Saturday, April 5, 2008

McCain-less

This year's Republican presidential nominee (and one hopes eventual loser) John McCain is in my neighboring village this morning. Ever since Barry Goldwater launched his pitiful presidential campaign in 1964 by speaking from the courthouse steps in Prescott, Republicans have come here to emulate him. Considering that Goldwater, who was more Libertarian than Republican, got stomped in the presidential campaign, one wonders why subsequent Republicans want to remind people of their "common legacy."

I knew Barry somewhat. I first covered him in that '64 campaign when he came through North Dakota. Later, as a 15 year resident of Phoenix, I went to his news conferences when he was "home." I also did an interview with him back in the 70's when I was a stringer for a national magazine. I heard stories from Barry's friends about his early days, pre-politics, when he used to get in trouble across the border in Nogales, Mexico. But Goldwater was a decent, honorable man who generally stuck to his beliefs, whether they angered Democrats or Republicans.

I can't say the same for John McCain. As someone has said this year, the Straight Talk Express has gotten derailed in this campaign. McCain has changed about as many positions as that other flip-flopper, Mitt Romney.

One little lie, fairly harmless but irritating to Arizonans is that McCain has a ranch in Sedona. McCain's "ranch", which consists of two or three houses, actually is located in Page Springs. And his mailing address is Cornville, a burg which matches its name and is about as far in the opposite direction as the tony and spacey Sedona.

So, I didn't go to the courthouse square to see McCain this morning. Like I suspect most of the country will demonstrate in November, I can do without him.

15 comments:

  1. C'mon now, Cat-A -- don't go getting catty about Cornville. My cousin bought a piece of property to die for down there -- on a bend in Oak Creek. He didn't have much buildable land due to the flood plain on one side of the creek and the cliff on the other, but, oh wow, it was beautiful. In fact, probably a much higher % of Cornville residents have Oak Creek frontage than Sedonans.

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  2. Oh, I'm not putting down Cornville. I'm criticizing McCain for calling it Sedona.

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  4. Not sure the guy knows the difference between Iraq and Iran, so why should you expect him to know the difference between Sedona & Cornville.

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  5. Mr. McCain has my vote- anyone who realizes that we can STILL WIN the Vietnam War is A-OK.

    Need more pills...

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  6. I know I shouldn't judge books by their covers, but it has stood me in good stead with people over the years. There is something about that McCain I just find sooo odious!

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  8. We live in the Village of Oak Creek but have a mailing address of Sedona. Guess you would fault me for that?

    I'm glad that the senators address is unknown, with 3 million tourists coming into Sedona each year some nut would be coming onto his private property if it were in Sedona (a village of about 14,000).

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  9. Dorothy - I think you miss my point. What irks me is that Senator McCain constantly says his "ranch" is in Sedona when, in fact, it's 20 miles or more from there in a different community.

    A friend of mine lived in a gated community called Oak Creek Valley, just a couple of miles from McCain and was quite upset when she found out her mailing address was Cornville.

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  10. Uhmmm...yeah, don't click on that guhn's link. It's malicious. Perhaps you should delete that idiot.

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  11. Mike, I'd like to but don't know how. Can you tell me?

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  12. Never mind, I think I just figured it out.

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