Portsmouth, NH Herald: McCain jokes that NH’s primary status should continue because voters “get to see you, make comments and give you the occasional insult.”
Michael McCord of the Portsmouth (NH) Herald covered Senator McCain’s appearance on Friday in front of business leaders there. Here are excerpts:
PORTSMOUTH — In an appearance Friday before local business leaders and supporters, Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain reaffirmed his support for New Hampshire’s status as the first-in-the-nation primary — even if he didn’t know if it will be in 2007 or 2008.
“I guess we could probably have the primary tomorrow,” McCain quipped about the uncertain date of the primary calendar after South Carolina announced it would move up its Republican primary date into January. He wasn’t joking when he called the New Hampshire primary a vital part “of the American political process.”…
McCain, who won the 2000 New Hampshire primary in an upset over then-GOP front-runner and Texas Gov. George W. Bush, said New Hampshire’s primary process should be retained because it allows voters and candidates to meet each other, often more than once.
“They get to see you, make comments and give you the occasional insult,” he said.
During the one-hour morning session, McCain returned to familiar campaign themes that have often put him at odds with his own party and the political establishment in Washington, D.C. — a corrupt political process and an undisciplined Congress that has ignored vital issues such as infrastructure investment, ethics reform, budget deficits and entitlement program overhauls for Social Security and Medicare…
“He’s best equipped to deal with the crazies,” said Maureen Barrows of Exeter, a longtime McCain supporter and a Rockingham County commissioner. “I’m 71, and this will be the most important election of my lifetime. He would be the best to lead this country in very difficult times.”
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