Why McCain Is So Pumped
One day before the South Carolina primary, John McCain set aside his town hall meetings for good, old-fashioned rallies.
He's creating picture-rich, feel-good events, and his family - including several children - have joined him for the last full day of campaigning.
The "Straight Talk Express" rolled into Charleston at mid-day, where a lively crowd, mostly of students, packed the gymnasium at the College of Charleston.
Long before the Senator arrived, the gym was decorated with hand-painted enthusiasm: signs reading "Raising McCain," "American Hero," and most dramatically, "Break the Iron Triangle (drawing of same marked on its three sides "Lobbyists, Legislation, $$$").
McCain's campaign stops have to be the only ones where the DJ spins the theme song to The Simpsons as the crowd drifts in. At a Bush rally, you could imagine people hearing it with puzzled smiles; the McCain audience Friday took it in stride.
McCain's arrival was replete with pomp: pounding music, flashing colored lights, and a beauty pageant style walkway, slightly elevated, down which McCain strode, parting the seas as he shook hands with people standing at either side.
It was all designed to appeal to the throng of students piled into the room, sitting on bleachers stretching to the ceiling. Most candidates give at least lip service to the young, but McCain does seem genuinely eager to cultivate them.
"You are what this campaign is all about, what this commitment is all about," he said.
Many of them have a commitment to him, as well. The first thing Josh Eskew, a student at the College, said when asked why he liked McCain, was "his appeal to younger voters." Eskew said he planned to drive three hours Saturday so he can vote at home for McCain.
"He's someone who has great qualities, even if you don't agree with his politics," said another student, Marie Maupin, a Democrat.
And it isn't just young, new voters who are geared up about McCain. In Sun City, a retirement community in heavily Republican Beaufort County, a crowd of older voters applauded as heartily as any "Generation Y" group. In Charleston, one elderly woman rolled up her sleeve to show a reporter a bandage on her arm. "I'm supposed to go to the hospital for my heart," she said. "But I told the doctor I won't go in till I vote for McCain on Saturday."
It's anecdotal evidence like this that has the McCain campaign so optimistic. This morning's headline in The State, a Columbia newspaper, gave them another boost. The paper reports a dramatic upswing in absentee ballots issued for Saturday's primary - state officials say those ballots may set a record, not just for a primary, but for any election. When CBS News' Phil Jones showed McCain the paper and asked what it meant, the candidate answered, "That's why we're going to win."