Girl Power! Cindy McCain Is Welcomed Back To NH After 6 Years

GreenMountainPolitics1 thinks of itself as the Coleman/Bartlett Washington Focus of the New Hampshire Presidential Primary.

Just with a hell of a lot more Snark.

And while we don't have Charlie's writing ability, political experience, rolodex and firsthand account of a dreary ride back to Houston on January 20th, 1993, we make do with the gifts that God gave us.

We're comfortable with that. So are our readers.

But even we are smart enough to know that behind every truly great man is a great woman.

Editor's Note: We also know, John O'Connor, that behind every truly great woman is a great man. And we must apologize, again, for landing in your lap during the Amistad screening a few years back. We wanted popcorn and the Chief had requested the house lights be totally darkened. We tripped on your wife's feet.

It's no secret that GreenMountainPolitics1 considers U.S. Senator John McCain to be a truly great man. Complex, complicated and a little Snarky himself, but truly great.

So when McCain's New Hampshire campaign e-mailed us to ask if we would like to spend this past Saturday with Cindy McCain - observing the woman behind the great man - we jumped.

And then we said "yes".

"Good", Jill 'Tough As Nails' Hazelbaker told us. "Go where you want, report what you want, photograph what you want, but keep out from underfoot, be polite and for God's sake keep the Snark to a dull roar."

Then a grin and the kicker, "You're just a humble blogger with nothing more than a Blogspot account after all."

'Nails is right. About the Blogspot account.

So as our good friend Jon Martin covered one half of the team that would be President in Iowa on Saturday, GreenMountainPolitics1 took the other half in New Hampshire.

We were very impressed with our half.

Cindy McCain made stops in Nashua (100 people), Rindge (20 people in a room that was meant for 150 people, tsk-tsk campaign team) and Keene (40 people).

It was Cindy's first time on the stump since 2000. And, while the two staffers who traveled with her mentioned that she "might be a little nervous", we didn't see it if she was.

At each stop Cindy spoke for about 20 minutes, mostly about her family, before opening up the floor to questions. After the Q and A was complete she spent time mingling one-on-one with voters.

She's clearly a full 50% of Team McCain. A bona fide asset.

Not only does she speak and mingle well but her stump speech is more stream of consciousness than rehearsed verbal gruel.

It works and it works well. People genuinely loved on her.

And, we got the sense listening to her that we were hearing the real Cindy McCain, warts and all, which is no small thing in the modern Presidency.

We have always felt that if her husband is going to actually win the Presidency it will be on a campaign platform "Warts and All".

We're not being Snarky. Just ask Bill.

While we were waiting for Cindy to arrive in Nashua on Saturday morning we struck up a conversation with a gentleman by the name of Bill. Bill was also waiting for Cindy to arrive and he had driven up from Boston to see her.

"So," we asked Bill, "what do you like about Senator McCain?"

"Well," replied Bill (thick Boston accent), "I don't like his Iraq stance, too conservative. And I don't like his position on global warming, too liberal."

"What do you like?" we asked again.

"Right now? Not much," Bill replied.

"So why are you here?" we asked a little confused.

"Because the Senator ain't bullshit. And neither is Mrs. McCain. I'm sure they have their issues just like everyone else but when they speak they're telling it to you straight. That's worth supporting."

Then Bill got a little twinkle in his eyes, "And Mrs. McCain is a real tall glass of water."

We can see the new campaign signs now - McCain '08: Not bullshit & Bill from Boston thinks my wife is a tall glass of water!

We love it!