I don't have a lot of time to write at the moment. It's been a long day, and I've got some last-minute packing to do before I head out for a few days of vacation.
Very briefly: Bob Casey stopped by this afternoon to meet with our editorial board. He said a whole bunch of interesting stuff. Watch tomorrow's paper for a synopsis.
Just as that was wrapping up, my editor flagged me down with some more big news. John McCain is coming to town next week.
McCain's campaign sent out e-mails and left robo-calls on supporters' phones to that effect. And here was the amusing part. They didn't want to tell the news media certain trifling details -- such as when he's coming, and where he'll be. Not only that, but they appear to have given local Republican officials instructions not to disclose that information, either.
In the ensuing hours, I found myself wondering if it was all some elaborate and sadistic practical joke that McCain's campaign workers were playing on members of the press.
I finally found out that it will be Tuesday morning at the York Expo Center -- information I obtained after about seven hours of employing every method short of duct-taping the aforementioned campaign workers to a chair and threatening to beat them with a phone book. (Joke! That was a joke! Damn. I probably just earned myself a body cavity search at press check-in on Tuesday.)
John McCain's been publicly complaining a lot lately about all the coverage that Barack Obama is getting. But his campaign sure as hell isn't making it easy to cover him.
OK, now that I've got the crankiness out of my system -- I'm really psyched that McCain is coming.
I knew he'd show up sooner or later.
Democratic presidential candidates don't always stop by York County. John Kerry didn't. Neither did Barack Obama during the primary, although Hillary Clinton staged a rally in downtown York. Despite some recent Democratic gains, it's still solid Republican territory. Democratic campaigners apparently figure their time and resources would be better spent courting swing voters elsewhere.
But Republican campaigners need to mobilize their base. There's no point in having a big Republican bloc if they don't bother getting out to the polls, so the candidates need to remind them. That's especially important in a swing state such as Pennsylvania.
Still, I figured that McCain would probably show up later in the season. I can't believe I'm writing this after the day I had, but I hope this early visit means he'll make more than one appearance in York County.
As I've stated many times, this blog is supposed to be non-partisan, so that wasn't a plug for McCain. It's just a rush to cover national candidates.
Dang. This was supposed to be a quick entry. OK, I'll see you when I get back. And I guess I'll see John McCain too.
Leave a comment