ROCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said Saturday that he hopes attendance at his town hall meetings won’t suffer after voters learn that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign planted a question for her.
One of Clinton’s aides gave a college student a question to ask the Democratic presidential contender at a forum in central Iowa earlier this week. The campaign later said it would not happen again and that Clinton was unaware of her staff’s actions.
“I think it really harms the legitimacy of the town hall meeting because if people think it’s not legitimate then I don’t think they’re gonna come,” McCain said Saturday after wrapping up his own town hall forum in a church basement. “I hope that process won’t continue because then it might even harm attendance at mine.”
Republican Mitt Romney, also campaigning in New Hampshire, said he suspects he’s answered questions planted by rival campaigns but said responding to them is all part of the process.
“People in these states … do not want to see a managed campaign where questions are managed, answers are scripted,” he said in Laconia. “They want to see real.”
McCain took about a dozen questions over the course of an hour and a half, including plenty of tough ones.
As usual, when the subject turned to immigration, he joked, “This meeting is adjourned!” before giving a serious answer in which he repeated his support for comprehensive reform but said he’s learned that the borders must be secured first.
One voter squeezed in multiple questions, telling McCain he was angry about jobs going to Mexico, dangerous toys coming from China and the state of public education.
“When is prayer going to be put back in schools?” he said, complaining that his tax dollars pay for “liberal teachers” that teach children “it’s OK to be a homosexual.”
Bypassing the more controversial parts of the question, McCain focused on the jobs issue, saying that none of the six federal programs designed to retrain displaced workers are effective.
He proposed turning to community colleges to develop new education and training programs that focus on new technology and industries.
“I would even go so far – and I am a proud conservation – I would go so far as to say if someone loses a high-paying job and they are older, I would be glad to compensate them to some degree for the lack of income they experience when they get a low paying job,” he said.
When another audience member asked about school prayer again later, McCain said he supports voluntary school prayer but would not favor making it mandatory. As for the man’s comments about homosexuality, McCain told reporters later that he disagreed with his characterization of public schools.
“I just don’t share that view. I appreciate his attendance, and I appreciate him sharing his views,” he said.
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Associated Press Writer Philip Elliott contributed from Laconia.
AP-ES-11-10-07 1851EST
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