John McCain Visits Fort Dodge

John McCain was in Fort Dodge Tuesday for a town hall meeting. This will be just bits and pieces about the event. I wasn't able to take notes, but you can find out more about that here, here, and here. The DesMoines Register also has photos on their website, and both WHO TV and KCCI have video on their website.

• There was around 150 people who filled the Opera House to hear the Senator. The campaign provided a free lunch of ham or turkey sandwiches, chips, cookies and pink lemonade for everyone.

• While he was about 20 minutes late, several people were impressed that McCain stuck around afterwards until everyone had a chance to meet him and get an autograph or a picture. I'm not sure how many people there were, but it was a good number of people. Everyone is used to candidates hurrying to get to the door in order to stay on schedule, so this was refreshing.
  

• McCain's jokes were well received. Its hard to say which one went over the best, but I always enjoy the one about the drunken sailor. There were two exchanges with the audience that stick out in my mind. One was the discussion over ethanol. The gentleman asked McCain about his stance on ethanol, and how it differed from his stance in 2000. He went to return the mic, when McCain told the handler to give the mic back because he wanted to hear the gentleman's reaction. The two went back and forth 3 or 4 times, discussing the effects of ethanol on cattlemen and hog farmers, as well as comparing ethanol with other forms of renewable and non-fossil fuel energy. There was another gentleman who stood up and said how touched he was about how McCain, after going through what he did in the Hanoi Hilton, was able to forgive his captors. The Senator responded that it was a case that you have to move on in life, even though there are a couple of his captors he wouldn't mind seeing again.

• As everyone knows, McCain's number one issue is the war, and he hit on that topic several times during the event. He fully supports the troop surge and said that we were starting to see results, and asks that everyone gives it time to succeed. He also hit on the fact that by picking up and leaving now, we leave the door open to genocide and chaos.

The campaign should be very happy with the event. Webster and surrounding counties have done a great job in turning out for presidential candidates, so lets keep it up. It's areas like ours where candidates love to flock to and spend time.

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