October 25, 2008 06:00 AM UTC

Elway to McCain - Meet you at Conway's Red Top!

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• by: NEWSMAN

Did you have a Red Top burger today? Sen. McCain did. It was a meeting of the Johns–John McCain, John Elway and John Lynch–chowing-down on massive burgers in Colorado Springs

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Also joining McCain in Denver was John Elway, the former Broncos quarterback who became known as the king of last-minute comebacks.

McCain makes burger stop in Springs

Colorado Springs GAZETTE October 24, 2008 –

With only 11 days till Election Day, Sen. John McCain made a campaign swing through Colorado on Friday, with a brief appearance in Colorado Springs sandwiched between rallies in Denver and Durango.

While in Colorado Springs, the Republican presidential nominee visited a local manufacturer and declared that the plight of small businesses, and competing Democratic and Republican proposals to help them, would be a focal point for the remainder of the campaign.

McCain did not schedule any event in the Springs to which the public was invited. His only policy-related event was a visit to Springs Fabrication, a manufacturer of precision machined parts on the edge of the airport, where the company’s president, Tom Neppl, showed the Arizona senator the process by which they make precise measurements of their products.

After touring the factory, McCain met privately with Neppl and some other small-business owners, then emerged to issue a statement supporting tax cuts for small businesses.

“They have a lot of challenges out there in the way of obtaining health insurance for themselves and their employees and getting lines of credit and all the small business challenges that they face today,” McCain said. “They don’t want anybody’s taxes raised. They do not want capital gains taxes raised. They feel that what they need is lower taxes and less government regulation on their business.”

“So far this year we’ve lost well over 700,000 jobs,” he continued. “Over 300,000 jobs have been created by small business. They are the economic hope for the future, and it’s very obvious to them and to me that Senator (Barack) Obama’s tax plans, including his votes to raise taxes on individuals making as little as $42,000 a year as well as his constantly changing tax plan, the one that we are focusing on recently would raise taxes on half of the small-business income in America.”

“That’s not what American small business needs, and this will be a focal point, I believe, in the last 11 days of this campaign.”

After arriving at Colorado Springs Airport about 1 p.m., McCain’s motorcade first stop was the Conway’s Red Top on Circle Drive.

Dozens of reporters, photographers and TV technicians crowded into the hamburger joint, a Springs institution, to record McCain shaking hands with surprised patrons and posing for pictures before sitting down to eat with his wife, Cindy, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the senator’s closest advisers, and former Denver Broncos star John Elway.

The media were then shooed away, but a spokesman said McCain ordered a burger, fries and a Coke. Whether he finished his Red Top Special, a famously large burger, will have to await his memoirs.

The local delegation that greeted McCain on arrival at Colorado Springs Airport was led by Greg Garcia, chairman of the El Paso County Republican Party, and some of his top volunteers, including Jane Neary, who said she was the first one to sign up when the Colorado Springs McCain campaign office opened in July.

Also on hand were an excited Arvid Bray, a 10-year-old Remington Elementary student who said he was the youngest volunteer at the campaign office, and Alex Johnson, 15, a sophomore at Air Academy High School.

Earlier, Colorado Republicans urged a raucous Denver crowd to do everything possible to elect McCain in the presidential campaign’s critical last days.

“I’m asking you for the next 10 days to do something to elect John McCain,” said former Gov. Bill Owens, telling people to knock on doors, call their neighbors and put up yard signs.

“Can you do that for John McCain?” asked Owens, and hundreds of people at Denver’s National Western Complex erupted in cheers.

McCain told the flag-waving crowd that “this is going to be a tough state, but we’re going to win here.”

McCain continued his assault on the Obama-Biden ticket on taxes, telling people waving “Joe the Plumber” signs that the Democrats will raise their taxes.

“Senator Obama and a Democratic Congress means ‘change’ in your pocket,” McCain said.

The Ohio plumber, Joe Wurzelbacher, has become the central element in speeches by McCain since Wurzelbacher said Obama’s tax plans would keep him from buying the two-man company where he works.

“America did not become the greatest nation on earth by giving our money to the government to spread the wealth around,” he said. “We believe in spreading opportunity.”

Obama has said his tax plan would offer breaks for 95 percent of the population, those making less than $250,000 a year.

McCain spokesman Tom Kise said about 4,000 people were at the Denver event.

Also joining McCain in Denver was Elway, the former Broncos quarterback who became known as the king of last-minute comebacks.

Aaron Hills, 31, said he distrusts the polls that show McCain trailing in Colorado.

“I think it’s a lot closer than they think. A lot of conservatives don’t have the time to do polls,” said Hills, a defense contractor at Buckley Air Force Base and a Navy reservist.

Obama is expected hold two rallies in Colorado on Sunday, and Sen. Hillary Clinton campaigned for Obama on Friday in the Denver suburb of Aurora.

Several members of ADAPT, which advocates for people with disabilities, at one point chanted over McCain’s speech before police led them away.

Protesters chanted, “Endorse Community Choice Act!,” referring to legislation that would mandate states to give people with disabilities the option of receiving care in their homes as opposed to a nursing home, said ADAPT spokesman Randy Alexander.