McCain In Aspen
First of all, it’s my Dad’s birthday this week, so please wish darling Alex a Happy B-day! He lives in Kiev with my little sister and sweetheart Olga, and we all are thinking of ya’ll!! I just posted for Huffpo: (will post link in the AM) and here is a little of what a Polish/Ukrainian/American/Gonzo pseudo-journalist had to say about McCain. Hmmm
ASPEN, Colo. – It was a Sunshiny day indeed at the Aspen Institute with Senator John McCain supporters crawling out of their hummers and Range Rovers to hear his speech and fundraising quotes. I live in Woody Creek, so I’ve been coming to Institute speeches for years.
Hunter was a teenage girl trapped in the body of an elderly dope fiend, and His Holiness is a teenage girl trapped in the body of a Dalai Lama. What I saw Thursday is that John McCain is not a “creepy old white-haired guy” at all. He’s simply a slick politician trapped in the body of a politician.
Yesterday was different than the other Institute speeches because I had a press badge instead of a ticket, and I came to hear this Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services (and yes, he’s also the presumptive Republican Nominee) talk about how he might handle this Russian Crisis.
My little sister and father live in Kiev, and my mother’s side living throughout Poland, thus, I’m more than a little stressed. Walter Isaacson and John McCain went back and forth with some more campaign talk and because Thursday was the 73rd birthday of Social Security, Isaacson did ask him why not treat Social Security Investment like Energy investment, by putting everything on the table to consider. McCain said yes. But when the topic of tax increases for Social Security comes up. No Way. Isaacson comes back with a “but that’s not putting everything on the table.” McSlick replies with “I can’t be for tax increases.”
Silence.
So, what’s a rookie pseudo-journalist like me to do? I’m crammed in the back with my people, the press, whom I’ve grown to love in the years working with Hunter. I was sitting with David Frey, Andrew Travers of the Daily News, and managing editor of my Woody Creeker Magazine, Kit Seelye from The New York Times, CBS News’ Ryan Corsaro, Stone from The Aspen Free Press, and Charles Babington from the AP. I know there will be no way in hell I’ll be able to ask McCain a question (more on Poland and Ukraine), as we are roped off way in the back corner. Earlier (before the bizarre music for McCain’s entrance began,) a lovely young girl with a badge walked up to us, and I thought, how sweet, she’s going to ask if we have everything we need. No she said we must leave our chairs immediately and move to the back. Wow. A lot has changed since Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail’ 72. Or has it? I wish I could just make one call to Hunter. I got the sense that most of the press also miss his voice and courage to walk past the out-of-bound lines.
Your friend in Woody Creek,
Anita Thompson
