Up Close with John McCain in Maryland

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland -- I am not a Republican. I never have been, and I most likely never will be one; however, I like John McCain. And although I've already decided who I'm going to vote for, and it's not John McCain, I came to the decision that while in Maryland for a visit with my boyfriend's family, I'd accompany them to the event they'd been looking forward to for months now.

They were going to be attending a Press Conference at the Annapolis Waterfront Marriott, at which they were going to be taking pictures of for a local magazine they help to put out. The event was going to be held on February the 11th, and it started at 9:15am, however we were going to be allowed into The Chesapeake Ballroom at around 8:45am thanks to their press passes.

Our day began really early on Monday, February the 11th. My boyfriend's siblings are extremely Republican, and since they are really confident that John McCain, Senator of Arizona, will win the Republican party bid for the presidency they were really anxious to get to the event, before it started, to see if they could get a chance to meet him. They had questions prepared and everything. One of the questions was, "How would you ensure that the causalities our troops are having in Iraq would decrease if you're elected President?" Another question was "How important is global warming to you, and do you have any plans to do anything?" It was weird for me, because I wanted to hear what he had to say as well, and after being there, and hearing his responses to similar questions, I was very content with his answers, that if I wasn't a hardcore Democrat, I'd vote for John McCain as well, without fear of him turning into another George Bush.

What The People of Maryland Were Saying

Like I mentioned before, I am not a Republican, so what I was hearing was not what I wanted to hear. However, i will tell you, that our country has a lot of Republicans in it, and they are loyal to the end; especially on the Eastern part of the United States. What they were saying was, that they were willing to put their confidence in McCain as their next president.

While there, I overheard a couple of other photographers whispering that they never thought they'd be voting for a Republican candidate after voting for Bush in the last election, but that they had no choice after hearing what McCain's goals were for the country.

The Moments After McCain's Speech

McCain is like a magnet for his fans and followers. They all really want to get close to him with any chance they get, to shake his hand, get an autograph, and some even want to request a photo with him. After the press conference was finished, McCain stood around for a minute doing all of those things. Although I was not really interested in getting close to McCain when the event finished, I could feel the excitement and rush that people were getting at the thought of having a memento from this conference. Even some of the hotel employees had been hearing his speech and wanted to shake the hand of the man who gave it. He seemed very polite, and was around for over 30 minutes after the conference.