John McCain visits UT

On Friday presidential candidate John McCain made an unannounced visit to UT.

It was Thursday night when rumors started flying, and I wasn’t sure of anything until 11:30 Friday morning when our editor-in-chief called me to confirm McCain actually was coming.

It was pretty exciting. It took place in the music room, so there were less than a hundred people in the room, which meant I was able to get some good pictures of him walking in. Ellery, Josh and I set ourselves up in the back of the room at the first press table. Behind us, on the balconies, and on the sides were a bunch of local newstations set up with their cameras and notepads. The event was supposed to be a roundtable discussion, so McCain and his big-name supporters were set up in front of the room. This “discussion” mostly just consisted of his cronies praising him– it was a bit annoying, but all the same still exciting (I knew I was privelege to a rare opportunity).

Talk about rare opportunity, the excitement really began after all the roundtable talks. After less than an hour of talk, McCain rose from his seat, and came toward the back of the room to address the press. Because we were sitting at the first press table (and in the center too), John McCain placed himself directly in front of us– he was less than four feet away!

Questions came flying at him almost immediatley from the reporters next to us. They were so fast with their questions; the very second McCain finished answering one question, the reporters all attacked at the same time, calling his name. I had written down a couple of questions beforehand on a notepad, but I didn’t think I was going to be fast enough to get a chance to ask any of them. The Senator started addressing a question about the spanish community the woman had to the left of us, and I listened carefully to try and get an idea of when he would be done talking– I was hoping to try and be as fast as some of the other reporters. After a minute I thought he was wrapping up his response, so I kind of half-raised my hand, hoping he would see me in case I wasn’t fast enough to yell his name. Much to my surprise, he did see me, and he pointed to me as soon as he finished answering the woman’s question.

I had my questions in front of me, and I had decided which one to ask. I had been rehearsing the question in my head over and over again so I wouldn’t have to look at the paper, but the moment he pointed to me, I froze up. I quickly looked down at the paper, and asked him half of the question while looking down.

I asked, “What is your response to Canada’s decision to place the U.S. on the list of those countries who torture?”

I stumbled on the word decision, got even more nervous, and I think lowered my voice even more. I know how to speak loudly when I need to, but for some reason I just couldn’t at that moment.

To make things worse, he leaned in toward me and had to ask me to repeat the question, with what was quite a confused look on his face. I repeated the question, and he gave a kind of half answer, kind of dodged it. He said that Canada was currently reviewing that decision.

I felt pretty dumb afterwards, like maybe I had asked a stupid question, and I was embarassed that I had been so quiet. It didn’t really help later that I got made fun of a bit for that. Even though I was embarassed, I was still pretty grateful for the opportunity and still excited that I had at least gotten the change to ask a question. I just thought I could have done better.

I got mixed responses about how I handled my question. I was teased at the beginning, but Charles said that I had asked a good question, and Steve said that he probably only had to ask again because he was trying to think of a response because he had been thrown off.

Tonight, Tuesday, Steve was looking at the video again, and I think it was he who caught something we hadn’t seen before. He watched me ask the question, and then when McCain leaned forward to ask me to repeat the question, Steve noticed that Tom Ridge, the former director of homeland security, also leaned forward like he was kind of shocked. Now everyone in the office is saying that I asked a really good quesiton, and that it must have stumped McCain at first because he wasn’t expecting it.

I guess maybe he was a bit stumped, because he sort of did dodge the question. I’m still embarassed though about the way my question came out. But I have to say that the whole thing really was very exciting. It felt really cool to be in that room when so many other students were pressed against the window trying to see what was going on. It was a great experience, and it was pretty awesome to be part of the dozens of press people who were asking questions; I always wondered what it was like in press conferences, if it really was as intense as it seemed on television. It was.

I don’t think John McCain is going to become president, I can’t really see it, and I’m not sure he has my vote. But if he does become president this will become a pretty cool story for me, even if I did stumble.