McCain Targets Hillary, Spending -- And Hippies

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: John McCain

Sen. John McCain has staked out some unique ground in the GOP race: He is, it seems, positioning himself as the anti-hippie candidate.

At Sunday night's GOP debate in Florida, McCain said this:

A few days ago, Senator Clinton tried to spend $1 million on the Woodstock Concert Museum. Now, my friends, I wasn't there. I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event. I was tied up at the time. But the fact is -- my friends, no one can be president of the United States that supports projects such as these.

McCain, who earned a standing ovation for the quip, used a similar statement at a candidates' rally the day before, though there he was a bit more direct, noting that he was in prison when the concert took place.

McCain has been pushing his anti-spending message in speeches, but nothing has drawn the response that the Woodstock line has. The McCain campaign seems to realize it has a winner: It has released an ad that will appear in New Hampshire starting tomorrow that spotlights the debate quip and the standing ovation that followed.

The McCain camp has said the ad is part of a "large buy" and will run as long as it's effective.

Check out the spot

– counterculture music plays at the outset and a fleeting image of a young, dancing hippie is included as well. Trippy.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by chucktruck2 October 25, 2007 1:28 PM EDT: McCain will not win ,because of his position of "NO" on the fence even though he is changing now. Rudy can not win because of PROLIFERS and his family situations.This week''s flavor of the week BLOOMLET can not win................WAKE UP AND SMELL THE POSTUM......... Ann makes her own granola .Even with MS she as the future FIRST LADY will......CAT FIGHT....,being a convert and all,........with the past FIRST LADY HILL; Reply to this comment


by goldesprit October 25, 2007 4:25 AM EDT: John McCain is a brainwashed coward--and not just from being a POW.
He''s trying to imitate a combination of Paul Simon and Reagan (I don''t mean to slight Paul). Hes not a cute as he rather obviously imagines himself.

He is critical of those who knew we needed to get out of Viet Nam (I''m a VN vet, by the way).
And he really Loves the Party that still won''t apologise for PROVEN fools like Nixon (watch file footage of Nixon saying that he didn''t like insurance companies that actually paid benefits, in Mike moores'' movie "Sicko".

DUH.; Reply to this comment


by riversidepr October 24, 2007 9:22 PM EDT: John McCain needs to remember that the people at Woodstock (Bethel, NY, August 1969) were correct in calling for the end of the U.S. war in Vietnam. McCain isn''t qualified to be President of the United States because he continues to support the wrongheaded Bush Administration policies in Iraq. So the war hero card won''t work. The American people won''t be fooled again.; Reply to this comment