{"id":3679,"date":"2008-09-05T14:51:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-05T20:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/mccain-and-palin-head-to-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2008-09-05T14:51:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-05T20:51:00","slug":"mccain-and-palin-head-to-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/mccain-and-palin-head-to-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"McCain and Palin head to New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Pat Rogers<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

MINNEAPOLIS\/ST. PAUL \u2013 Underscoring New Mexico<\/st1:state>\u2019s place as a critical swing state, the convention ends and the election begins with the news of the Saturday visit to New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> by the \u201cmaverick\u201d candidates. For John McCain\u2019s<\/a> speech last night, the New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> delegation was again very close to the stage. John McCain aimed at the heartland and the heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cCountry First\u201d was the theme, and for Americans who are not employed by the Democratic National Committee or living in exclusive urban addresses, the \u201cstraight talk express\u201d delivered. If competence, sacrifice, independence and experience count in the McCain\/Palin and Obama\/Biden<\/a> race, it may be a walk-over for the unconventional ticket. <\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>John McCain volunteered that Sens. Obama and Biden have his \u201crespect and admiration.\u201d Mostly by personal example and actual accomplishments, rather than promises and polemics, McCain talked about his career, his experience, his service to America<\/st1:country-region> and his vision for America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>, the free world and the not-so-free world. <\/p>\n

\n

The New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> crowd was treated to several brief, anti-McCain outbursts, and the former POW responded kindly, but not in kind: \u201cIgnore that ground clutter and noise,\u201d he said. He was clearly pleased and proud of his VP pick and announced he \u201ccan\u2019t wait until I introduce her to Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

The protests were not nearly as dramatic or evident in Minnesota<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> as I expected. With the exception of the KUNM<\/a> call-in show yesterday morning, where two obviously regular listeners expressed their opinion that the First Amendment rights of the anarchists in Minneapolis<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> were abused, I had no real encounter with any crazies. I am happy to say that the closest I got to the anarchists\u2019 \u201cmessage\u201d — tossing bags of urine at the delegates — was the KUNM regular listeners complaining about the foiling of the anarchists\u2019 plot to disrupt the convention.<\/p>\n

\n

Mitt Romney<\/a> spoke at the RNC meeting this morning and he hosted a breakfast for Steve Pearce<\/a> earlier in the week. He promised to visit New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> again. I am quite certain we will get lots of visits in the next 60 days.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A number of New Mexicans commented on the Western-versus-Eastern nature of the presidential contest and the \u201cinsider-outsider\u201d aspect as well. It is probably not a representative sample I am hanging with, but the New Mexicans are wondering what two liberal insiders with little pre-election connection to New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> can offer a rural, Western and diverse state like ours.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Sightings? Oddly, except for the debut of The American Carol<\/a>, Hollywood<\/st1:place> stars were not to be spotted. The political junkies had to be content chatting with people like Bill O\u2019Reilly<\/a>, John Fund<\/a>, Carly Fiorina<\/a>, Morton Blackwell<\/a>, Bob Dole<\/a> and the new Olympic decathlon champion. There was someone who looked like the pictures of Henry Kissinger<\/a>, but when I got close enough to meet him, I realized it couldn\u2019t be him, with that fake German accent. <\/p>\n

\n

I had the chance to talk to John Fund, the Wall Street Journal columnist and author. He has visited New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> recently for a Rio Grande Foundation<\/a> lecture and said he hopes to visit again. He said New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> was very special to him because without the state, all of his recent books would be much shorter. His new book, \u201cStealing Elections,\u201d<\/a> goes on sale shortly. <\/p>\n

\n

Minneapolis<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> was nice, but no green chile to be had. And no Palin buttons either. Looking forward to home.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Rogers<\/st1:city> is the RNC\u2019s national committeeman from New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. He is blogging from this week\u2019s convention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Pat Rogers MINNEAPOLIS\/ST. PAUL \u2013 Underscoring New Mexico\u2019s place as a critical swing state, the convention ends and the election begins with the news of the Saturday visit to New Mexico by the \u201cmaverick\u201d candidates. For John McCain\u2019s speech last night, the New Mexico delegation was again very close to the stage. John McCain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}