Posted on 05/23/2007 7:53:32 AM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007
A running joke has Duncan Hunter, the California congressman and Republican presidential candidate, so far to the conservative right that he even refuses to sit on the left side of his touring RV.
When he hears this, after stopping in Greenwood Tuesday on his “Right Stuff” tour of South Carolina with retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Chuck Yeager, he lets go with a good, loud laugh.
“Not yet,” he says of a potential seat on the left. Meanwhile, inside The Ranch House — Hunter’s Greenwood stop — there were lots of people standing around — women in power suits pounding away at their Blackberry devices and tall, official-type men in bow ties and cotton seersucker suits complete with pocket squares.
Though they have the designed look of party staffers and political bankrollers, they awaited the arrival of a man in Hunter who many Republicans hope proves to be something altogether different.
Still, at least one skeptic has his doubts, saying to his wife quietly “there’s no one that I really want to vote for. It’s the same old bunch.”
For as much progress as Hunter campaign communications director Roy Tyler says his man has made in the Palmetto State (claiming Hunter would be the leader if all informal straw poll votes were to be tallied), it appears Hunter has his work cut out for him.
Most of the local people on hand could have cared less initially.
They already had their eyes on the second half of the afternoon’s “double feature” — legendary test pilot Yeager, a man credited as the first person to break the sound barrier.
Hunter’s long-time friend (Yeager has known him since he was a child) and former pilot of the experimental and once classified X-1 plane stands and tells the crowd that “I back anything that Dunc says. He’s not one of these guys that feels he can buy his way into the White House. I just hope that people realize what a jewel this guys really is.”
Hunter and Yeager kicked off the “Right Stuff” driving tour of South Carolina on Monday in Spartanburg. The tour ends Thursday in Beaufort.
After completing a telephone interview with a radio station, Hunter finally makes his grand entrance. The ovation is short, but loud and polite.
One might think traveling with a national hero might be a curious choice for Hunter, as he may be overshadowed by the general. But surprisingly, it doesn’t turn out this way. Yeager is now a moody 84, and all of five-foot-six. Meanwhile, Hunter stands well over six feet and is engaging.
When he furrows his brow following an important question the people nearby remark on how “presidential” this tall, dark-haired Californian seems, and just how “non-Californian” he appears to be in nature.
The second observation is apparently just as important as the first.
And the man of the hour is confident — Duncan Hunter knows he has friends in South Carolina. His platform issues of immigration control, a strong national defense and a “get tough” policy with China (over the rejuvenation of a flagging textile industry that has eroded thousands of once high-paying jobs overseas) resonates with hard-working Carolinians.
“South Carolina is a key state, and in my opinion the most important of the early primary states,” Hunter said. “South Carolina is a state with good traction on many of my main issues. They want a fence built (to keep out illegals), and they want their high-paying jobs back they lost to China.”
Hunter claims his having spearheaded the building of such a fence near San Diego, Calif., has helped drug trafficking to be cut by 90 percent, and that crime in the city itself has been reduced 50 percent.
He says the new, controversial immigration bill to circulate the Senate has the makings of a “disaster” — and Hunter makes it plain he disagrees strongly with powerful South Carolinian Sen. Lindsey Graham.
“This thing will be a disaster,” Hunter said, shaking his head. “I think Lindsey is wrong on this one. What we need to do is go ahead and follow the law and build that fence (one to completely close the border to Mexico). As president, I will complete the building of that fence in the first six months.
“Right now there is only 11 miles of one fence built. That is unacceptable, it’s just unacceptable. This bill does everything wrong.”
Hunter makes the rounds, shaking hands and taking pictures with the faithful. Then he sits and conducts another telephone interview with a Greenwood radio station. The skeptic in the red shirt has apparently had a change of heart, he has campaign literature in his hand and is angling his way in for a closer look at one of the supposed “same old bunch.”
“This is the way to do it,” Tyler exclaims with a smile. “This isn’t Wall Street; this is all grassroots right here. This is what it’s about.”
The approach certainly is appealing for regular folk. Local attorney John McCravy — the man in the sharp, striped seersucker suit who facilitated Hunter’s appearance in Greenwood — loves how approachable, yet totally capable Hunter has turned out to be.
“He’s genuine,” McCravy says. “That’s the difference. What you see is what you get with him and I like that.”
That’s the type of response Hunter is after, and it’s what he received in Greenwood Tuesday. The people he meets fall in love with him.
Hunter shakes a few more hands and out the door he goes, back on his crusade to win South Carolina one blue collar at a time.
And after pausing for a photograph, Hunter enters the vehicle and takes his seat — right there on the right side of the RV where he likes it.
South Carolina ping!
Hunter ping (pissant or Antoninus, ping the rest of the list; I don’t have it with me ATM.).
Wow, that didn’t take you long.
He has my vote but that photo is a bit much.
Yeah, don’t know why they made it so big. I like what Walter did with it in post #4 though. :)
It does look much better in the smaller format.
sorry
Hunter has dropped out yet? What is he waiting for?
He doesn't abort as easily as some pseudo-Republican candidates.
..drop out ?--no way Jose...
cripplecreek’s talking about the large photo in the original article.
Has he cracked 1% in any poll?
Having Yeager in his corner certainly can’t hurt.
..these polls are bought and paid for, as well as name recognition based—give things a few months...
Great article! Thank you.
He doesn’t abort as easily as some pseudo-Republican candidates.
Absolutely. Hunter all the way.
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