McCain follows Goldwater to Prescott court steps

PRESCOTT - Presidential candidate John McCain recalled the stark differences, and more important, the striking similarities of Arizona political luminaries Barry Goldwater and Mo Udall as he concluded his cross-county Service to America tour on Saturday.

SLIDESHOW: View photos from McCain's visit to Prescott

The two men cited were political opposites but forged a strong friendship based on mutual respect for each other’s characters, devotion to service and patriotism, McCain told more than 500 supporters while speaking from the front steps of the historic Yavapai County Courthouse.

Goldwater, a conservative Republican senator, and Udall, a liberal Democratic U.S. representative, found common areas of interest and worked together on legislation concerning the environment and American Indians, McCain said.

“I still believe we can and must come together on issues that cannot be addressed without our cooperation,” he said. “Mo Udall and Barry Goldwater taught me to believe that we are Americans first and partisans second, and I want to be a president that honors their faith in us.”

The speech and its setting were symbolic in a number of ways.

Goldwater launched all his Senate campaigns, and his presidential campaign, from the same courthouse stairs, looking across the tree-lined plaza in the town that served as Arizona’s territorial capital. McCain has concluded all his Senate campaigns in the same spot.

Even a low-frills placard in front of McCain’s podium evoked memories of Goldwater’s presidential campaign. On Sept. 3, 1964, a similar black-and-white poster read: “Prescott Ariz. Welcomes Barry.” On Saturday, the message was: “Prescott Ariz. Welcomes John.”

Prescott resident Clay Conboy, a retired telecommunications worker, said he attended Goldwater’s speech, voted for him and planned to vote for McCain as well.

“There are some things worth fighting for, and it doesn’t matter which party you’re in,” said Conboy, 62.

The speech, on the last day of McCain’s biographical tour, also was intended to remind voters that McCain’s 26 years in Congress accounts for just the final portion of his service to the county.

Previous stops on the five-day tour recalled McCain’s military service as a U.S. Navy pilot shot down over Vietnam and held as a prisoner of war for five years in Hanoi.

The clear implication was that neither of the Democratic finalists in the primary, Sens. Barack Obama nor Hillary Rodham Clinton, can match McCain’s credentials in those areas.

And finally, McCain’s lengthy discussion of Goldwater’s and Udall’s bipartisan approaches to leadership helped soften criticism by conservative Republicans that McCain is too friendly with Democrats, while simultaneously appealing to potential crossover Democrats in November.

“It was an excellent speech, reaching out to all Arizonans,” said Rosa Dierks, a political science lecturer at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. “And those Arizonans who don’t know the history of our state and the tradition of bipartisanship, I think had an opportunity to learn a little bit about it.”

McCain is positioned to bridge the political divides in the country, she said.

“He’s not going to be just a Republican president. He’s going to be an American president,” Dierks said.

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who traveled with McCain to Prescott, said the speech also played to a national audience.

“It’s a nice counterpoint to what Obama is saying,” Kyl said. “John has a record of working across the aisle, getting things done, and has a long history of that.”

McCain said no one before or since Goldwater has defended freedom so ably or colorfully.

“He was an authentic, original and passionate patriot,” McCain said. “Simply put, he was in love with freedom. He could never abide any restriction on its exercise as long as that exercise did not interfere with someone else’s freedom.”

McCain cited Udall for his humility, kindness and legendary wit.

He recalled that shortly after he won office for the first time, he and Udall attended a news conference in Casa Grande about matters before the House Interior Committee, on which they both served.

McCain said that at the time he barely understood the difference between the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and couldn’t tell a copper mine from a cotton farm. Yet Udall prefaced his comments on each topic by saying, “Congressman McCain and I are working on this.”

“I was bowled over by his gesture and left the meeting convinced that a relationship with Mo Udall would be the biggest break I was likely to receive at the start of my political career,” he said. “As it turned out, it was one of the biggest breaks of my life.”

The presidential candidate had an opportunity to display his tolerance for opposing views near the end of his address as a group of war protesters worked its way to the front of the crowd.

As McCain tried to build momentum for his finish, the demonstrators shouted louder: “Out of Iraq! Out of Iraq!”

McCain carried on, saying, “We deserve more than tolerance from one another, we deserve each other’s respect. Whether we think each other right or wrong in our views, as long as our character and sincerity merit respect, and as long as we share, for all our differences, for all the noisy debates that enliven our politics ...”

Then he paused for a moment, and for the first time, cast a downward eye on the protesters, a subtle gesture that drew laughter from the crowd. Then he continued.

“... a mutual devotion to the sublime idea that this nation was conceived in — that freedom is the inalienable right of mankind, and in accord with the laws of nature and nature’s Creator.”