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McCain visits Vail ValleyBy RANDY WYRICK, Special to the Denver Daily NewsFriday, August 15, 2008 |  | | DON’T SHAKE TOO HARD! — Sen. John and Cindy McCain are greeted by his Eagle County campaign chairwoman, Henri Stone, and her husband, Tom Stone. Local Republicans raised more than $1 million for the campaign this summer. Photo by Randy Wyrick, special to |
Sen. John McCain became the first presidential candidate to visit the Vail Valley when he stopped by for a fundraising luncheon Thursday, energizing a group of local Republicans and collecting more than $1 million in campaign donations.
The presumptive Republican nominee from Arizona was in high spirits as he addressed the enthusiastic crowd, smiling as he looked around the Creamery Gulch home where the event was held.
“I’m thrilled to be speaking at this modest middle-income home,” McCain said jokingly, looking around at the stunning house and grounds. “My opponent wants everyone to have a home. I want everyone to have the opportunity to have a home like this one.”
‘Strong, safe and thriving’
McCain’s remarks ranged from a self-deprecating Irish joke — “the only ethnic joke that’s still politically correct to tell in this country,” he said — to high praise for his wife, Cindy, to Russia’s invasion of The Republic of Georgia. He said he thinks of himself as an underdog, a role he said he relishes.
“In a McCain administration, we’ll do everything possible to make America strong, safe and thriving,” McCain said.
McCain’s Eagle County campaign chairperson, Henri Stone, said the Who’s Who of the Vail Valley was there.
“He’s funny and likeable. He could be a standup comic,” Stone said. “He is obviously a man of strong personal integrity and honor, who wants nothing more than to serve his country.”
National issues
Before he worked the crowd, McCain spoke about several issues confronting the nation.
He said he supports drilling for oil now and paying less for it later. If he were president, he added, he would be calling Congress back into session immediately to address this issue.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi adjourned the House to avoid voting on a bill to offshore drilling in U.S. waters, he said.
Promoting his service
McCain made a strong point about serving his country before himself. As a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five years, he had opportunities as a POW to leave before his comrades — but his code of conduct would not allow him to do that, to come home before people like Vail resident Tom Kirk, a fellow prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton, he said.
“What was happening between Russia and Georgia is a very complex issue, but at its base it is imperative that we come up with a nonmilitary solution that maintains Georgia’s independence and, most important, its freedom and democracy,” McCain said.
‘Your new daughter’
McCain talked in glowing terms of his wife, Cindy. Her right arm is in a sling these days, the result of a mishap on the campaign trail in which an over-enthusiastic supporter squeezed her arm a little too hard and sprained it.
He also talked of 17 years ago when Cindy was on a humanitarian trip and Mother Theresa came up to them with two 5-month-old girls. Mother Theresa told Cindy if they didn’t take one of these babies home she would die. So Cindy did, telling her husband when she returned: “I’d like to introduce you to your new daughter.”
‘A special opportunity’
“Everyone was happy to met Sen. McCain and his wife,” Stone said. “What a special opportunity to meet our next president of the United States and hear him speak about the future of our nation.”
McCain was scheduled to appear later Thursday night in Aspen at another fundraiser at the Aspen Institute.
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