With Favre’s Future in Doubt, Don’t Look to McCain for Mediation
EmailABC News’s Bret Hovell reports from Racine, WI: The Iraq war, global warming, immigration, campaign finance reform: controversial issues on which John McCain has taken difficult stances throughout his career.
Just don’t ask him to mediate what’s going on a few miles north of here in Green Bay with the state’s beloved football hero, Brett Favre.
The first person McCain called on at his Wisconsin town hall-style meeting Thursday had a plan for McCain to help him win the state.
“I think you could carry Wisconsin, if you can get up and talk to Mark Murphy and Ted Thompson and resolve this dispute in Green Bay,” the man suggested to McCain, who trails his rival here by double digits in recent polls.
The crowd –- and McCain –- laughed at the proposition.
“My friends, there’s a lot of controversies that I have eagerly leapt into in my time,” McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, said. “And I did stand fifth from the bottom of my class at the Naval Academy. But I’m not so dumb that I’m going to jump into that one.”
Favre, who retired at the end of last season, changed his mind in recent weeks and decided he wanted to come back, creating a flap about who would be the starting quarterback for the team, and whether or not Favre –- an institution in Wisconsin –- could or should be traded to another team. Mark Murphy, the Packers president, and Ted Thompson the team’s general manager, have been in negotiations with the star to figure out what his future will hold.
It’s a hot topic here –- this wasn’t the first Wisconsin town hall in which McCain was asked the question about Favre coming out of retirement.
On July 11, the last time McCain was in Wisconsin, he was asked the same question. At that meeting he punted, saying that Favre could help inspire young people to be physically fit.
Thursday, though he wouldn’t take a side in the dispute, he did offer a bit of a palliative.
“One thing that we all agree on that Brett Favre has provided America and the state of Wisconsin with some of its greatest memories and I hope that we all keep that in mind as we go forward,” McCain said.
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I wish Sen. McSame could get his lie straight about whether he used the Packers or the Steelers when he was a POW.
Which team was it McSame? Get your lie straight.
Posted by: Will | July 31, 2008, 5:01 pm 5:01 pm
Which team was it Sen. McSame? The Packers or the Steelers?
Get your lie straight.
Posted by: Will | July 31, 2008, 5:03 pm 5:03 pm
Man, if McCain could get Favre to play in Minnesota, he can count on banking Minnesota in his column in November!
Go do it; you won’t win in Wisconsin any way so don’t worry about pissing off the packers.
Posted by: fact check | July 31, 2008, 5:12 pm 5:12 pm
–Will- Yes, McCain mixed up his football teams way back 30 plus years ago and much as been said about it. So answer a quick question for me. What teams played in the Super Bowl in 1994 and who won. Bet you don’t know–not that it means anything important. This football thing was another stupid attack and all STUPID ATTACKS needs to stop. OK
Posted by: Milton | July 31, 2008, 7:50 pm 7:50 pm
McCain’s mixup of the Steelers and the Packers didn’t happen 30 years ago, it happened LAST MONTH. It raises serious questions about him, like is he lying (unlikely, since he knows how well publicized the original story was) or was it just a senior slip of the mind? What happens when Nation A attacks us and he mixes them up and sends our forces to Nation B? It’s just too risky to place that kind of power into the hands of someone who doesn’t know what’s what. Next thing you know, he’ll forget he’s a Republican.
Posted by: Mike | August 1, 2008, 2:14 pm 2:14 pm
Oh yeah, and about Favre, bring him here to Chi town, he’s historically the best QB on Soldier Field’s turf, that’s for sure.
Posted by: Mike | August 1, 2008, 2:16 pm 2:16 pm