Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Recap and Analysis of John McCain's Inez Town Hall Forum

Presumptive GOP nominee John McCain brought his "It's Time for Action" tour to Inez today. You can read his speech, prepared for delivery, by clicking here.

Here are some excerpts from his speech:

  • "You've never wanted government to make your living for you. You just expect us to show a decent concern for your hard work and initiative; and do what we can to help make sure you have opportunities to prosper from your labor. We all have choices to make in our lives, and you don't expect government to make yours for you. But you have a right to expect that the people you elect to office will help and not hinder your efforts to make a better future for your community and families. You have a right to expect us to show as much concern for helping you create more and better choices to make for yourselves as we show any other community in America or we show the special interests who claim so much of Washington's attention."
  • "We need to widely reform the way we do business in Washington; to end wasteful spending that does little if anything to meet government's obligations to the American people. Government should accurately identify areas where the market truly is not working and provide companies that are willing to build the information infrastructure to serve these areas incentives like tax reductions and more generous depreciation."
  • "My purpose in coming to Inez isn't, however, to roll out a long list of policy initiatives I intend to launch if I am elected president or to make vague promises to you that I will forget making once in office. I came here to listen to and learn from you, about what you're doing to grow your economy and increase opportunities here, and to find out what government is doing and not doing to help your initiatives. I know some of the initiatives you have undertaken here. A good example of a successful public-private partnership is your own Bluegrass State Skills Corporation, which develops customized business training programs, offers funding through grants and credits, and provides administrative services to ensure that these programs have their maximum impact. That is an initiative designed locally by people who know and understand Martin County and the strengths, resourcefulness and needs of the people here better than any bureaucrat in Washington could ever hope to."

During the town hall discussion, State Senator Brandon Smith (R-Hazard) took issue with Sen. Barack Obama's comments reagrding people who "cling to guns or religion." Sen. McCain stated that Obama's comments were elitist and that rural America went through the Great Depression and World War II "and made the world...safer...[rural America had] values that they had then and they have today."

We need more Brandon Smiths and John McCains to stand up for rural America.

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