McCain focuses on 'undecideds'
from the Cincinnati Enquirer
That Republican John McCain would come to Cincinnati for a town hall forum with undecided voters so early in the general election campaign made it clear that he knows this will be a major battleground between him and Barack Obama.
And what he talked about made it clear the battle won't be won on the issues he has been most comfortable with in his long congressional career - national security, defense, and, in recent years, the war on radical Islamic terrorists.
"The economy, the economy, and the economy,'' the senator from Arizona said after his town hall performance at Xavier University's Schmidt Hall. His response came after a reporter asked him to name the three most important issues he will use to influence Ohio's undecided voters.
That became clear early in to his 72-minute town hall forum at Schmidt Hall, where about 160 undecided Hamilton County voters and a handful of Xavier students had an opportunity to question the soon-to-be official GOP nominee.
"America is going through difficult times; Ohio is going through difficult times,'' McCain told the crowd. "I understand that. But this is America. There has never been a challenge we did not meet." ...
Video and Photos from Cincinnati.com
... at Xavier, McCain seemed to be in his element, fielding questions friendly and not-so-friendly on a wide range of issues - gas prices, energy independence, the war in Iraq, education and why he considers himself different from President Bush, whose approval ratings are at a record low.
In brief remarks before the question-and-answer period, McCain struck his principal theme of the day - what he calls his "Lexington Plan" for fuel conservation, alternative energy and increasing production of oil and coal energy.
One question came from Jack Kuntz, a local entrepreneur who runs a small Blue Ash company that converts gasoline-burning automobiles to electric battery-powered cars. He asked what the federal government could do to help small business owners develop new technology. It fit into McCain's theme of the day perfectly - energy conservation and production.
McCain said that his energy plan includes more federal government involvement in encouraging private businesses to develop automobiles that run on electricity, flex-fuel and hybrid engines.
"I want to see flex-fuel sold at every gas station in the country," McCain said. He said that he also wants to see 45 new nuclear power plants built over the next 15 years, which he said would create 700,000 new jobs.
"People talk about the safety of nuclear energy," McCain said. "Our Navy has had nuclear submarines sailing all over the world for over 60 years and we have not had one problem.'' ...
McCain has issued a standing invitation to Barack Obama to join him in the series of "town hall" meetings, but the Democratic candidate, who holds a lead in most national polls, has not accepted the offer. Obama, in fact, was in the New Hampshire village of Unity Thursday, for his first joint appearance with his former rival Hillary Clinton.
One of Clinton's supporters, Rosemary Meinders of Westwood, was one of the invited undecided voters who showed up at the town hall meeting; she wore her Hillary Clinton baseball cap and was called on by McCain.
She recommended Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, as his running mate; and asked him, among other things, what he would do as president to end oppression of women around the world, particularly in the Middle East.
McCain told her he believed the U.S. military involvement in both Iraq and Afghanistan have done much to improve the lives of women in those countries and would continue to do so. ...
Katie Haap of Colerain, a senior at Xavier University who attended the forum, said she is still undecided but was impressed by the senator. "I thought he gave very good answers that were very in-depth, as far as he could go for an hour,'' she said. "It was important to me to see him in person, not just from television and hear his points on issues.'' She said she probably won't know who to vote for Nov. 4 "until I get in there'' to cast the ballot.
Before he left the forum, McCain assured the crowd that he would be back to Ohio many times between now and the Nov. 4 election. And, he said, he expects a close election here.
Ohio, McCain said, "may be one of those states were we are going to be up late on the night of Nov. 4."
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