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McCain’s day

February 17, 2011

By Staff Reporter

McCain acknowledged his pioneering status to loud cheers in a theater that was once the centerpiece of a Masonic temple.
And in a delivery that crossed from general election issues to Ireland and back again, McCain pledged to continue the current presidential policy of appointing a special envoy to Northern Ireland.
He also addressed the immigration issue in a prepared speech that did not specifically answer the six questions in this year’s forum format, but ranged over much of the ground that those questions covered.
McCain was introduced to whoops and cheers by radio host Adrian Flannelly, who along with former Bronx assemblyman John Dearie, has been organizing this year’s forum gatherings.
Dearie did not make the trip to Scranton as he is recovering from hip surgery but a number of other influential figures who were centrally involved in organizing the Scranton event sat on the stage just a few feet from McCain.
They included Grant Lally and Jeff Cleary of the Irish American Republicans lobby group, recently elected Ancient Order of Hibernians National President Seamus Boyle, and Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform vice chairman, Ciaran Staunton.
McCain’s campaign rolled the Irish forum into a more general town hall meeting style exchange for those who were there to hear him speak about Ireland specifically, and those who were there to express broad support for the McCain/Palin ticket.
McCain was accompanied to the stage by fellow GOP senators, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Also on stage, and he was given a huge cheer by the crowd, was now independent Democrat Joe Lieberman from Connecticut.
The local daily newspaper, The Times-Tribune, reported on its front page under a photo of McCain arriving the night before at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton international airport, that McCain had arrived in the city “in advance of what is billed as an Irish American town hall meeting.”
And indeed that was the flavor of an event that began with an Irish joke that defied contemporary political correctness and followed with McCain paying tribute to veterans in the audience and Irish America’s service to the United States in time of conflict and peril.
The Irish, said McCain, had contributed “in literally every war this nation has fought, up to an including the present ones.
He described this record of service as being “remarkable,” and a “great heritage.”
McCain noted that the Irish American Presidential Forum dated back to 1984 and since its inception there had indeed been “a lack of Republicans” in attendance.
“I’m proud to be the first Republican to appear,” he said.
McCain spoke of a world, parts of which were in turmoil, other parts distinctly unfriendly to the United States. Events in other places, by contrast, now inspired and that included Northern Ireland where the days of “tanks and bullets” were now gone.
The devolved government in Northern Ireland, McCain said, had captured the kind of political courage that an earlier generation could not have imagined.
There was, he continued, a “last major hurdle” and that was the impasse over policing and justice. As president, he would commit himself to help resolve this.
“I am committed to America’s leadership role,” McCain said.
He also pledged himself to continuing the practice, started by President Clinton, of appointing a U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland. As president, he would ensure that there was no weakening in America’s commitment to peace in Northern Ireland.
On immigration, and with regard to Ireland in particular, McCain said he would see through discussions on visas for the benefit of “all our citizens.”
McCain said that when he took on illegal immigration as an issue, he knew that it would cause him harm in his own party. But he could not ignore a situation that had reached a point of broken borders and twelve millions illegals in the country.
Immigration reform had almost occurred a couple of times but remained a national security and humanitarian issue.
McCain outlined a three point approach that would secure borders against illegal immigration and the flow of drugs, provide a path to citizenship – though giving no priority to illegals who would have to wait behind those who came to the U.S. legally, or had waited their turn.
And he said that the would work for a temporary work visa program that was “truly temporary.”
McCain said that he had taken knocks in his popularity over the reform issue as had Senator Edward Kennedy. Senator Obama, his Democratic rival, “took a hike” and had supported an amendment designed to sunset the temporary worker program in the McCain/Kennedy bill, thus playing a role in its demise last year.
McCain spoke specifically of the “fifty thousand” Irish men and women in the country illegally. All were hard working but while as president he would work to enact reform, they would have to do “certain things” along the path to citizenship.
McCain pledged himself to increasing trade between the U.S. and Ireland if elected president. He appeared to admire Ireland’s low corporate tax rate, which, he said, was 11 percent as opposed to 35 percent in the U.S.
“I need the Irish American vote,” the Arizona senator concluded while describing himself as the underdog in November.
“It’s a role I’ve played all my life,” he said.
Highlights from the McCain forum presentation, meanwhile, will be broadcast by “Out of Ireland” which airs in a new time slot this Sunday at 1.00 p.m. on WLIW21 and repeats Monday nights at 11.30 p.m.

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