A Tough Connecticut Audience For Sen. John McCain
By Mark Pazniokas, The Hartford Courant, Conn.
Apr. 10–WESTPORT — – John McCain’s “Straight Talk Express” made pit stops Wednesday on the Gold Coast to campaign among hedge-fund employees and raise money.
His host at both stops was Ray Dalio, the self-made billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, a global investment firm that manages more than $140 billion.
“I’d like to begin by saying I have great confidence in the future of the economy of the United States of America, despite the enormous challenges we face today,” McCain said.
But his audience at Bridgewater, a company known for encouraging outspokenness among its 500 employees, seemed uninterested in a bullish, economic pep talk.
Stock lines about opposing tax increases generated no applause in a tent set up on Bridgewater’s wooded campus in Westport.
During a Q & A session, McCain was asked pointed questions about the deficit, the Bush administration’s doctrine of pre-emptive invasions and the curtailment of civil liberties after 9/11.
“If you’re elected president, will you reject the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war?” asked one young man.
“I don’t think you could make a blanket statement about pre-emptive war, because obviously, it depends on the threat that the United States of America faces,” McCain said.
But he said he thought another pre-emptive war was unlikely.
Another worker brushed off McCain’s criticism of pork-barrel spending, challenging him to explain his approach to cutting the deficit, which the employee insisted defied painless solutions.
“So, basically, which is it? Straight talk: Do you want to raise taxes, cut entitlement spending, cut defense spending or have a deficit?” the man asked.
McCain dodged those choices. Instead, he invoked Ronald Reagan’s theory of supply-side economics.
“We didn’t raises taxes, and we didn’t cut entitlements,” McCain said. “What we did was, we cut taxes.”
An immigrant worker asked McCain about onerous post-9/11 travel rules that the U.S. applies even to legal immigrants who attempt to enter and leave the country.
“I did nothing. I’m perfectly legal. I’m law-abiding,” the man said. “I can’t understand why the double-standard?”
“I think you’re posing a very important question,” McCain said, adding that balancing security against individual rights is difficult. “It is a constant tension. It’s not the first time in America’s history where we may have erred.”
McCain campaigned in Fairfield County shortly before winning the Connecticut primary in February. The visit Wednesday was his first public event since securing the Republican nomination.
“Fairfield has always been John McCain’s crowd,” said U.S. Rep. Chris Shays, R-4th District. “He draws tremendous strength from this kind of interaction.”
While winning the primary, McCain trailed rivals Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani in raising money in Connecticut.
With Dalio’s help — the billionaire says he never has been as active in a campaign as he is with McCain — the Arizona senator is likely to close the gap.
McCain left Westport for a fundraiser at a private club in Greenwich, where protesters from the AFL-CIO waited to greet him.
John Olsen, the president of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, was there to jab at McCain’s support for the war in Iraq, which he says is damaging the economy and plunging the U.S. deeper in debt.
“How can you say you are going to fight a war and not raise taxes?” Olsen asked.
Contact Mark Pazniokas at .
For a guide to the election visit www. courant.com/vote08
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