Speech excites local Republicans

Doug Roulstone of Snohomish wants to keep a Republican in the White House, and listening to Sen. John McCain’s acceptance speech Thursday night steeled his resolve.

“He’s the right guy. He’s the right kind of leader,” said a hoarse-voiced Roulstone in a phone interview from the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., where he attended the Republican National Convention as a delegate.

Roulstone described the atmos­phere as “electric” throughout McCain’s 49-minute address in which the GOP presidential candidate outlined positions on education, energy, health care and other domestic issues.

“He did not come out angry. He did not come out attacking. He’s going to do things right,” said Mary Jane Aurdal of Clinton, a delegate to the convention.

Shouting protesters interrupted McCain in the early moments of his speech.

“We just started to chant U.S.A. to drown them out,” Roulstone said. “To me that was just a lack of respect.”

In south Everett at Shawn O’Donnell’s restaurant, a standing-room-only crowd, mostly Republicans, munched on sandwiches and fries and quaffed beer as they watched McCain’s speech on four televisions in the corners of the bar seating area.

“McCain’s my guy,” said beaming owner Shawn O’Donnell.

Cheers punctuated many of the lines delivered by McCain. Afterward, praise ranged from lukewarm to high.

“I thought he did a good job for being John McCain,” said Peter Meagher of Brier, who came with his wife, Kathy. “He’s OK with spending more money than I would spend.”

Rachel Andrews, 28, of Arlington said she was moved by McCain’s call for people to get involved.

“Stunning,” she said.

Her husband, Nate Andrews, also 28, said he liked how McCain called out both parties for failing the people, especially Republicans for spending too much money, he said.

“It was straight talk,” said Charles Desilets, 62, of Mukilteo. “There wasn’t a lot of political hash there.”

In his speech, McCain cast himself as better prepared on foreign policy than Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. He also emphasized he will pursue solutions to problems across political party lines.

It didn’t bother Iris Lilly of Marysville, another delegate from Snohomish County, to hear a promise to work with rather than against the political opposition.

“In order to get anything done there has to be a two-way conversation,” she said. “He has the ability to cross over the lines and unite Democrats and Republicans.”

Dwight Pelz, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said McCain’s claim as the battle-tested bipartisan didn’t wash with his record of voting more than 90 percent of the time for the policies pushed by Republican President Bush.

“After a week of relentless negativity and false attacks, Americans understand more than ever we can’t afford four more years of the same,” Pelz said in a prepared statement.

“Despite his empty rhetoric, Republican John McCain is nothing more than a continuation of the same Bush policies that have driven our country into the ditch,” he said.

McCain is his own man and nothing like the current president in the minds of Republicans.

His selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate proved that, said folks watching at Shawn O’Donnell’s.

Whenever her face appeared on the screen, cheers spread through the restaurant.

“Palin I think has stirred some interest for us,” said Kathy Meagher.

At the convention, McCain struck a nerve with Lilly and Aurdal with his personal story of survival in a prisoner of war camp in Hanoi.

“He shared that with such absolute sincerity that it brought me to tears,” Aurdal said. “That experience led him to know how much he loved his country. I know he will put this country first.”

Lilly said she lived in Iran as a teenager at the outset of that nation’s revolution. She recalled her family narrowly escaping life-threatening violence.

“We need somebody who knows and understands what it means to stand up to those who threaten our rights and our liberties,” she said.