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(Awesome. This is precisely the point I made earlier - Sarah Palin is the only one of the three nominees for higher office that has not been through the NH-Primary. - promoted by Dean Barker)
Granite State Progress has issued a request to the McCain campaign for vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin to host a town hall in the First-in-the-Nation Primary state.
It's not a question of whether they will respond, or how they will respond; we need to make them respond.
As I write, there are only 39 days until the Election, yet McCain and crew continue to hide Sarah Palin from reporters and the public. This is Bush politics at a premium. Except McCain doesn't even let Palin host fake press conferences.
I know I'm not the only one outraged because I've heard others also applaud the increased scrutiny to Team McCain running interference on Palin's interactions with voters and the press. The recent McSame ploy to prevent the media from covering Palin's first meeting with foreign leaders was just another chapter in a banned book that you can't read, but that you know is out there.
If Palin is supposed to be ready to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency, she should be ready to talk face-to-face with New Hampshire voters. With the Granite State's long history of vetting political candidates and its willingness to continue to do so, there's no reason why Palin should be the only one in the race who hasn't been through this quintessential civic process.
So, we're going to help the McCain camp out. We're issuing a solid request from real voters about a timeframe and a place and a public that want to hear directly from Sarah Palin about her qualifications for one of the most important positions in our country.
Granite State Progress is calling for Palin to travel to the state to host her own town hall meeting - without the assistance of John McCain or other campaign surrogates.
Senators Obama, McCain and Biden have all hosted town halls in New Hampshire, on their own, to the benefit of themselves and voters. In fact, Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden hosted a general election town hall in the state just a few weeks ago. Some of you may have seen Granite State Progress there, asking the question of Sarah Palin's whereabouts even then:
But don't go on this opinion alone - listen to the Mac himself. After all, John McCain sounded the drumbeat for town halls all summer long (and now, all of a sudden, it's not important for Sarah Palin to talk directly with voters). In his own words:
"These town hall meetings are the most important part, in my view, of the process, because it not only gives you a chance to hear from me - and I'll try not to make you hear from me very long - but it gives me an opportunity to hear from you. It gives us a glimpse and an idea of your hopes, and your dreams, and your aspirations, and your frustrations today, and the challenges that you face, and better sets our priorities, and it helps me enormously." - John McCain, Town Hall meeting, Pemberton, N.J., June 13, 2008
It's simple - if John McCain really thinks Sarah Palin is ready to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency, he should stop feeding her cue cards and start letting her take real questions.
A New Hampshire Town Hall would be a great way to start, and sure to produce thoughtful, strong questions that will get to the heart of issues in the short time we have left before voters have to make a decision.
Which leaves only one question: Sen. McCain, where do I RSVP?
