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| ON THE STUMP | |
 December 10 , 1999 
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MARGARET WARNER: The Republican race in New Hampshire is tightening up. Three polls released in the past week showed Arizona Senator John McCain pulling ahead of Texas Governor George W. Bush in the state. In one survey, McCain led by seven points; in another, by just three. And one released yesterday had him ahead by 15 points. Both candidates were campaigning in the state this week. SPOKESMAN: Good to see you. SEN. JOHN McCain: Good to see you. Nice to be back. MARGARET WARNER: We caught up with Senator McCain early Tuesday morning in the resort town of Meredith. He was already hard at work, wooing voters at a local inn. SEN. JOHN McCAIN: It's nice to be here on this balmy Arizona day. (Laughter) It's nice to see all that water out there in Arizona we have so little water, the trees chase the dogs. So I'm very... MARGARET WARNER: One of the first questions came from an independent voter, wanting to know why he should vote for McCain. SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Because I hope to show you that I have the vision to lead the country into the next century and I have the ability to inspire a generation of Americans to commit themselves to causes greater than their self-interest. I want to reform government as I said earlier. I want to reform the tax code. I want to reform the military. I want to reform education. I want to reform government so that we can be in tune with the information technology change we're going through. I can't do that unless I give you back your government and take it out of the hands of the special interests and give it back to you. MAN: Senator, this is our preferably it would be Mr. Soon-to-be-President. You are not singling out the other candidates to knock them down. You are to be commended for that. And your straightforward talk, you are a role model for us. Keep up the good work. SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Thank you. I happen to be a friend of George W. Bush. He is a fine man and has been a fine governor for the state of Texas. I think what I'm trying to do here, and I believe the rest of them are, is prove that I'm a better candidate, to prove that I'm prepared to be President of the United States and better. MARGARET WARNER: Things didn't go quite as smoothly during this exchange about the World Trade Organization. SEN. JOHN McCAIN: I thank you very much for your question, and I hope that I responded to it from the skeptical look on your face, difficult not. I would like for you to... I would like for you to … to clarify again. WOMAN: The big thing that bothers me about the WTO is the constitutional aspects of it. SEN. JOHN McCAIN: The WTO should not set policy. The WTO should not dictate our behavior. The WTO should have, in my view, no infringement upon our sovereignty. But there would have to be some organization to decide whether our complaints about another country or their complaints about ours are legitimate or not. I obviously still have not convinced you, so I have guess we have to chalk it up as a failure of my persuasive powers and I apologize... thank you. Thank you. Here we are -- a couple of them. Thank you. MARGARET WARNER: After the event, a former teacher challenged McCain on why he supported school vouchers. SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Shouldn't we not accept a situation where wealthy parents can choose the school for their children and poor parents can't? WOMAN: What we should do is improve the public schools. Otherwise talk about de... SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Its a wonderful idea but it hasn't happened. WOMAN: Well, you have to find a way for it to happen. SEN. JOHN McCAIN: The way that it's happening is competition. The public schools are beginning to improve in Arizona because the competition with the charter schools. We see that. I can show you the statistics. When there's no competition... WOMAN: This to me is still a dreamy way to do it. SEN. JOHN McCAIN: Tell me how we help. WOMAN: Well,. SEN. JOHN McCAIN: It's not more money. WOMAN: No. Well, you caught me off guard. MARGARET WARNER: Later in the day, at the Rotary Club in Concord, McCain was still taking questions. MAN: Can you tell us something about John McCain as a civilian that we don't know already? SEN. JOHN McCAIN: I'm not afraid of losing. I am speaking plainly, and I'm not going to do anything that at the end of this campaign that if you vote for me, that you'll say, gee, McCain told me something there at the Rotary Club in New Hampshire and then he was down in South Carolina and said something else and then he was in California and said something else. In other words, I'm not going to disappoint you. GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Hi, how is everybody? MARGARET WARNER: The following day, Governor Bush was in the state at the White Pines Software Company in Nashua. CHILDREN: Hello, Governor Bush. MARGARET WARNER: He first took questions from schoolchildren hooked up to the company through the internet. CHILD: Governor Bush, my question is for you. What do you feeling the... What do you feel is the biggest issue facing the United States today? GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: Thank you, Ryan. Very good question. The biggest issue is whether or not you get educated. MARGARET WARNER: Then it was on to a meeting with employees in the cafeteria. One man asked how Bush planed to make individuals take the kind of personal responsibility he's been talking about. GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: If we can change hearts, I know we can change society for the better. I said societies change one heart one soul one conscience at a time. It recognizes renewal from the bottom up, not top down. MAN: I know you're working closely with the government of Mexico to help quell the tide of illegal immigrants. What can be done to help promote legal immigration? GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: If you're poor, and you've got kids to feed, and you can make 50 cents in interior Mexico and you hear their paying $50 somewhere else in Texas and you love your kids, you're coming. You're coming to America. That's an instinct that is so powerful that people understand. Now, having said that, we need to enforce our borders. The long-term solution is trade with Mexico -- because free trade is the best way for Mexico to grow a middle class through the market. MARGARET WARNER: The company's president asked how Bush would make sure the children he spoke to earlier would be able to go to college. GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: I think obviously it's a combination of supply. So step one is to make sure that there's desks. And then on the demand side, is Pell grants -- grants from the government to make sure that people who need financial help receive them. I believe in this country, though. I believe in this country -- that if you want something bad enough, you can achieve it. And the role of government is to make sure that there's desks available. And we've got a lot of desks in America. I hope these kids fill them, I hope they make the right choices and fill them. Thanks. I appreciate your time. MARGARET WARNER: The next stop was a late afternoon town hall meeting in Bedford. WOMAN: I am a Republican. I am torn between you and John McCain and in layman's terms, what makes you different than him? GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: One, I'm glad I'm in the finals. (Laughter) that's a good step. And you should be. He's a good man. John McCain is a good fellah. Let me... I'm not going to tear john McCain down. I think I would be a better leader than Senator McCain. I've been in a position of executive responsibility. Governors make decisions. MAN: One of the latest labels that people are trying to put on you is that you're not intellectually curious. GOV. GEORGE W. BUSH: I'd rather be underestimated than overestimated. I've been underestimated before, and Governor Richards regrets it. (Laughter) I understand labels and how the politics works, and the only thing I know to do is to lay my record out, share my heart as best I can, and in a system that often times gets filtered, I know that. That's why these town hall meetings are important for me. And you can take a look. You can take a look and... and you can say, I trust him. I trust his judgment. Or, you know, got a nice mother, but maybe he doesn't hack it. When I first got going, people said he doesn't want to come to our state that much. But it took a while. I knew it was going to happen. Then they say, he didn't say anything. And now they're not saying that. And now they're saying, you know you know, whatever they said George Bush, you know, he's not smart enough. Well, as I said, I'd rather be underestimated. |
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