Tag Archive: Yale on the Trail: Arizona

  1. Before the McCain Spectacle: Hotel, Flags and Chips

    Leave a Comment

    By Paul Needham

    PHOENIX, 3:05 p.m. — The Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa was inspired by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, but you wouldn’t know it today.

    Reporters have strewn themselves all over the posh resort, so much so that its geometric patterns are largely hidden. I counted more than three dozen satellite trucks and there are hundreds of cameras positioned everywhere imaginable.

    3003985882_1c8dfe9aba1.jpg

    We were told to park several miles away, at the North Phoenix Baptist Church, but few — if any — reporters did so. Instead, every parking space at the Biltmore is filled and some cars are parked on lawns. (I haven’t seen anyone parked on the golf course yet.)

    (more…)

  2. “Take Arizona in a big way”

    Leave a Comment

    By Paul Needham

    PRESCOTT, Ariz., 1:08 a.m. — Senator John McCain is hoping to reverse what he calls one of Arizona’s “unhappy traditions.”

    Speaking in front of the same courthouse steps here where Barry Goldwater launched and ended his 1964 bid for the presidency, McCain said he would reverse the tradition of Arizonans losing presidential elections.

    “I’m confident because I’ve seen the momentum, my friends” he said in the earliest hours of Wednesday morning after completing a seven-state sprint across the country on Tuesday. “All we’ve got to do is get out the vote.”

    (more…)

  3. Divided in McCain’s Home State

    Leave a Comment

    By Paul Needham

    PHOENIX, 9:15 p.m. — The Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport was something of a political battleground tonight.

    Passengers on my US Airways flight didn’t even have to exit the jetway before they heard the rumble of political debate in the terminal. CNN was blaring with the sound of a McCain stump speech from earlier today.

    As Senator John McCain roared on the television, “Mac is back,” passengers waiting in his home state’s largest airport drowned him out with boos and cheers, shouts of “Nobama” and screams of “Yes We Can.”

    One Philadelphia-bound woman, who would only identify herself as Nicki, said she was ashamed to be from McCain’s home state.

    “He’s not the same man we put in the Senate,” she said. “It’s time for change.”

    (more…)