Posted by
on Tuesday, October 10, 2006 10:28:00 PM
Senator McCain was in Michigan
today co-hosting a townhall style meeting with Senate candidate Mike
Bouchard. McCain has always been very
popular in Michigan,
so it seemed like a great move on Bouchard’s part to bring McCain in for an
event. Bouchard looked solid and posed
as always- he was particularly strong in his insistence on a televised debate
with Senator Stabenow. Senator McCain
was on target during the meeting- fielding very tough questions from the
audience and handling them with ease. Perhaps
the most impressive part, for me anyway (because I seem to have no ability
whatsoever to talk to liberals), was when McCain at one point was going back
and forth with a very pro-environment woman who wanted to pin him down on
global warming. He fired back that the
only way to significantly cut down on our emissions is through using nuclear
power- which clearly made her uncomfortable.
Instead of moving on like most politicians do, he let her continue her
question by asking about wind and water alternatives. He then pointed out that he was in favor of
them, but that they would never, unless made much more efficient, be able to
handle much of the energy load.
The conservatives I talked to seemed impressed with him as
well, as he outlined a very clear and strong stance on North Korea,
while also addressing their concerns about his illegal immigration stances
head-on. Usually when faced with an
unfavorable question, politicians tend to dance away from it and move on. Senator McCain seemed to cherish the hardest
and most aggressive questions, including some grilling from conservatives on
his illegal immigration stance. In
general, it went very well, especially because it was followed up by a press
conference slamming the Clintons.