June 27, 2008
McCain: Joint Townhalls Unlikely
CLEVELAND - John McCain said he believes joint town-hall meetings with Barack Obama are now "very, very unlikely."
Speaking to reporters on his "Straight Talk Express" bus Friday, McCain said he'll keep asking.
"I think there are some events where we are, organizations that we're supposed to both be speaking to and I would hope that maybe he would join me at those," McCain said. "But it doesn't seem that-we haven't gotten any more responses from his campaign, so I'm told."
McCain said he would not portray Obama as arrogant or an elitist in the general election campaign.
"As the campaigning goes forward I will treat him with respect that the nominee of the party has earned," he said. "And it's not respectful for me to say that he is an elitist or, I am not saying that."
McCain said he references Obama's "bitter" comments because "that is not my view of the small towns in Pennsylvania that he was talking about."
"So we just have a very different opinion," he said. "That does mean to me that he is an elitist. It just means that he has a very different view of what his fundamentals of the heartland of America.''
McCain, who has been reaching out to conservative voters in recent days, said a meeting Sunday with Franklin Graham is not part of that effort.
"No, he is a man whose family is respected, incredibly respected, and I consider it a privilege to have the opportunity to meet with him," he said. "I think the Graham family really transcends politics in America. Billy Graham was an adviser to every president, and so I'm not sure that there is any---there certainly is no political aspect to of the meeting that I will have.''
(NBC/NJ's MATTHEW BERGER)
Posted at 05:36 PM
Comments
Is it just me, or is McCain flubbing literally every single aspect of this election?
Ethan | 06.27.08 06:01 PM
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This is some great McCain. If you have half a brain to read into the actual words, he's poking a great deal of fun at the Obama campaign's constant contradiction of logic and salesman's doublespeak, without overtly saying it. I am so voting for McCain.
LibertyBoyNYC | 06.27.08 06:26 PM
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well, you might be the only one
just me | 06.27.08 06:29 PM
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he's poking a great deal of fun at the Obama campaign's constant contradiction of logic and salesman's doublespeak
Wonderful and funny indeed however, what good is poking fun at a candidate who is marketed by a very powerful media?
McCain's problem with his approach is that inside jokes never play well to the masses.
Obama is a creation of marketing and marketing, my friends, know very well how to sell the glowball warming.
syn | 06.27.08 06:40 PM
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"well, you might be the only one"
Umm, that makes no sense. McCain is down about five points in nearly every poll, and he still has five months to show just how bad of a president Barack Obama would be. It's not over by a longshot there chief.
Nick | 06.27.08 08:19 PM
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"well, you might be the only one"
Umm, that makes no sense. McCain is down about five points in nearly every poll, and he still has five months to show just how bad of a president Barack Obama would be. It's not over by a longshot there chief.
Nick | 06.27.08 08:19 PM
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McCain is barely attacking Obama, getting a few jabs in here and there. Obama's taking the most damage from... himself. At this rate, McCain may win without even getting dirty.
Ryan | 06.27.08 10:00 PM
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McCain may be on to something. It seems to be generally acknowledged that Obama needs to be taken on as an Obama, not another Clinton. Obama may shape-shift, reminding one of Clintons, but he's struck a chord with many in ways Bill Clinton could only fantasize about {the Main reason for Bill's current bitterness imho}. As a previous poster mentioned, Obama is about marketing, because he's little more than a brand at the moment. Maybe McCain's strategy will allow Obama to fall on his own hubris.
bluecollarbytes | 06.27.08 10:44 PM
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To bluecollarbytes: I think Bill Clinton is pis*** at Obama because he lumped his 8-year pretty darn good presidency in with George W. Bush ("For nearly 30 years, we have had a president or vice president named Bush or Clinton."). Well, Clinton wasn't there for most of that time, and when he was it was good.
I think falsely being accused of being a racist BEFORE SOUTH CAROLINA voted kind of teed him off as well.
J.T. | 06.28.08 12:30 AM
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If I were Bill Clinton, I'd help Obama win the presidency. Then I'd lose his phone number and give him absolutely zero advice--since he didn't think the Clinton presidency had any ideas. And if Hillary isn't VP, she shouldn't give him one bit of help either.
He can call Jimmy Carter for advice, and then we'll see how good Obama really is. When he flops, we'll see he was all salesmanship and marketing. And if he can handle it without Clinton's help, then good.
Fire Keith Olbermann | 06.28.08 12:34 AM
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JT, I'm sure there are many reasons Bill dislikes Barack, BUT think what it must be like for Bill to have Obama move in, the fresh faced newcomer, and literally take over the Party from Clinton.Bill will continue to have influence, but it will be minuscule compared to the days before Obama.
bluecollarbytes | 06.28.08 12:52 AM
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No, seriously, there will always be fresh-faced newcomers--it is much bigger than that. First, I think he really got behind his wife's campaign and that is hard for him to get behind anyone not his wife.
And second, Obama literally spent much of summer 2007 through spring 2008 criticizing and downplaying Bill Clinton's accomplishments. So it isn't just that there is a newcomer, but for the newcomer to get there, he smashed Bill Clinton's legacy of good works. Many young people wrongly now associate Bill Clinton with Bush as 'part of the problem.' And calling someone a racist never helps either--and the alleged racial stuff didn't come from Clinton before SC voted, which is when the Obama campaign started calling him racist. Bill Clinton is not stupid enough to make racial comments when his white wife is trying to compete in the SC primary, which had a 55-60% black voting population.
If I were him, I'd be pissed.
J.T. | 06.28.08 12:56 AM
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If I were McCain, I wouldn't mention this again. I would go ahead and hold all those townhalls but I would put a chair in the middle of the stage clearly marked "Sen. Obama." I wouldn't talk about the chair unless asked because the empty chair would speak volumes all by itself.
Kafir | 06.28.08 08:55 AM
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"That does mean to me that he is an elitist. It just means that he has a very different view of what his fundamentals of the heartland of America."
Proofreading, please? This is awful.
NH Dem | 06.28.08 10:24 AM
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I'm with the original poster, this isn't smart. First, its pretty well known that Obama without a teleprompter is nothing more than a collection of tired liberal cliches. Second, Obama got tons of coverage during the nomination, alot of good it did him, the more we know about Obama the more the opposition hardens. Last, McCain didn't get all that exposure, and needs it.
Come'on John, get it in gear. It could potentially be a 1972, but its looking like a 1996.
pashley | 06.28.08 01:19 PM
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Obama is running scared from McCain. He knows that the town hall format plays to McCain's strength. Come on, Obama, give me a reason to vote for you. I voted Hillary during the primary and did so because I believed that she was ready to be president. Obama, by ducking these meetings, is confirming for me what I suspected: he's not ready to be president.
Tanya | 06.30.08 01:16 AM
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I'm just glad to find out McCain has a strength other than sending out half-wits to post stupid comments on blogs.
Royal King | 06.30.08 07:55 AM
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Well, there's an interesting dimension here not yet commented upon:
Obama is what Bill Clinton ran against, successfully, in 1992. Clinton ran as a Southern centrist, triangulating for the biggest vote, against the too-liberal Dems. He sold that quite well. The DLC and the moderate Dem intelligentsia were Bill's powerbase. Now Obama is counting on the Clintons for help in unifying the party. Yet he doesn't show up to the DLC meeting??!!! Maybe it's hard to shift out of fratricide mode; maybe he really just doesn't need those moderate Dems. Or maybe there's going to be a different "enthusiasm gap" than Ploufe reports.
By all media accounts, McCain should be frantic about now. But he's not. He seems fairly well in control. That may be due in part to the fact that he only has to not lose at this point. Obama is doing a very active job of soiling his own image, simply by being himself.
Pining for Chuck Todd | 06.30.08 02:00 PM
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