McCain Makes Final Iowa Push
"The last McCain event I came to there were 25 people," a reporter said as he was being jostled to make room for more people, more media, more cameras. The too-small space suggested a last minute decision to come to Iowa from New Hampshire, one that might be explained by the fact that McCain is now sitting at a surprising (though distant) third in many Iowa polls.
When McCain did finally arrive, he was introduced by Senators Sam Brownback, John Thune and Lindsey Graham, the last of whom, this reporter noted for the first time, bears something of a resemblance to comedian Ricky Gervais. (The impression was only enhanced by Graham's occasional eye rolling and joke telling: Standing in the sweltering room, he quipped that he might have changed his position on global warming.) Brownback, meanwhile, told the crowd that McCain would appoint "strict constructionist" judges to the bench.
McCain himself, clad in a brown leather jacket, was relatively upbeat while making what amounted to a standard stump speech. He took out a pen and promised to veto pork-barrel bills. He talked about "the transcendent challenge" of "radical Islamic extremism." He said the surge in Iraq is succeeding and discussed how he stood by the strategy even as his campaign was being declared dead.
On McCain's way out, Nichole McDowell, who had come to the event with her infant son Wesley, asked the senator for a picture. McDowell's husband Zac is an army sergeant whom, she said, McCain had met in Iraq. McCain, she said, had her vote.
"The man is amazing," said McDowell, cradling her son in her arms. "He is the only man who has made an effort to see our troops and see this thing through."