McCain's Town Hall Meeting Readies Him for Debate
SALEM, N.H. -- At Senator John McCain's town hall today in Salem, he was greeted by one of the largest crowds we've seen yet. Over 1,000 people packed themselves into the Woodbury School gymnasium.
While McCain stood on the stage waiting to be introduced, a line of protesters stood up holding black and white signs with the words "HIV/AIDS prevention". They began chanting and then walked out of the room as people in the audience booed.
McCain invited at least one of them to come back and to comment during the Q & A, claiming that's the purpose of these town hall meetings: to discuss issues.
But atn that moment another woman in a different section of the audience started yelling out as McCain was speaking.
"One of the things we do in these town halls is treat each other with respect," he told the woman. He asked if she could wait until the question period but she wouldn't stop.
"You can't be from New Hampshire, lady," he said and the room applauded.
"Listen, I've got some old veterans here," he joked.
Audience members at this point are booing her and yelling for her to go home, others just watched the spectacle.
McCain campaign staffer and debate coach Brett O'Donnell said free speech is what makes democracy great. "I think he [McCain] made a pretty good offer giving them the chance to speak in the Q & A but that wasn't good enough for them," he said.
McCain is headed to back to his hotel with O'Donnell to prepare for tonight's Fox News debate.
And it turns out today's town hall was part of his debate routine. "We've done the same routine since the first debate, which is we have a town hall, he has a little downtime and then we get him focused," O'Donnell told CBS News. "These events get his adrenaline going."