Posted on 10/20/2005 10:45:12 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK - Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) said Thursday at the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner that he hasn't decided whether he's running for president, "so please just stop asking me."
"Relax and enjoy the evening, Governor Pataki," he concluded, to a roar of laughter from the audience at the $1,000-a-plate fundraiser. Gov. George Pataki, too, has been considering a run for the highest office in the land.
Standing on a dais crowded with politicians, the Arizona Republican teased several of them, as well as the monied guests at the event sponsored by the Archdiocese of New York.
"It's like a veritable 'Who's Who' of people soon to be indicted by Eliot Spitzer," he said, referring to the state's hard-charging attorney general.
McCain described the notables in attendance as "the haves, the have-mores, the have-more-than-thats, and finally my good friend Mike Bloomberg."
The mayor got the loudest ovation at the event, prompting Smith's great-grandson, Alfred E. Smith IV, to joke: "Looks like that race is over."
Recent opinion polls put Bloomberg 30 points ahead of Democratic challenger Fernando Ferrer, who did not attend the dinner.
The fundraiser has become a political event that attracts a wide range of people from across the political spectrum. Al Gore and George W. Bush addressed the crowd weeks before the 2000 presidential election.
Smith was a Democratic New York governor who in 1928 became the first Roman Catholic to be a major party's candidate for president. Republican Herbert Hoover won the race. Smith died in 1944.
McCain closed with a call for less partisan bickering in Washington.
"Our differences should not become more important to us than our shared love of this country," he said.
Proceeds from the event go to health clinics, nursing homes and hospitals.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks at the 60th Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner,at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2005. The foundation's $1000-a-plate dinner will raise money for health care programs in New York. (AP Photo/Jennifer Szymaszek)
Wow .. and W missed this. It was not accidental, I'm thinking.
Doesn't the president usually always attend this?
He's at a thing for the Reagan Library in California, isn't he?
Yes, he's in CA and will help cut the ribbon on AF1 display at RWR Library tomorrow (this) morning.
Yes .. that's tomorrow .. he's apparently at a fundraiser tonight in Bel Air, but I still think it's kinda odd that he's missing this annual dinner.
As if I care. That was for the benefit of his biggest fans, MSM. He will never get elected President because of it.
Who do politicians care about?
"the haves, the have-mores, the have-more-than-thats, and finally my good friend Mike Bloomberg."
God, I find him irritating. I live in AZ and if he isn't the biggest empty suit walking the planet next to Hillary... why wasn't he voted out??
Re-marketable symbolic sylogism. Nothing more and certainly less. I deeply respect John McCain as a surviving USN VN POW. Regardless, his poli-tiki is phuc'd up big time, long time. Damn it All to Hell, John should rest it. Maybe a go at fresh-run steelhead fishin' on the Garcia River, and a stay at the Sea Ranch. Nah, he's fully bent beyond a log snag.
McCain's appearance would be more appropriate at the Alfred E. Neuman Memorial Dinner.
Hell would freeze over before this conservative would ever vote for that anti-gun, Democrat pandering, RINO sponsor of McCain-Feingold.
Aside from Hillery CLinton, this guy is probably the biggest threat to a conservative agenda in America today.
Ah, if only McCain loved his country, more than he loved his media attention.
"Less partisan bickering?" George Allen is going to beat McCain like a bongo, and then once again we can hear from the poor loser about how he was picked on by the Conservatives. Oh, and I forgot to ask. Why does McCain, the anti-pork barrel spender support Alaska's bridge to nowhere?
There are VN vets out there waiting to get him on the betrayal of the POWs.
Which is why he blasted the Swift Boat Vets for Truth.
Pleeze give us a good candidate for '08. Pleeze!
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