DISCLAIMER: This is a post about my own personal experiences on Friday February 29th, 2008 at a Dell Political Action Committee sponsored town hall meeting featuring Presidential hopeful Arizona Senator John McCain. What follows are my own views and in no way reflect on Dell, Inc. or any of its subsidiaries.
On Monday February 25th I received an email announcing that John McCain would be coming to Dell to hold an informal “Town Hall” meeting with Dell employees. Being in a U.S. Government class during the primaries, I thought it may be an interesting way to become more involved in the subject matter if I were to attend. The only issue I saw was that registration was on a first come first serve basis and there were only about 300 seats available to employees. I waited until the designated time and registered as many times as I could. Rumor has it that all the seats were spoken for within 6 minutes of open registration. On Thursday, I received a confirmation email with information about the meeting.
While not a big fan of John McCain, I was very excited for the opportunity to attend and to be a part of the function. On Friday morning, I went directly to the site of the meeting. As I pulled in to the parking lot 2 hours before the event, I was greeted with a spectacle to boggle the mind. The front half of the lot was cordoned off and all along the front curb about seven or eight satellite trucks from every media outlet crowded together. There were hundreds of media people all running around trying to get ready for the arrival of John McCain.
Picture from http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2205/2300705739_b565a49b00_m.jpg
As I entered the lobby, the place was already packed. Michael Dell and Don Carty sat casually off to one side on the only couches available and hundreds of people wandered around aimlessly while camera crews strung a plethora of wires in and out of the building. About 9:40, ushers began to line people up and advised us on where we could find our name tags.
I entered in the room I was greeted with softly playing house techno and a scene bathed in neon blue light with Dell logos pasted on the walls. I took my seat almost dead center second row from the back. The room was filled to the brim with camera equipment and media people. Video cameras and crews sat atop risers all along the back row as people slid in to their seats all around me. Suddenly, there was an usher to my right telling our row that we will need to be ushered out first because McCain will need to stand exactly where we are for the follow up news conference. Looking around the room, it’s clear that this is a standing room only affair. A little more hustle and bustle and news reaches us that the McCain “Straight Talk Express” has arrived and the proceedings are about to begin. Dozens of photographers jockey for position to get the best shot of the participants coming in. In some cases, it looks as if the photographers might come to blows. In my opinion, it was an oddly garish welcome for a presidential candidate.
As I pondered the Rock-star like atmosphere, Don Carty took the stand and began to introduce the dignitaries. Former Senator Phil Gramm was first in and took his seat to far stage right. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was next followed by Texas Governor Rick Perry and finally Senator McCain. As Don Carty continued the introduction, he made a comparison of the hoopla over McCain to the Frenzy that was the Hannah Montana concert in Austin a few weeks ago. When the floor was finally turned over to McCain, he was greeted with a standing ovation
McCain began with a few general remarks about why government matters and a joke for the benefit of Rick Perry – not sure what he meant by it, but neither did Mike Ward. McCain spoke a little about each of the political figures with him on the stage and sang their praises. Gramm, Hutchison and Perry have all been previously mentioned as possible candidates for the VP slot. In fact, Texas Senator John Cornyn had suggested Hutchison would be the best fit for the job.
As McCain took the stage, it was apparent that he was comfortable but obviously fatigued. McCain walked around the stage quite a bit and spoke his mind on several subjects. McCain first made references to other failed presidential bids by people politicians from Arizona including Morris Udall and joked that “Arizona is the only state where mothers don’t tell their children that they could grow up to be President”
McCain began to get serious and spoke about the economy. McCain stated that although he was not sure if America was in a recession, he was sure that the fundamentals of America’s economy were still strong. He stated America had the hardest working and most innovative employees in the world. McCain stated that he was in favor of “Displaced Worker Education Programs” being revamped. He stated that the current programs were designed in the 1950’s and had not been updated since. …and here’s the kicker… He said “I want to revamp and update these programs so those displaced workers can get a better education and to come work here, at Dell.”
McCain also spoke about making the tax cut permanent and stated that America has the second highest tax on businesses in the World with Japan having the highest.
McCain stated that he thought climate change to be a real problem and spoke about the high cost of foreign oil. McCain stated that if he were elected, he would push for green technologies and nuclear power.
McCain made clear that he still believed that the single most important issue was that of Radical Islam and vowed to follow Osama Bin Laden strait to the “Gates of Hell”.
A few minutes later, McCain reiterated that he feels the “Surge” is working
McCain also took a pot shot at his Democratic rivals stating that Canada may not be too happy with the United States if the government were to pull NAFTA and praised Canada’s continued support in Afghanistan.
As the focus was changed from McCain speaking to McCain answering questions and volunteers jostled around with microphones looking for people to ask questions, I looked at the politicians on the stage. Senator Gramm looked like he have fallen asleep for a moment. Kay Bailey sat in an unmoving statuesque pose and Perry shifted uncomfortably in his seat with a dour expression on his face looking as if he were suffering form a hemorrhoid flare up or possibly wishing he were sitting behind Rudy Giuliani instead.
The first question was from a former Marine who had served in Operation: Iraqi Freedom on what could be done about soldiers coming home suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or P.T.S.D. McCain first thanked the man for his service and quoted George Washington saying, “The willingness of future generations to serve is dependent on how we treated veterans from previous wars.” McCain proposed to extend vouchers to Veterans who had routine issues that could be used at the doctor of their choice in order to free up the V.A. to focus on other more pertinent issues.
McCain answered several other questions, a few of which were obviously loaded, and wrapped up his remarks. As the town hall portion of the meeting was coming to a close, my row was quickly ushered out the door in order to make room for the press conference portion of the meeting. We were told that we were welcome to wait in the lobby for McCain’s emergence, however, I was unable to stay and left before the traffic really got bad.
Topics of the other questions addressed in the Town Hall portion:
Expansion of National Passenger Rail systems
NAFTA Super Highway (more)– Creation of a North American Union
Tax Incentives for companies that do not outsource overseas
Immigration Policy – failure of Cuban Embargo
Supporting our Troops
Vaccine Induced Autism (more) response from Washington
Federally funded Cancer Research – Lance Armstrong Foundation
Gas Taxes
Question from another man born on a U.S. Military base who had to get a green card to work in the U.S. even though his parents were both citizens on how the law could be change to prevent future issues. (McCain was also born on an overseas military base and has had his citizenship questioned in the past.)
All in all, I have to say that I enjoyed my first real political experience. The sensory overload that I experienced was quite exhilarating. Next time I’ll have to attend a function for a candidate that I’m actually passionate about one way or the other.
Here are some links to Media coverage – in no particular order
Articles:
News 8 Austin
KVUE
Austin American-Statesman
KXAN/MSNBC
Pictures:
Austin American-Statesman
Zimbio
PoliticalBase
KVUE
Video:
News 8 Austin - you can see the back of my fat red head in this one as the first veteran asks his question and I furiously scribble notes
KVUE
K-EYE TV
Fox – 1
Fox - 2
Blogs:
View From My Right
McBlogger
Post Cards from the Lege
There are many other links, but that’s what Google is for ;)
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