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Welcome, Sen. McCain - and a few questions Thomasville, Clarke County and southwest Alabama will be in the national news this coming Monday when U.S. Sen. John McCain, the certain Republican nominee for president, comes to town. Welcome, Sen. Mc- Cain. We are glad to have you in our little corner of Alabama. You have to hand it to Mayor Sheldon Day for pulling off this visit. Sen. McCain had been invited to Thomasville to speak at the city's Rural Supplier Conference last fall but had to cancel due to setbacks in his campaign. He recovered though and went on to win the GOP primary contests to assure him of the nomination. Now, he's making good on that earlier commitment. Of course, the main reason he's coming to Alabama is for two big fundraisers in Birmingham Monday night but it is still a compliment to our area that he will visit us while he is in the state. This is being written on Tuesday morning and the agenda for Sen. McCain's visit is still up in the air. Many citizens have expressed an interest in seeing and hearing the candidate but we aren't sure a lot will get to. We understand a roundtable discussion with a panel of area citizens at Alabama Southern Community College has been canceled. A speech to Thomasville High School students is still on but won't be open for everyone to attend. Sen. McCain's campaign Web site and the Associated Press says he will visit an unnamed local lumber mill and we've heard that he could stop off at Gee's Bend or some other minority neighborhood. We suspect that the visit will be tailored for the few minutes of national TV footage and the few inches of space in national newspapers and magazines the senator can get visiting small town America. His actual contact with any sizeable number of local citizens will probably be limited and minimal. And that contact probably includes the local press. If we could, here are a few questions we'd ask Sen. McCain if we could: What is the answer to the Iraqi war? Do you really believe we may have to have a military presence there for 100 years? You have advocated a continued military "surge" and to "stay the course." What is the course? Where are we headed? Even Gen. Petraeus in senate testimony last week admitted that the peace in Iraq is fragile at best and gave no clear indication of the long term solution to this ill-fought war. Can you? From what we've read, we understand that you have admitted that the economy isn't your strong suit. It may not be anyone's strong suit right now but with the U.S. on the brink of recession, it may be as big a problem as the Iraqi war for whoever moves into the White House in 2009. What would you do to fix the ailing economy? How about the home mortgage fiasco? Do we bail people out who overbought and then even borrowed against their homes until all their equity was gone and now are in a no-win situation? Is there a fix for soaring gasoline prices? If not, should we be working faster and with more zeal on alternative forms for fuel and energy? The airline industry is in turmoil. Is the U.S. doing a good enough job overseeing this vital transportation industry? The U.S. has worked hard on airline security since 9/11. Should we be working just as hard to inspect specific planes' safety and to oversee the safety of the overall industry? Everyone's wondering who your vice presidential running mate will be? Gov. Bob Riley has said he isn't a candidate and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she isn't either when she was in Montgomery this week? Finally, and this is probably a hypothetical question because it isn't likely to happen: Given the fact that you were held for over five years as a POW by the North Vietnamese and brutally tortured repeatedly, what meal would you serve the leader of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam should you be elected president and he be invited to a state dinner at the White House?
Again, thank you for coming to south Alabama, Sen. McCain.
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