(Aug. 8, 2006 grab) www.mccainmovement.com	(June 20, 2006 grab)	(May 12, 2006 grab)

The McCain Movement
"United for a better America in 2008."

About the Site:
Started by Dan Elliott and Charlie Szrom in February 2006.  Elliot, a native of New Haven, Connecticut, is a law student at Syracuse University where he will start his second year in Fall 2006.  He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy from Boston College.  Szrom is a junior studying Political Science and History at Indiana University in Bloomington; he is also founder and president of Students for Global Democracy, which has as its goal, "That every human being will live under a truly democratic government."  He hails from Valparaiso, Indiana.

Dan Elliott (May 12, 2006 e-mail):
What are your motivations in putting up this site?

Although the 2008 election is still years away, it’s never too early to start.  Our motivation is to provide Senator McCain and his supporters with something that we feel his 2000 campaign lacked: a large, online, grassroots community.  We feel that mobilizing average Americans to organize and speak out for Senator McCain will go a long way in helping to put America’s finest citizen in the Oval Office.
 

Have you met or worked for Sen. McCain?  If not when and how did you first become aware of and start to get interested in him?

I have never worked for Senator McCain, but I have met him on numerous occasions.

During my senior year of high school, I was writing a story for a local publication on the 2000 election.  I had the opportunity to meet and interview numerous candidates, including George W. Bush, Al Gore, and Bill Bradley.  I found their messages to be typical candidate rhetoric.  When I saw McCain deliver a speech at Sacred Heart University, however, I was blown away.  I had never seen anything quite like it.  All the sudden, politics had taken on a new meaning for me.  I had the pleasure of meeting the Senator and his wife, and since then, I’ve been a die-hard McCainiac.

In recent years, I have gone to see the Senator whenever the opportunity presented itself.  In 2000, I took a rare day off of classes to travel with my father to Washington, D.C. to watch Senator McCain deliver his opening remarks when the McCain-Feingold legislation was introduced in the Senate.  While in college, I caught up with McCain in Cambridge, where he was promoting his book “Worth the Fighting For.”

Though I’ve never directly worked for him, I felt that Senator McCain could now use the support of myself and others as he prepares to run in 2008.
 

Have you worked on a presidential campaign as a staffer or active volunteer?

I’ve never worked on a presidential campaign.  While in school at Boston College, though, I was an editor for the student newspaper, The Heights.  There, I wrote a column titled “Politically Speaking,” and also published an extensive report on student voter turnout in the 2004 election.  For over a year, I attended every speech, rally, or event that I could in an effort to gauge student interest in the political system.  While it is a common stereotype that college-aged students are apathetic toward politics, I found quite the opposite.  The amount of energy, enthusiasm and effort I witnessed students put into the Bush and Kerry campaigns was simply astounding.  Knowing this, I felt that such resources could be tapped to help Senator McCain as well.
 

Have you done other independent web activity like this in the past?  Are you a blogger of longstanding?http://www.gravel08.com/

I’m actually rather web-illiterate, as I have no experience at all with blogging or web design.  The McCain Movement was born, actually, in a small Yahoo! Group of McCain supporters.  There, I met Charlie Szrom, who is a student at Indiana University.  Charlie has experience in web projects, as he is the founder of a wonderful organization, Students For Global Democracy.  Charlie and I lamented the fact that supporters of other candidates, like Condoleezza Rice, had formed web-based advocacy centers, but there was nothing out there for Senator McCain.  So, we decided to do something about it.  Charlie set up the website, and we have been working to add new additions that will be of interest to McCain supporters, and political enthusiasts in general.  We’ve recently added a discussion forum, which we hope will serve as a primary community for online McCain discussions.

In the brief time that this site has been up, we have had a flurry of McCain supporters, from coast to coast, sign up to give their time and services to the cause of helping to put Senator McCain in the White House in 2008.  The excitement, enthusiasm, and volunteer spirit we have seen to date is truly phenomenal.
 

Anything you've learned from running the site?

Yes, I’ve learned that people united for a common cause can do wonderful things together. An Internet based hub such as the McCain Movement can attract people of varying and diverse talents, and this leads to a strong and exciting campaign.

Of course, we encourage all interested in Senator McCain to visit www.mccainmovement.com and sign up to help!
 
 
 

>The inaugural event for the Draft McCain Movement was a table at the Iowa Republican Party State Convention in Des Moines on June 17, 2006.