Gilmore, Joe McCain rally Republicans

Joe McCain handed Jim Gilmore a check Saturday, and called for others to do the same.

With just more than three weeks left before the Nov. 4 elections, McCain called for the Republicans gathered at Kathy’s Restaurant in Staunton to leave “with a mission and a message” to elect his brother, John McCain, as president, Gilmore as U.S. Senator and the other party nominees across Virginia to their respective offices.

The campaign contribution, like the one he gave to Gilmore, will help, Joe McCain said, but people need to spread the message that it’s his brother, John, who is most qualified to answer the White House phone at 3 a.m. when a crisis takes place.

“You want that hand answering the phone,” Joe McCain said.

Weaving in John McCain’s story of military service while pointing out his track record for straight talk, Joe McCain said his brother would not govern through polls.

Joe McCain repeated the oft-told story of his brother’s dramatic experience in Vietnam: John McCain was shot down over Hanoi, broke both his arms and a leg and spent about two years as a prisoner of war in isolation, where he was beaten and battered to the point where, today, he can’t raise his arms above his shoulders.

Given a chance to be released during a publicity stunt by the North Vietnamese, the future senator refused, rising up to say that others who had been there longer should go home first.

“It’s about character,” Joe McCain said. In tough economic times, he said, his brother makes decisions “without guile and without finesse.”

But one of John McCain’s recent decisions — his vote in favor of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout — has sparked criticism among conservatives. The Senate bill, backed by Congress on Oct. 3, was laden with pork. Gilmore told the crowd he would have voted against the package.

“The reason John voted for it, in spite of the fact that there was pork in there … was because he was trying to get this fiscal issue temporarily out of the way so we could get back to the other issues that face this country,” Joe McCain said. “That doesn’t mean that the vote for it was necessarily the best thing to do, but it was the thing to do so that he could get back to this message of why he’s running.”

Gilmore, who spoke before Joe McCain and behind Democrat Mark Warner by more than 20 percentage points in the polls, sought to rally the Republican troops, urging them to speak to people and get bumper stickers on their cars.

“It’s almost a spiritual thing,” Gilmore said to laughs.

The polls, Gilmore said, do not accurately reflect the vibe he’s getting from people throughout the 90 cities and counties he’s visited.

“This race is going great guns — absolutely great guns,” Gilmore said.

The number of donors to Gilmore’s campaign has swelled from 1,500 to 9,000, the former governor said.

That, Gilmore said, is because he’s on the right side of the issues. He backs drilling for oil offshore and in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and a plan for energy independence that includes use of coal, nuclear power and renewable energy. He also favors union members having the right to hold secret-ballot elections. Warner opposes these things, Gilmore said.

“We can drill for oil,” Gilmore said. “We can lower gas prices right now.”

Warner doesn’t believe in energy diversity, Gilmore said.

“Send him a rose, let him babysit your kids — he’s OK,” Gilmore said. “But don’t send him to the U.S. Senate to represent the state of Virginia.”

Gilmore praised the Republican presidential ticket, calling John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin “the right running mates.”

In particular, Gilmore praised Palin as someone who has energized Republicans and “close[d] the gender gap.” He believes John McCain will carry Virginia.

Joe McCain, too, believes it.

Holding up the Naval aviator flight jacket his brother wore at the flight briefing before leaving on the mission that saw him shot down over Hanoi on Oct. 26, 1967, Joe McCain said his brother did not see it again for five-and-a-half years.

As he did before every mission, John McCain — like other Navy pilots — would give a thumbs-up sign before taking off from the aircraft carrier.

Joe McCain gave him his own thumbs-up.

“Let’s send him off into history,” Joe McCain said.

At that, the Republicans in the room gave John McCain two thumbs up.