Nashua Telegraph - McCain Has National Answer For Local Issue
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Nashua Telegraph - McCain Has National Answer For Local Issue
By Eileen Hynes, Nashua Telegraph
Article Excerpt
After a long day on the campaign trail, Sen. John McCain did as many locals do - he treated himself to an ice cream at King Kone.
"I can tell you, King Kone has earned its name," the Arizona Republican joked, marveling at the towering medium, orange-flavored soft-serve in his hand.
Before earning his dessert, though, McCain faced more than 250 New Hampshire voters in a Town Hall meeting at the John O'Leary Adult Community Center on Thursday night.
Though some audience members had supported the senator's presidential run eight years ago, many were still undecided and shopping around for a candidate.
Leslie Doughty of Merrimack, worked on McCain's campaign in 2000, but acknowledged that the issues have changed since then, and she remained undecided.
"I pay attention to polls and who has money and who doesn't have the money," she said.
Recently, McCain has dipped in donations and support, but he remains optimistic about appealing to voters.
"In fact, if the Republicans don't back him, then I'm voting for a Democrat. It's as simple as that," said Claire Seusing of Nashua, who considers herself an independent.
In his opening comments, McCain highlighted stopping pork barrel Congressional spending, protecting imminent domain and taking the entire Middle East situation into consideration when developing a policy on Iraq.
When the floor opened, one question regarded the establishment of bilingual signs in Merrimack by asking McCain about his immigration policy and if he supported making English the national language.
"English, that's fine with me, but the key to it is to make sure people have to know it and use English before they had any path to citizenship," he said.
McCain acknowledged that a long dialogue was still necessary on this issue, but he emphasized the importance of border security in his proposed immigration plan.
"But one of the ideas I have . . . is have the border governors certify that their border is secure. That way we have credibility with the American people rather than it being transmitted from Washington."
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