I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Behind the deafening beat of Kenny Loggins’ “Highway to the Danger Zone,” Republican presidential candidate John McCain and wife, Cindy, greeted a few hundred enthusiastic supporters at the University of New Mexico Student Union Building Monday, and then McCain launched into a 25-minute speech in which he promised to “change Washington” and berated his Democratic challenger, Barack Obama, as a man of lesser ideas, experience and accomplishments.
Republican Sen. Pete Domenici introduced McCain as a Westerner “raised on the same problems” faced in New Mexico, citing water rights, growth and public land management as issues the Arizona senator is “especially equipped” to deal with as president. “I’m here today, because when (they arrive), we want to make sure they know we love them.”
A visual analysis of the crowd reflected an mix of older folks compared to the masses of students eating lunch in the nearby food court. However, one student in attendance, Emilee Peugh, 21, said she supports the Republican because, “he will not raise taxes like Obama.”
“I love the fact that he has personal experience with the war,” Peugh added. When asked which war she was referring to, Peugh said, “I’m not sure.”
Recent UNM grad Jared Rostro, 23, said he was voting for McCain, “because I’m sane.”
Rostro said McCain’s ability to work across party lines would be one of his strengths, adding: “Lower the taxes. That’s how you will fix the economy.”
For his part, McCain called the recently passed financial bailout legislation a “tourniquet, not a permanent solution.” But instead of outlining a proposal to reverse the current economic downturn, McCain took to a populist tone, citing working families who were worried about lost jobs, rising food costs, more accessible and affordable health care and “a more secure, prosperous, just society.”
“I didn’t just show up out of nowhere,” McCain said to a roar of applause. “America knows me.”
McCain also promised to balance the federal budget before his term expired, were he elected, and again the audience roared with applause.
The bulk of McCain’s speech was directed at his opponent. He chided Obama for owning little experience or accomplishments as a U.S. senator, for ignoring the subprime mortgage crisis, for misrepresenting McCain’s health care plan, “for never taking on the leaders of his own party,” for failing to disclose identities of campaign donors and for planning to raise taxes on the middle class. (Obama’s campaign has denounced the allegations, while casting similar allegations upon McCain.)
“I’m going to change Washington because I’ve done it before,” McCain said. “I’ve been fighting for you my whole life.”
