Posted on 01/14/2008 7:41:37 PM PST by rface
(CNSNews.com) - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain kept his promise and called a heckler.
McCain had publicly promised to telephone a vocal audience member whom he encountered at a conservative voters' event in Michigan over the weekend at which he and fellow Republicans Mitt Romney and Duncan Hunter made appearances. The heckler, John A. Hillman, said he was surprised to get the call.
"I thought, if he does call, it will just be a staffer calling and I'd get a, 'You talked to the senator, about ... blah-blah-blah,'" Hillman told Cybercast News Service on Monday. "But I picked up the phone and he said, 'Hi John, this is John McCain. Do you have a few minutes?' And I said, 'Absolutely. I've got a few minutes, senator.'"
Hillman, a 63-year-old car salesman in the Detroit suburb of Livonia, Mich., said he attended the Saturday afternoon event, the Defending the American Dream Summit, to get an up-close view of the candidates. He got more than he bargained for.
"I was sitting in the front row, and he was about 15 feet away - so I think that's probably why he noticed it so much - and he was talking about protectionism. He said, 'We have to guard against protectionism.' And I went 'Boo' - and he looked around, and that's when he said, 'It appears that I have someone who disagrees with me.' And I said, 'Yes, sir, you do.'"
Hillman said he wasn't planning to be vocal, and he wasn't trying to be disrespectful. His comment just slipped out. He was surprised when McCain invited him to comment or ask a question.
"I told him: 'It's my opinion that it's never been a question of the Big Three (automakers) asking to be protected from the government, more than just a level playing field. It's my opinion that over the last 25 or 30 years, protectionism has been for the importers and not for our country,' Hillman added.
"And I said, 'It is a very bothersome thing that it isn't a level playing field. I'd really love to talk to you about it sometime.' And he said, 'I'll tell you what, I'll have one of my staffers get your cell number, and I'll call you on my next leg.' And by golly, he did," he said.
McCain called two-and-a-half hours after the Saturday event, Hillman said, and the pair chatted for about eight to 10 minutes on several issues, in give-and-take fashion.
One topic was environmentalism.
"He said, 'Would you agree with me on the greening of America, to a degree?" And I said, 'to a minor degree.'"
As part of that, Hillman said they also discussed CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards - Congress recently revised the CAFE regulation to require car manufacturers to make vehicles get at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
"I said, 'I think it's a huge mistake. I'm not going to purport to be an expert on that, when you've got all the experts in the business and the field telling you that it is virtually impossible to reach a corporate CAFE of 35 by 2020 without damaging the business, but maybe you shouldn't have made it a law yet,'" Hillman said.
"And, he said, 'We can't be dependent on foreign oil forever.' And I said, 'I agree with you. Why we can't drill up in Alaska is totally beyond my comprehension. All the arguments used originally for drilling up there were found to be untrue. I guess, Senator, we're going to have to agree to disagree.' And he said, 'Absolutely,'" he added.
Was Hillman won over by the chat?
"I still think he's a man of integrity. I think he's honest," said Hillman. "I don't think I agree with some of the stuff he believes in, but who am I? I'm just a guy out here selling cars for 41 years that lives with the results of what these people down in Washington and Lansing, Mich., do."
Calls to the McCain campaign were not returned by press time.
OK, oil is an addiction.
But the MORE expensive, largely unavailable sources of energy - insisting we use them now is not an addiction? It’s not insanity?
I am really struck that even some Freepers buy into the idea we shouldnt use oil and we should disrupt the economy and jeapordize national security to switch to unavailable sources of energy - because that’s what they want and it makes them feel better.
Until they invent the flux capacitor to run not only our cars, but those of 3 billion Chinese and Indians, this is insanity.
“greening of America” ?????? Add that to a long list of things I dissagree with McCain on.
and the baby seals.
Depends...* NEWS FLASH * India has just produced a $2,500 automobile that seats 5 (with some discomfort), is made primarily (chasis) of hardened cardboard and paint and goes 65 mph. It was manufactured, according to its builder, so the "average person" could afford an automobile. Did I mention that India is the 2nd most populated world country and that the vehicle runs on gasoline...
The most populated nation, China, is also producing a cheap car for the "average person". It, too, will run on gasoline...soon the demand for oil will double; then it will quadruple (bearing, of course, if there isn't a WWIII to help alleviate the demand.) Nevertheless, though we indeed need ANWAR now, it won't matter much at that point.
If only those who want to drill ANWR to postpone the day of reckoning by a few months, had half so fervent a wish to stop wasting oil, we wouldn't be in the fix we're in to begin with.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.