TimesLeader.com

September 12, 2008

McCain didn’t sway panel

By Andrew M. Seder aseder@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer

WILKES-BARRE – Sen. John McCain’s speech Thursday night to accept the Republican nomination for president focused heavily on his military record and his love of America, but it didn’t do much to sway the undecided members of The Times Leader’s Voters Panel.

After watching the Arizona senator’s address in The Times Leader’s newsroom, 11 members of the 21-member panel offered their comments on McCain’s acceptance speech. The members that participated were: Charles Peterman, Tom Hannigan, Paul Stebbins, Dorene Schutz, Daniel Gildea, the Rev. Jeffrey Aberle, Bob McDonald, Glenys Karpavich, Bruce German, John Barnes and Evelyn O’Hara-Stine.

Four of the panel members – Schutz, Karpovich, German and O’Hara-Stine – came into Thursday undecided and went home just after 11 p.m. still uncommitted to either McCain or Sen. Barack Obama, his Democratic opponent on Nov. 4. Aberle, a 52-year-old Democrat from Edwardsville who’s leaning toward Obama, said McCain impressed him enough to still remain on the fence. Karpavich, a 56-year-old registered Democrat from Jenkins Township, said she’s leaning toward McCain.

“Tonight I feel more confident that John McCain is more qualified to do the job,” she said.

McCain used a portion of his 49-minute long speech at the Xcel Center in St. Paul, Minn. to discuss a central theme of many of the GOP convention speakers this week – his Naval service during the Vietnam War and the nearly six years spent as a prisoner of war.

McCain poignantly illustrated his love and respect for America and how his time in a POW camp cemented his life’s duty to serve his nation.

“I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s,” he said. “I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.”

German, 72, of Lehman Township, was one of the 52 hostages held for 444 days in Iran in 1979 and 1980.

“I can identify with that. I really can,” German said.

But the registered Democrat said he still isn’t decided on who to support. He said McCain’s numerous references to his POW time and his military service turned him off.

“There was entirely too much time spent on his years in captivity,” German said.

Schutz agreed.

“Too much military talk. You don’t have to be in the military to love your country,” said Schutz, 47, of Wilkes-Barre.

German said one thing he hoped to hear McCain address in his speech is how he would end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home.

Stebbins, a 28-year-old Republican from West Pittston, said McCain’s retelling of his POW time and the beatings and mental anguish he suffered through was a strong part of his speech.

He said the speech “showed a side that didn’t make him appear as an angry old man as people portray him to be.”

Touching on Obama’s campaign theme of “Change we can believe in,” McCain asserted that he too would be a much-needed agent of change, who could help put a stop to partisan wrangling,

“The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn’t a cause, it’s a symptom,” McCain said. “It’s what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you.”

That comment struck a chord with Daniel J. Gildea, the mayor of Laurel Run and a registered Republican.

“He said what I always hoped a politician would say ‘I work for you the taxpayer and I mean it,’ ” Gildea, 59, said.

McDonald, a 51-year-old Kingston resident and ardent supporter of Obama, criticized the speech and called it “one of the most lackluster speeches in the history of conventions.”

Speaker after speaker at the GOP Convention this week used their podium time to hammer Obama and his vice presidential running mate Joe Biden.

McCain, 72, sparingly mentioned his opponent and heaved a handful of personal attacks at him. He mainly focused on why he should be the next president.

John Barnes, a 53-year-old Democrat from Mountain Top, said the speech did nothing for him. He called it a “standard Republican presentation. Nothing new or different offered by him.”