Sen. McCain’s “Outreach Program” Reaches To Skinny Moose Media

This afternoon I had the opportunity to participate in a telephone conference call with Sen. John McCain. As part of his Outreach Program, bloggers/journalists are invited to listen in to comments made by the presumptive republican nominee to run for the presidency of the United States and pose questions or comments if time permits. Although this was my second invitation, this was the first time I have been able to participate due to time constraints.

Mr. McCain was running late, but once on board he took about 5 minutes to make some brief comments. He congratulated Hillary Clinton for the efforts she put into her campaign and then acknowledged that Sen. Barack Obama would be the presumptive counterpart in the race for the White House representing the democratic party.

From there Sen. McCain informed us that he has already extended an invitation to Sen. Obama to participate in 10 town hall-type debates/meetings between now and November’s general election. The first one is tentatively scheduled for June 12, 2008 at Federal Hall in New York City. McCain awaits a response to his invitation from the Obama camp.

John McCain also took the opportunity to begin what appears to be the theme for his upcoming campaign telling us that Obama’s perspective of things is skewed, he is inexperienced and cannot lead this country. He says that Obama denies that the troop surge in Iraq was effective and pointed out that in all this time, Obama has not sought any kind of briefing with Gen. Patreus.

The facilitator of the conference then instructed us to press *1 on our phone dials if we had a question or comment for the Senator. By the time I fumble with my cell phone, of which I totally despise, I got put on the “first come first served” list but didn’t get to ask a question. Maybe I’ll be faster next time.

I would say Sen. McCain fielded around six questions dealing with an array of topics, none of which were any I intended to inquire about. I was surprised in a way to listen to the questions asked and found myself asking, “Why ask that?”

Most of the questions were non confrontational, except for one that asked the Senator if he was going to change his tone with conservative voters and stop using liberal talking points in dealing with them. Needless to say that question didn’t get a lot of response.

Jim Geraghty of National Review got me chuckling.

Is it accurate that June 3, 2008, was the moment that America began providing care for the sick? And on a slightly more serious note, when your opponent goes on these rhetorical flights of fancy, how do you bring him back down to earth? How do you persuade people that this isn’t so world-changing, and that Americans did in fact care for the sick before yesterday? (emphasis is mine)

From there McCain explained that this was one of the reasons he is seeking the town hall meetings, so that both can respond to the same questions.

I was surprised at the brevity of the conference but grateful that I had a chance to participate. I need to practice with my fingers and get that *1 down pat.

For those wondering what I was going to ask the Senator, here is my question exactly as I had written it down in preparation.

Senator McCain – Thank you for taking time and addressing my question. In an email you sent to supporters yesterday, you spoke of “the right change” in comparing your ideas with those of Senator Obama. At what price does a gallon of gas at the pumps have to reach before you will reconsider your position of no drilling in the United States and offshore?

Maybe next week!

Tom Remington