McCain Returns to New Hampshire

John McCain returned to his beloved New Hampshire today to rally support in the final push to the White House. With just days to go before the election, McCain returned to the state that pushed him to the front of the Republican Primary and asked his loyal base here to vote for him again and to convince their neighbors to as well. Last week his running mate, Sarah Palin, made a three-stop tour across the battleground state herself.

McCain was been treated well by New Hampshire voters the last three times he was on the ballot here. NH voters chose for him in both the 2000 and 2008 Republican Primaries. In the weeks before the primary this year he was boarding commercial flights to get to campaign stops and many pundits (and campaign contributors as well) had ruled him out. This time he returned with his own plane at the top of what is now his Republican Party.

Most polls here show Obama with the lead as early voting in some states begins to get underway. However, New Hampshire is no place to consider polls as accurate predictors of final election results. Hillary Clinton can tell you all about that and just last week even Obama himself in Londonderry said, “but for those who are getting a little cocky, I’ve got two words for you: New Hampshire. I learned right here that you can’t let up or pay too much attention to the polls.”

“You know,” a focused McCain told the crowd of about 2,000 in the St. Anselm hockey arena, “I’ve learned a lot over the years from the people of this state and I know one thing for certain – it doesn’t matter what the pundits think or how confident my opponent is, the people of New Hampshire make their own decisions and more than once -and more than once they’ve ignored the polls and the pundits and brought me across the finish line first. I can’t think of any place I’d rather be as election day draws close than running an underdog campaign in the state of New Hampshire.”

His twenty minute speech was led into by both of New Hampshire’s US senators and focused primarily on taxes yet he spoke a great deal about his history with voters in the state. He has, after all, held over 100 town hall meetings in the Granite State. In what might be his last stop in the state for this campaign, he showed his sincere appreciation and respect for New Hampshire and anyone in the crowd from the hardcore faithful to the curious democrats in the crowd felt the sincerity when he said, “my friends… some of my happiest, happiest memories are being here in this wonderful state.”