to vote for him on march fourth, as well as the general election. nevertheless, i’m completely in love with politics and the process as a whole, so i’ll listen to any major candidate regardless of who it is… it’s history one way or another.
so whitlow and i showed up around 8am, and the place was just starting to fill up. by the time we got there, there were only a few open seats… thankfully a few of them were being held for us by mark.
senator mccain showed up around 10am, and by then the place was PACKED. outside as well as inside. here’s some bullet points from what stuck out to me:
- first impression when i saw him up close… dude is seriously old.
- there were ron paul supporters with signs up in front of the restaurant. they certainly are tenacious.
- in the pictures i’m linking below, the first one shows a red circle over a guy. this kid fake-fainted his way up to senator mccain, and when he finally got mccain’s attention, what did he have to say? “ron paul, i’m a huge fan.” idiot.
- in the second photograph, you’ll see a man wearing a brown shirt to the right of john mccain. he was a reporter for channel 11, the cbs affliate here in toledo. as mccain was speaking (and the rest of the room hushed) this guy takes the mic back from mccain and starts talking, loudly, into it. so, in a moment that made me actually forget about all the reasons i dislike mccain, the senator took the microphone (not in a rude way or anything) from the reporter and said into it “i’m john mccain, and we’re here at charlies, and this guy is interrupting me.” the crowd went nuts. it was absolutely hilarious.
- listen, there are a few things about mccain i like. he seems to be very straight forward, and his plan for veterans healthcare is quite good (which he spoke about this morning). his plan is to give all veterans a card that will allow them to get whatever medical care they need at whatever physician they so choose. but i cannot get behind his war policy, or the fact that he’s more of the same. i just don’t see enough change from the current administration in him.
- the new york times article, about the alleged affair with the telecom lobbyist was not brought up. i don’t want to jump to conclusions here, but if there is a “dress in the freezer” type moment in this investigation, mark my words… mitt romney will get back in the race. as it stands now, he is probably somewhere banging his head against a table wishing he wouldn’t have dropped out when he did.
- we got interviewed by the columbus dispatch and toledo free press. wonder if we’ll get quoted in either.
- all in all, mccain was pretty civil. he didn’t spend any time slamming other candidates… he didn’t mention them once.
- he spent his time talking solely about the economy, healthcare, and a little bit about the war.
- there was a serious pandering moment though, when he started talking about the ohio state buckeyes. i mean seriously, if that’s not pandering to a crowd, i don’t know what is.
- here’s an interesting fact… out of the hundreds of people i saw there, other than a couple press people, there was not a single black person in attendance. in addition, i only saw a few other minorities.
- we guessed the median age of people there (not counting kids and people too young to vote) at 56.
see the rest of the set on my flickr by clicking here.
12 Responses to “…drinking some coffee with senator john mccain”
Nice coverage!
By LisaRenee on Feb 21, 2008
You guys have Black People in Ohio…weird.
By Jason on Feb 21, 2008
One more blog site that calls a Ron Paul supporter an idiot. Hopefully you’ve met others who support Ron Paul and don’t consider all of us to act in this manner. Have you actually compared Obama to Paul? You would have someone run this nation who does not have a solvent campaign? Don’t take my word for this, see for yourself at: http://www.opensecrets.org
Our nation has many financial woes and not one candidate other than Ron Paul is addressing this issue and their campaigns are in debt as well. America is headed towards using a Real Id Card? Do you know what this means to our freedom? Again, Ron Paul is the only candidate even mentioning this. How about paying taxes for your internet usage? and keeping 130 military bases open in other countries when we close those on our own soil? I’d like to see Obama at least look into these and other issues that are detrimental to healing our nation. Until he does, my vote for Ron Paul will be written on a ballot if necessary.
By JC on Feb 21, 2008
to be fair jc… i know and work with a few different ron paul supporters. i have nothing against them, or ron paul himself, as a whole. i’m merely pointing out that THIS PARTICULAR guy was an idiot. so i would appreciate not being lumped in as “one more blog” that does anything.
By joshua on Feb 21, 2008
You can’t get behind someone who is more of the same, ha? Then why are you choosing Obama? That makes absolutely no sense.
If you want REAL change, then I suggest you give Ron Paul a look, not a wikipedia look, but a look into his books he’s written and speaches he has made in Congress.
I can gaurantee you this, if Ron Paul had the same exposure and recognition in the meda that Obama has had, this election would be no contest in favor of Dr. Paul.
I get very agitated when Obama uses his coin word, “Change” because all he’s doing is saying a word without having the substance behind it. But, of course, quick phrases that don’t have any backbone behind them is what politics is usually about anyways. Thank God for Ron Paul!
By Troy Thompson on Feb 21, 2008
Excellent reporting good sir!
By Mud Puppy on Feb 21, 2008
Rob Wiercinski is the reporter from WTOL, as a John Edwards supporter I understand the disappointment that Ron Paul supporters must feel, but the reality is voters have not gotten behind Paul in the numbers needed.
All campaigns have supporters that do things that some of us would say “Oh geez”…I don’t think Joshua was dissing all Ron Paul supporters, only the specific one mentioned.
When I was at an event where Bill Clinton was speaking, there were Obama people outside selling buttons (no one appeared to be buying) and Lyndon Larouch supporters handing out flyers. I said “Oh geez”…
By LisaRenee on Feb 21, 2008
LisaRenee - i was a huge edwards supporter too, and sad when he dropped out.
mudpuppy - thank you sir!
troy - i don’t think he would win no contest, but i do concede that more people would be paying attention.
By joshua on Feb 21, 2008
A very good account with fair treatment of the Senator by a supporter of the opposing candidates.
Median age of 56 would mean Boomers. They are the majority age group, eh?
Mac Is Back!
By Helios on Feb 21, 2008
A continuation of the Bush foreign policy- 100 more years in Iraq! Sign me up! We have too many young people in the US anyway.
A bonus- he’d keep the racist War on Drugs going indefinitely too!
Wow that guy is brilliant, and so compassionate.
By Frank on Feb 22, 2008
Joshua, it’s almost been as sad to watch the former Edwards supporters line up on different sides of the aisle. It was a pretty amazingly diverse bunch of us that supported Edwards…It’s been about half and half from those I know who supported Edwards to Obama and Clinton, with a few saying probably due to their disappointment that they aren’t going to vote at all, or vote for Edwards in Ohio since he’s still going to be on the ballot.
By LisaRenee on Feb 23, 2008
hey, i just wanted to add that i was there. …. freezing in the cold… holding my RON PAUL signs!!! ha. although, i have come to realize that the majority of ron paul folks there… are kinda weird… ok, they are really weird.
By Addison on Feb 26, 2008