Coming soon to towns across America

When John McCain campaigned here last week, he relied on his signature event, an unscripted town hall meeting, to sway undecided voters in this crucial swing state.

The presumed Republican presidential nominee paced with a microphone at Xavier University, taking questions about energy, the economy and other issues from 150 people.

But McCain’s hourlong pitch didn’t persuade Rosemary Meinders, a wavering Democrat. His answers were too general, she said. “Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

The next day, Janine Koss, a lifelong Republican, also was unconvinced after McCain met about 80 autoworkers at the General Motors Lordstown plant outside Youngstown. “Now I don’t know,” the 31-year-old assembly line worker said. “I really don’t know.”

Such tepid responses suggest a mounting problem for McCain as he battles likely Democratic nominee Barack Obama. More than any major-party candidate in modern times, McCain is relying on low-key question-and-answer sessions, rather than boisterous rallies and set speeches, as the linchpin of his campaign.

“It’s never been done before, so no one knows if it will work,” said Todd Harris, a Republican strategist who served as spokesman for McCain’s unsuccessful 2000 presidential bid. “But we’ve never had a candidate like John McCain.”

Aides and supporters say the freewheeling sessions showcase the Arizona senator as a straight-talking candidate who is an expert on policy issues and ready to be president. It also lets him display a sense of humor that, they admit, is more appealing than his formal speeches, which can sound stilted. Even some GOP leaders have panned his delivery.

Working the room like a lounge act, McCain clearly enjoys the banter and the intellectual challenge of mixing it up with voters. Although many supporters lob softballs, McCain also engages with critics and cranks in the crowd.

“It’s not a staged speech that’s pre-written, pre-scripted,” said Tony Fabrizio, a GOP pollster. “It’s a shoot-from-the-hip, speak-from-the-heart setting, and that underscores his image as a maverick who is not afraid to take people on.”

Sometimes it’s too unscripted.

On June 24, McCain’s campaign arranged for him to call a group of registered Democrats and independents in South Florida in what his campaign billed as a “tele-town hall meeting.” As reporters listened in, technicians dropped three of the voters in mid-question.

“Michael, are you still there?” McCain asked moments into the call. “Oops. Are you still there? Hello? Hello? Michael, we lost you.” When the next caller also was lost, the candidate said sarcastically: “This is a well-oiled machine.”

McCain hosts several town hall sessions each week, and aides expect to keep the pace in the months ahead. His off-the-cuff comments, flip asides and sarcastic insults may backfire in the intense glare of a national campaign, however.

In September, a high school student in Concord, N.H., said that, at age 72, McCain would be the oldest president ever elected. Did he fear he might “die in office or get Alzheimer’s,” the youth asked, according to a video posted on YouTube.

McCain, as usual, made light of his age. He joked that his son already had warned “that I’m getting to the point where I hide my own Easter eggs.” He cited his good health and obvious vigor, but then added a final, barbed comment. “Thanks for the question, you little jerk,” he said, apparently in jest.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a presidential scholar and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, said such incidents often looked better on TV than in print, and might play to McCain’s favor.

“He’s very good for TV because there’s often a surprise,” she said. “You’re never sure what he’s going to say next. He moves into uncharted territory more readily than other politicians.”

That worries some supporters. They say McCain’s unstructured sessions often overshadow efforts to communicate a single, clear message each day. Worse, they fear, the routine events now only produce national news when he makes an error. Indeed, McCain has made his worst gaffes during town hall meetings.

In January, McCain told a questioner in Derry, N.H., that U.S. troops could spend “maybe 100” years in Iraq “as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed.”

Democrats then in the race, including Obama, repeatedly cited the comment as evidence that McCain had endorsed an endless war, a charge he vociferously denied. But the damage was done.

“When you give up control of the script, you really do lose control,” said Matthew Dowd, a GOP strategist who worked for President Bush’s 2004 campaign. “That’s the danger.”

Still, Dowd said, the town halls “give people a real sense that McCain is authentic,” and voters “are putting a premium on authenticity this year.”

Harris, McCain’s former aide, agreed. “This is who John McCain is,” he said. “This is what he enjoys. This is him in his element.”

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bob.drogin@latimes.com