Posted on 06/14/2008 6:41:40 AM PDT by engrpat
Star-Telegram staff writer
John McCain is ignoring 7,000 Texas Republicans this weekend.
Some of them are returning the favor.
Instead of speaking to the state party convention this weekend, McCain will come to Texas on Monday to raise money at a Dallas barbecue.
"Where is he?" asked Sara Fischer, 31, of Mansfield, brushing past a volunteer futilely trying to pass out McCain lapel stickers.
"I didn't support McCain," she said. "But I have to now. He's our candidate. It seems like he should be here."
Inside the exhibit hall, the McCain T-shirts at one souvenir stand were marked down from $15 to $8 -- two for $15.
At the door, campaign volunteer Hector Medina, 26, of San Antonio waved McCain stickers as delegates streamed past.
"Some Republicans aren't very excited," said Medina, an Army recruit leaving Monday for basic training. "They just say, 'He's not my guy.'"
McCain is not snubbing the entire state. Besides coming to Dallas and Midland on Monday, he'll go to Houston on Tuesday for what is billed as a major speech on energy policy.
But today, he's somewhere hosting a telephone town hall meeting at cityhall.johnmccain.com.
That could originate anywhere. They have phones now in Houston.
"The senator is looking forward to coming to Texas Monday, and he will be delivering a major policy speech," said McCain spokesman Jeff Sadosky, returning a call.
Keynote speaker and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney of Massachusetts was authorized to represent McCain at the convention, along with former candidate and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sadosky said.
Republican state Rep. Phil King of Weatherford helped lead the Texas presidential campaign for Huckabee, who was loudly applauded for a down-home speech Friday afternoon.
"I'm really surprised that McCain's not here," King said. "I've always been told that this is the largest gathering of Republicans in the country. I'm taken aback."
(Sometimes, Texas' convention outdraws the national event.)
King went over the case for McCain: "He's very strongly pro-life. He's strong on defense. I feel confident in his Supreme Court nominees. But he's not as strong on immigration as I want and not the fiscal conservative we need."
U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Flower Mound, an obstetrician, is helping write McCain's healthcare platform.
"The reality is, his campaign needs are greater in other places," Burgess said. "Texas' vote is probably not a question mark."
One recent poll showed McCain winning Texas with 52 percent to 39 for Democratic nominee Barack Obama. But McCain might lose the 5 percent of Texas Republicans who supported the presidential candidacy of maverick U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.
Fischer, the conventioneer who didn't want a McCain sticker, said she supported Huckabee.
"Huckabee is funny," she said. "He's seems like my dad. McCain seems like the old uncle that you have to bring to holiday parties."
Her biggest complaint is that she hasn't seen enough of McCain. The extended Democratic campaign has resulted in two months of free publicity for Obama.
"Obama is a much more appealing candidate to people my age," she said. "He has better ads and better music. ... McCain hasn't been on TV at all. I really don't know anything about him, except that he was in Vietnam."
And that he wasn't in Texas.
I'm convinced that's where we got the current batch. I find myself hoping for an insurrection at the GOP convention in which all the delegates suddenly awaken, like drugged zombies who were made to participate in ungodly rituals until miraculously, the drugs wear off and they find themselves standing at the edge of an abyss, led by a madman.
How did we get here, and what the hell are we doing?
Don't mess with TEXAS!
I don't know if I can vote for McCain or will write in a real conservative's name.
I have a friend who worked for the RNC in D.C. about 25 years ago....will NOT vote for McCain! No chance, no way, no how! Not gonna happen.
I'd rather vote for Cindy! John married above himself intellectually and financially.
I have donated every time I get a letter asking for a contribution... I keep a dollar bill in the bottom of the bird cage just for such occasions. :)
My sticker will say, McCain/Obama 08, Rid ourselves of two dodo birds with one election.
Agreed.
He wasn’t at the Arizona Convention either.
I love your bumper sticker.
Obama sucks, McCain sucks less, VOTE McCain
It does seem like he’d make the convention for his home state in such an important year for him.
Whether you like or dislike McCain, going to any Republican State Convention would be a mistake. The media would have a field day. Our Oklahoma Convention did not have a keynote speaker and good thing they didn’t. One group tried to remove delegates to the National Convention so they could go vote against McCain even though by the Rules OK is a winner take all state. Our Convention was disgusting from beginning to end.
If I was advising McCain, I would tell him to stay away from any State Convention where there are problems and yes this includes Texas. I have talked to someone at TX GOP who said you don’t want to subject any major candidate to what is about to happen. Supporters of a candidate that got less then 5% of the vote in my State had almost 1/3 of the delegates to the State Convention.
McCain is RIGHT — avoid the State Conventions!
"Tough times, tough times. These are tough times."
That guy is going to make some money. I just might get three myself.
He called in. I guess there was concern about the Paul people making a scene.
That’s a good idea. President Bush does that at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.
Just ordered 3. Thanks.
I don't know which is worse: that this woman votes, or that she is a Republican.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM6NRhg_Xoc&feature=related
A Tribute to Texas
George Strait
Wrong. The GOP is undead, it’s a zombie feeding off the living, which is why I’m going to write in Zombie Reagan for President. Even dead, Reagan’ll be a better President than either of the two clowns the parties nominated.
I concur about possibility of picking the R candidate at convention ... now who should it be?
Huck? Romney? Gingrich?
Lots of good choices out there ... but do they want to job?
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