I enjoy watching John McCain during townhall meetings, and the York event will mark the third one I’ve covered. That’s where McCain’s most comfortable, interacting with people, even if the question comes off as a criticism and that leads to some verbal jousting. He truly is a person whose energy and persona is done an injustice by television.
I’ve previously compared McCain to NASCAR. If you watch NASCAR on television and you’re not a fan, it’s tedious seeing these people drive an oval for 500 miles. But see a race from the grand stand of some track, and it’s an entirely different experience. The rumble of those engines, the thrill of 40 cars going 200 mph past your seat, the color of the paint jobs, the entertaining crowd … I mean, don’t let an opportunity pass you by if someone offers you a ticket, and this is coming from someone who is not by any stretch a racing aficionado.
McCain is much the same. On television, he comes off as monotoned, stiff, old, but in person he has energy and charisma. He’s as engaging a politician with a crowd as anyone else out there, and during these townhalls, he’s going to be genuine, full of a sense of duty and brutally honest. He’ll tell the crowd he believes in global warming and that it’s a man-made problem, he’ll talk about working with Ted Kennedy and Russ Feingold and a host of others that might make conservatives cringe. That’s what made him appealing to independents and independent-minded Democrats before he started shifting his stances more to the right.
I’d say if you’re an undecided voter, don’t make up your mind until you at least see John McCain and Barack Obama in person, especially if you’ve formulated your opinion of the former based on what you see on television.
