McCain back where it began
On N.H. visit, he again asks rival for joint appearances
NASHUA - John McCain returned yesterday to the state that launched his primary-season comeback to host a town hall gathering where he lampooned economists, called Bono a "cool guy," and patiently pressured one attendee to wrap up his brief history of the United States and just ask his question already.
McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, also renewed his request for Democrat Barack Obama to join him on such a stage in the future.
After leaving New Hampshire, McCain traveled to New York City for a nationally broadcast town hall meeting at Federal Hall that his campaign had envisioned as the first in a series of 10 joint appearances for the two candidates - an offer Obama has yet to accept.
Backed by a large banner reading "Straight Talk Town Hall," McCain used his appearance in the state where he performed 101 primary-season town hall meetings to make the case that the open-ended question-and-answer format was a moral test for presidential candidates.
"That in my view is the essence of the process," he said. "Not only do you hear from me, but I hear from you."
A multicandidate town hall meeting is a possible salve for a superficial media culture overwhelmed by sound-bite exchanges and preening journalists, McCain told his Nashua supporters, an alternative to "political campaigns that are not very informing of the American people."
New Hampshire is among the states that McCain and Obama have both identified as targets in November's general election, and McCain aides feel that Obama's poor primary performance - he lost the state to Hillary Clinton - makes the turf particularly friendly to their candidate, who also won the state's 2000 GOP primary.
In defending his support for a summer gas-tax holiday, McCain adopted a favorite argument of Clinton's for the same policy: The academics who opposed the idea were out of touch, and had failed to foresee the housing crisis and dot-com meltdown.
"You know these economists?" McCain asked. "They're the same ones who didn't predict the inflation that's staring us in the face today."
McCain described his return to New Hampshire as a "wonderful, nostalgic experience," and many of those who rose to question him told of having met the Arizona senator on a previous campaign swing. As is his style, McCain invited several people to engage in detailed exchanges, but was tested at times when some took the opportunity to drone on.
"I really feel that this is also my home because I've had the honor and privilege of spending so much time - 'Live Free or Die' - in the great state of New Hampshire, where presidents are made," McCain said.
The night before, McCain appeared at a Boston fund-raiser, where he was introduced by a onetime rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who is believed to be a possible running mate for McCain. An estimated 450 guests helped to raise $2 million for McCain's campaigns and a variety of party committees supporting his election in the most Democratic state in the nation.
Yesterday McCain received the endorsement of the Massachusetts Association of Italian-American Police Officers, the MBTA Police Patrolman's Association, and the MBTA Police Superior Officers Association.
"I know this is a tough state for us to win in," McCain said at the fund-raiser. "I'll give you some straight talk: It's a tough state for us to win in. But I want to go everywhere." 