I'll get right to the point. I'm looking for a reasonable explanation for something I happened to notice today about John McCain's visit to New Hampshire.
McCain's itinerary, at least as late as March 13 was set to take the Straight Talk Express from Milford at 10am to a town hall meeting in Newport at 3pm:
Saturday March 17th, 2007
What: Newport Town Hall Meeting
When: 3:00pm
Where: Newport Opera House
20 Main Street - Newport, NH
Yet today he ended up going from Milford to Lebanon:
Town Hall Meeting in Lebanon, New Hampshire
3:15 p.m. EDT
Lebanon High School
High School Cafeteria
195 Hanover Street
Lebanon, New Hampshire 03766
Who cares, you say? And moreover, there was a doozy of a snowstorm in the Granite State last night, so they probably needed to change plans.
One problem with that. Lebanon is significantly further north of Milford than Newport is (links to GoogleMaps travel routes).
Besides, clicking this link takes you to a spiffy picture of a plow used just to ensure that the Express doesn't end up in a ditch.
Okay, fine. Maybe they made an adjustment based on demographics? Nice try, except that anyone from the area can tell you that Newport will give you a much greater opportunity to connect with Republican voters than Lebanon.
So what gives?
Hmmm... could it have anything to do with this, you think?
NEWPORT – Family, friends and community members bid a heart-wrenching farewell today to fallen soldier Spc. Justin Rollins, a "whirlwind" of energy in life and a "rock of strength" in death.A roadside bomb killed Rollins, 22, and five of his fellow soldiers March 5 near Samarra, Iraq.
More than 400 people turned out for the memorial service at South Congregational Church on North Main Street, including Gov. John Lynch and Griffin Dalianis, aide to the secretary of the Army.
Before reading the "Soldiers Creed," as he had planned, Dalianis said he couldn’t help but comment on the love and support the town of Newport has wrapped around the Rollins family since the news of Justin’s death.
Is this inconvenient truth about the reality of Iraq what kept Mr. Surge himself out of this town?
I first wrote about Spc. Rollins here:
From the Eagle Times:
"There is no greater honor than to be buried in Arlington Cemetery," Justin Rollins, 22, had told his father recently in a call home from Iraq. Now, Skip Rollins will honor his son's request after the 22-year-old was killed Monday in a bomb attack in the Iraqi province of Salahuddin.
So sad:
Justin, a 2003 Newport High School graduate, was scheduled to come home in about three weeks when he planned to propose to his longtime girlfriend Brittney Murray.
Rollins, earlier wounded in December, was a gunner and a squad sniper. Here's what his father says about the equipment provided for his son
"The Army gave him a dinky little scope," Rollins said. "He went out and spent $600 of his own money so he could shoot farther."
Please join me in honoring Justin Rollins and his family for his service and sacrifice. Thoughts on how to get Sununu and Gregg, both of whom never served, to stop blocking efforts to end this nightmare are also welcome.
I suppose if pressed the official answer would be, "we decided to campaign elsewhere out of respect for Spc. Rollins", but my instinct says it would have been quite a contrast to have the biggest known cheerleader for the Decider's Iraq escalation at hand on the same day that a smallish NH town, where people tend to know each other, says goodbye on of their own.