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McCain’s interview for ‘GMA’ is off-limits
Brad Paisley
Video
McCain and Paisley at GMA
Gallery
‘GMA’ attendees were moved off the ranch grounds for McCain’s interview.
GUSTAVUS — He’s running for president of the United States, but to most of the 1,000-plus standing outdoors on a chilly, foggy early morning, John McCain was clearly not the main attraction.
McCain, a Republican U.S. senator from Arizona, was the featured speaker Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America” when the morning show stopped at the Gustavus farm of Henry and Linda Lipps.
Most of the people at the farm braved the rain Saturday to get bracelets to attend a short concert by musician Brad Paisley, who played during the last 20 minutes or so of Wednesday’s show.
Those in attendance were also interested in meeting the show’s four anchors: Diane Sawyer, Christopher Cuomo, Robin Roberts and Sam Champion. The four briefly mingled during the Paisley concert.
Those who came to see McCain, however, didn’t have a chance. The show’s producers made the Mc-Cain interview off-limits to all but a tiny few.
Just minutes before McCain’s interview segment began, “Good Morning America” staffers had the large crowd leave the nearby Double L ranch and walk on Barclay North Road and then wait for about 30 minutes.
It was during that time that Robin Roberts and Diane Sawyer, two of the show’s anchors, interviewed McCain and his wife, Cindy.
“I’m here to see John McCain,” said Tony Bordell of Johnston. “I want to get a look at him.”
Alas, Bordell and others who came to see McCain left disappointed.
The candidate didn’t even wave out a window on his campaign bus as he passed those by the Double L about 15 minutes before his interview started.
“I thought I’d catch a glimpse of him,” said Glenn Wheeler of Mineral Ridge. “I wanted to see him live. I was a little disappointed to miss him. I was standing on the road” when McCain spoke, he said.
McCain’s bus left the farm in the opposite direction after the interview ended.
Wheeler was among the crowd who heard McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, his vice presidential running mate, speak Tuesday at the Winner Aviation hangar at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna.
Roy Bancroft of Wayne Township, who lives about one-eighth of a miles from the Lipps farm, said the national attention given to the area from the TV show was “wonderful” and “fantastic.”
“This puts Gustavus on the map forever. These are hard-working, wonderful people [here] who deserve this attention,” he said.
As McCain did during the “Victory 2008 Rally” at the airport, he primarily discussed problems with financial institutions for the TV show.
Roberts asked McCain about the federal government’s plan to financially bail out AIG, the country’s largest insurer, for $85 million.
“On the bailout itself, I didn’t want to do that,” McCain said. “And I don’t think anybody I know wanted to do that. But there were literally millions of people whose retirement, whose investments, whose insurance were at risk here, and they were going to have their lives destroyed because of the greed and excess and corruption.”
It was a reversal for McCain who rejected a proposed federal bailout of the company Tuesday.
McCain also repeated the same message both days: If elected president, he would clean up Wall Street.
During the interview, McCain called the recent economic problems “one of the most severe crises in modern times.”
McCain received criticism, particularly from Democrats, for a statement Monday that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times.”
Democrats said the comment shows McCain is out of touch with working-class Americans.
McCain has since explained he was talking about workers and not the overall economy when he made the statement.
skolnick@vindy.com