Former Sen. Fred Thompson plans return to acting

There has been many post Election reflections from the McCain Campaign since their defeat on November 4th. While the campaign blames the meltdown of the financial markets, a looming recession and the nation's involvement in two wars, local publisher Susan Caldwell reflects on the refusal of an interview for Cindy McCain for the publication Applaud Magazine. Did this type of behavior contribute to republican demise or was it doomed from the start?

In April 2007 a representative of the Obama campaign contacted Applaud Magazine to request that the magazine feature an article on Michelle Obama. The primary focus for the magazine is to "Applaud and Inspire women" – both republican and democratic. The publication thought the election would be a wonderful opportunity to present women in New Hampshire and neighboring state Massachusetts with a portrait of their prospective first ladies. Since the Obama campaign was eager to have media coverage for Michelle Obama, the assumption was that the McCain campaign would be just as eager to have the magazine feature Cindy McCain. After all New Hampshire is an important battle ground state - so why would they refuse?

This began a series of phone calls, faxes and emails to the national campaign headquarters for the McCain campaign. The result was a total lack of response. Finally the magazine received an email from Jeff Grappone, the NE Communications Director for the McCain campaign. Grappone inquired if the magazine had been looking for an interview with Cindy McCain. The publisher of Applaud explained that they had been trying for months to get some background material on Cindy and the answers to three questions. After a few more requests, Grappone relayed that he was very disappointed that he could not provide any information, as the campaign had not followed up on his request.

Deciding what to do at this point was very difficult. When we feature someone in the magazine it has nothing to do with politics, it relates to what they have accomplished and we are very big on "Firsts' says Susan Caldwell. The magazine has featured Hillary Clinton (D) because she was the first woman to run for president on the Democratic ticket, and Donna Lee Lozeau (R) who is the first female mayor of Nashua, NH. Women who do things for the first time raise the bar for every other woman in the world. That's what is important to the readers of the magazine.

Just stopping by to say thank you for accepting my membership request to the Nightly News group....roger

Yeah, try to avoid those in the Nightly group please. :)

Thanks for picking me up....either my link to ABC is broken or I am no longer allowed to post there because I called Obama "Little Black Sambo"... my bad...