McCain visits Columbia, speaks in Belton

The presidential candidate spoke to a crowd of about 6,000 people.

By Brendan Gibbons

Published Oct. 20, 2008

During the final weeks of the election season, Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., made several appearances in Missouri, a state where the slightest shift in the campaign winds could lose the race for either candidate.

McCain spoke to a crowd of about 6,000 at Heartland High School and Academy in Belton on Monday afternoon. Earlier in the day, he appeared briefly at Buckingham Smokehouse Bar-B-Que in Columbia and spoke in St. Charles.

Missouri state Rep. Brian Baker; U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.; and U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Mo., Missouri's Republican gubernatorial candidate, spoke before McCain came to the stage at the rally in Belton.

They discussed his political and military experience, and Baker stirred the crowd with chants of "straight talk."

"This is a small town, with small-town American values we think are important," Baker said.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced McCain and discussed Missouri's role in the election.

"I'm glad to be here in Missouri because you all are going to show the nation what to do Nov. 4," Graham said.

McCain then took the stage, mostly emphasizing his economic, health care and energy policies during his speech. He discussed his support for small business and for lowering taxes and said that some had characterized this presidential race as having three main candidates: himself, his Democratic rival in the race, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Joe the Plumber, who is a Holland, Ohio, resident named Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher.

Wurzelbacher made headlines not only for his face-to-face criticism of Obama's tax policy at a rally in Toledo, Ohio, but also for repeated references to him by both candidates in the last presidential debate on Oct. 15.

"We need to support small businesses, not tax them," McCain said. "Barack Obama's plan is a government giveaway, and we don't need another one of those."

McCain said Obama wants to "spread the wealth around," a statement that caused crowd members to start booing.

McCain also described his health policy plans, including his proposed $5,000 refundable tax credit to help Americans afford health insurance plans.

The event staff told The Maneater it was not allowed to conduct interviews with audience members during the rally.

Richard Pick, a Belton resident who was interviewed before he entered the event, said he came to see the Republican presidential candidate McCain speak because he is "the best choice there is."

"He's for the people," Pick said. "He's not political."

Pick agreed with McCain's proposed solutions for the struggling economy. He and his wife receive disability benefits, and McCain's domestic policies would do more to support them, Pick said.

"Even when I was working, I would have voted for him," Pick said.

McCain finished his speech by promising to fight for Americans. He said that while Obama was already "measuring the drapes" in the White House, he planned to continue fighting for citizen's votes. 

According to a poll released by Suffolk University on Monday, 44 percent of Missourians support McCain, and 45 percent support Obama.

"We are a few points down," McCain said. "The national media has written us off, but they forgot something. They forgot to let you decide."