Straight Talk

The return of 'Straight Talk' McCain

Facing his toughest reelection fight ever, the Arizona senator looks like the freewheeling presidential contender of 2000.

By Burgess Everett

The dour John McCain of Capitol Hill is on hiatus. In his place, at least for a day: The loose, accessible, happy warrior of Straight Talk Express yesteryear.

McCain is deadly serious about winning reelection and continuing his long-running battle against the health care and foreign policies of President Barack Obama.

But as he approaches a Republican primary here next week he's expected to easily win, the five-term senator and two-time presidential hopeful is confident and relaxed enough to kid around about ethnic jokes.

“One of the sad things in American politics today is that you can’t tell any ethnic jokes except Irish jokes. Now, why that should be I do not know. I have never understood it,” McCain cracked to the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce as he wrapped up a freewheeling q-and-a session.

He proceeded to describe two strangers drinking in a bar in Boston finding common ground over their Irish origins and their schooling. The punch line? “It’s just the old Ireland twins getting drunk again.”

McCain has plenty weighing on his mind these days, including a wild card Republican nominee for president who's attacked him personally as well as his state's growing Latino electorate. A super PAC supporting his primary opponent, Kelli Ward, is receiving a late infusion of money ahead of the Tuesday election, an attempt to embarrass McCain with a poor showing. Though McCain is heavily favored to win that race, he’ll then run into Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) in the general, easily the toughest opponent he’s ever faced.

“I know John’s been taking the primary and the general election seriously now for 20 months,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), an ally and surrogate for McCain. “He knows he has to earn his votes.”

In Washington, these worries often seem to burden McCain, as he cuts off questions about Trump, explaining he has nothing to say about the GOP’s polarizing nominee that he hasn’t already said.

But here in Arizona, the queries don’t seem to bother him as much. He is visibly lighter on his feet, running what might be his last campaign in vintage plainspoken style.

“Before I have to talk about Trump, I would like to mention to you that many of you don’t know or understand what a real tech expert I am,” McCain said, waving an iPhone around before taking questions from the audience. “Cindy makes me buy a new one about every six months; takes me about six months to figure the goddamn thing out.”

The first question, naturally, was about Trump. Namely, how he could imperil the GOP’s hard-fought House and Senate majorities. Though McCain is a direct player in the drama of how Trump affects down-ballot races, here too the Arizona senator deflected with humor.

“I have a 100 percent record on predicting what’s going to happen. I’ve been wrong every single time. So take that into consideration,” McCain said.

Later, he grew more serious.

“This is a most unusual time, and all I can say is that I believe as a Republican we need the Senate and I believe we should do everything we can as Republicans to steer Mr. Trump in the right direction,” McCain said.

Throughout the day Tuesday, McCain toggled between the serious and lighthearted, with a heavier dose of the latter. He opened his remarks with rapid fire jokes that sounded like something out of a late-night TV show, directing complaints about utility bills to Patricia DiRoss, a power company executive.

“And by the way, Patricia, thank you for not mentioning I ran for the president of the United States. After I lost I slept like a baby. Sleep two hours, wake up and cry. Sleep two hours, wake up and cry,” McCain said.

Then he dinged Congress: “Anyone here in the 14 percent who approves of Congress please raise your hand. If you just raised your hand, please do not drive an automobile here in Scottsdale. You’re a danger to yourself and others.”

McCain went on to joke that Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), his working partner on the Armed Services Committee, is a “very poorly educated West Point graduate.” Even McCain's first serious remarks, about the dangers his state faces from out-of-control forest fires, were tinged with humor.

“If I talk too long about this. You’ll get a thing called MEGO: My eyes glaze over. But the fact is we have to do forest thinning,” the senator said with a grin.

He then piled on criticisms of Obama for “leading from behind” overseas, for jamming through Obamacare and for paying a “ransom” to Iran. Later, at a campaign rally in Phoenix, he said those issues are what led him to launch his reelection campaign a year ago.

“The main reason is: Because the world is on fire,” McCain said of his reasons for running. “Barack Obama proved that if America leads from behind, bad people will lead from the front.”

With the stakes so high, it’s a wonder that McCain can be so at ease on the trail. In an interview, he attributed it to the youth and vigor of his campaign team, which waited for 30 minutes after McCain and Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) addressed volunteers to get a picture with Arizona’s senior senator in Phoenix.

“Having these young students has really been uplifting for us. They invigorate us,” McCain said. “There’s like 250 of these young college students, you’ve got to be encouraged by that.”

One of the students lingered after the event to chat with McCain, making small talk about local schools before McCain asked what the young man wants to do with his life. Journalism, he said.

Earlier in the day McCain pummeled the “adoring” pro-Clinton media as one of his biggest worries this year, but this time the media worked better as a punchline.

“Take a look at that guy,” he said, gesturing at a POLITICO reporter. “You don’t want to end up looking like that.”