McCain chides Schwarzenegger over staged rallies

GWB does the same thing with his staged town hall meetings...with preplanned questions and answers...

they can't risk him saying something he shouldn't, or someone asking a real question to our homeland leader...

McCain chides Schwarzenegger over staged rallies
Reuters | October 11 2005

OAKLAND, California (Reuters) - Sen. John McCain joined Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday to promote the California governor's November ballot initiatives, but afterward chided his carefully staged campaign events.

The Arizona Republican senator appeared with the governor before a crowd of about 150 invited women, who cheered wildly when Schwarzenegger arrived and frequently applauded as he touted the benefits of California initiatives on budget reform, teachers, and redistricting.

As at many of Schwarzenegger's campaign events, outsiders were not allowed to attend what the governor's office called a "town hall meeting" at a hotel near Oakland's airport. Union protesters gathered outside the venue carrying signs.

At a subsequent news conference, McCain, a possible candidate for U.S. president in 2008, said he had always favored town hall meetings open to the public, adding that some especially noisy dissenters had occasionally been ejected.

"The benefit of an open town hall meeting is one that you get to hear a lot of different views, and two it has credibility," said McCain.

At the Oakland event, the crowd appeared as enthusiastic as an audience at a game show, frequently nodding their head in agreement, applauding at all the right spots, and chanting "four more years" as Schwarzenegger arrived.

"Thank you, how huge of you to be stepping out," one woman told Schwarzenegger. "You have other things to do."

Such remarks prompted McCain to quip, "The governor is going to take you wherever he goes."

After appearing with Schwarzenegger earlier in the day at a Burbank hotel, McCain, who has fought for campaign finance reform, said Schwarzenegger's extensive fund raising "played by the rules of the game."

"Do I like the game? No," he said. "But for him to tie one hand behind his back, I would not think would be particularly appropriate."

McCain noted that opponents of California ballot measures had themselves raised tens of millions of dollars.

Amid opposition from unions and the state Democratic party, Schwarzenegger, who is up for re-election next year, is fighting an uphill battle on his favored measures in the special election he called for next month.

(Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage in Burbank)