Saturday, November 10, 2007

A Day on The Straight Talk Express: A Strange Day Indeed

The Straight Talk Express Parked Between Two "No Parking" Signs


The following events took place aboard John McCain’s Straight Talk Express on Friday, November 9th between the hours of 8:30 am and 8:00pm

8:45am: Reporters loaded The Straight Talk Express with John McCain and Tom Ridge. McCain said he would not have appointed Bernie Kerik to be the Secretary of Homeland Secretary because of “his irresponsible act in Baghdad when he was suppose to be training the police.”

9:30pm: Reporters loaded back onto bus with McCain. McCain says that Rudy’s stance on torture demonstrates Rudy’s lack of experience. “It's a fundamental lack of experience, knowledge of, I mean it's great to have lead a major city. I mean his post-crisis handling was fine. But that certainly doesn't mean you're qualified to lead.” McCain also said that his campaign has not decided to take federal matching funds.

11:15pm: After some downtime, we hop back onto the bus. On the way to the next stop, a reporter said that McCain had a “squeaky clean” record. McCain refutes the characterization saying “You know I’d totally love to agree with you, remember I’m one of the Keating 5." Jokingly McCain added, "Why Did I remind him of that? Jesus, God, how could I have been that stupid?”

2:30pm: On the way to Meredith, the McCain campaign was approached with an Associated Press story that states McCain is set to take out a massive campaign loan, and possibly take matching funds. The story also reports outside group has begun airing ads that positively reflect McCain’s record. “Financed mainly by McCain backers, the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America was created with the help of Republican ad maker Rick Reed.” The campaign also moved reporters to the front of the bus, leaving McCain with supporters and staffers.

5:15pm: Appearing on MSNBC’s Hardball, John McCain’s mother said “As far as the Salt Lake City thing, he's a Mormon and the Mormons of Salt Lake City had caused that scandal. And to clean that up, again, it's not a subject.”

7:00pm: After some downtime, reporters headed over to a house party, in separate vehicles. Outside the house party, I introduced myself to McCain too which he responds, “I’ve been telling people, for weeks, that you have to get off your ass.”

8:00pm: After the house party, reporters are moved to the McCain bus, McCain and his staffers take another vehicle to Concord. Reporters are stuck watching The Wizard of Oz and The Bourne Identity.

Also at some point during the day, Meagan McCain issues a clarification on her post about candidate daughters. In her original post, Meagan wrote, “hasn’t the blonde bimbo thing run its course.” Meagan later wrote that she was referring to Paris Hilton, not Jenna Bush.

Overall, it was an interesting day on The Straight Talk Express, to say the least.

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