Meeting McCain

Meeting McCain

Michael Pasternak writes:
What brings three United States senators to a Catholic High School in Iowa on a freezing Wednesday night in January? Arizona Senator John McCain and his quest to be the next President of the United States.

McCain was joined by Kansas Senator Sam Brownback and South Dakota Senator John Thune at a campaign rally for McCain at Assumption High School in Davenport, Iowa.

I was one of 250 people who attended the rally, and my proximity to three percent of our nation's senatorial leadership was exciting. I met and shook the hand of McCain and was photographed near him. He looked older in person than he does on television. However, during the speech his age was not mentioned. Instead, a buzzword like "experience" was used to tout his qualifications to the already pro-McCain crowd.

While McCain seemed older to my naked eye, Brownback, who was previously running for president but dropped out in October, was the senator who looked more presidential to me. Maybe it was how young he looked next to McCain.

Along with getting my picture taken with McCain, I was also photographed a few feet away from the other two senators in attendance. I am hoping for a new series of shots called "Close to a Leader." These will be photos of me near all 50 U.S. senators. Only 97 more to go before the project is complete. Maybe someday it will expand to include all 435 House of Representatives members. More likely it will end with the three in-focus photos of me in the foreground featuring the out-of-focus senators in the background.

Either way, on the second night of 2008, I was close enough to three senators to see what they look like in real life.

Michael Pasternak is a graduate student in journalism from Coral Springs, Florida.