Why McCain didn’t stick around Vegas very long

By Jon Ralston

Sunday, March 30, 2008 | 2:01 a.m.

If you supported a project most of the state opposed, if you advocated for a measure that would hurt the state’s major industry and if you pushed for a laissez faire approach to a national crisis that hit the state hardest, you’d probably duck the local media, too.

So it was hardly surprising that Yucca Mountain-lover, college sports betting-hater and mortgage crisis-downplayer John McCain, who couldn’t find Nevada on a map during the presidential caucus, scooted out of the Venetian on Friday after a little more than 10 minutes of a falsely dubbed “media availability.”

McCain started 15 minutes before the scheduled start time — several reporters missed it — and answered only a handful of questions — not allowing follow-ups before making a quick exit through a side door.

Now you see him, mostly Nevadans don’t — unless you are a major donor here, that is. Has anyone told McCain that Nevada, while it has gone for Republicans every election but two in 40 years, is turning more Democratic by the day and shouldn’t be taken for granted? Is he taking a page from George W. Bush’s book and hoping to avoid us local yokels for the duration of the campaign?

I’m not whining — I actually saw McCain’s performance. I arrived early and caught most of it — only by the grace of the usually unforgiving traffic gods. And I also know that most Nevadans will not vote for president based on how they feel about Yucca Mountain or college sports betting, although their home mortgage situation might drive their ballot.

But if anyone had the impression McCain didn’t care about Nevada or was taking the state for granted — and I don’t know how anyone could believe that — the Arizona senator certainly cemented it Friday. Like President Bush, he seems to like us most for the money he can rake in at fundraisers but doesn’t respect us the next morning — or after we vote for him.

McCain did field two questions from two early-bird reporters — I was forlornly left with my hand raised when he made his dash for the exit. One from a local radio reporter was about why he opposes college sports betting.

“I feel that way because the most respected people in America came to me and said this was a temptation for their young athletes,” McCain said as if by rote. “These were NCAA coaches. I respect their views.”

Left unanswered:

• How hard will you push for this as president?

• What about illegal sports betting?

• Do you get a sense that college athletes’ shaving points is an epidemic?

• Have any of the GOP members of the Nevada delegation or any Strip casino bosses lobbied you to try to change your mind?

McCain then took a TV reporter’s question about Yucca Mountain, asking him his position and what he would do as president. When he began with a page from W’s book, my hand shot up.

“Obviously I would accede to whatever scientific, credible scientific opinion is,” McCain started, bringing back painful memories of the president’s programmed “sound science” sound bites. And we know how soundly Bush considered science when he accelerated the process right after the inauguration.

And if you think McCain will be any better, consider what he said next: “I would point out that long studies were conducted before Yucca Mountain was recommended.”

Oh, really? This from the senator who was around when those studies were short-circuited and who was among those who helped single out Nevada (remember 1987 and the Screw Nevada Bill?), thus putting politics over science and trying to make the study as short as possible.

McCain went on to disgorge his standard national security rhetoric and added he was “worried” because “we have sites at every nuclear power plant around the nation.” And I wonder where the waste would go if it were not left at those sites.

Some possible follow-ups:

• Why have you voted for Yucca Mountain every time you could, including trying to circumvent the original bill’s intent by backing interim storage?

• How far would you go as president to push this project forward?

• You are a huge critic of wasteful federal spending — shouldn’t the government stop expending billions at Yucca Mountain and find an alternative because the project already is a decade overdue?

But McCain already was headed for the door, a maddening end to this March nonnews conference. He left parting words for the press corps, smiling as he alluded to the casinos and asking the national media folks to “help out the economy here.”

Now what is there to bet on this weekend, Senator?