JustASC

John McCain visited New Jersey Aug. 12 and left with $1.5 million dollars in new contributions, much of them raised at two events sponsored by members of the state’s Jewish community.

NJJN’s Bob Wiener reports, after the jump:

In a lunchtime gathering, McCain’s wife Cindy helped raise between $100,000 and $200,000 at a private meeting in the Rumson home of Lewis Eisenberg, a veteran Jewish philanthropist and former chair of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

But the bulk of the money came in an evening fundraiser in Teaneck, where a crowd that included Orthodox rabbis, college students, and elected officials donated an estimated $1.3 million.

Supporters waited for more than an hour for the candidate to arrive.

Meanwhile, in a separate smaller room, the two senators and Cindy McCain appeared at a private roundtable session with some 40 major donors.

“These are the people who have raised or given $25,000 or more for his campaign,” explained Ben Chouake, the Englewood physician who is NORPAC’s president.
“Sen. McCain gave us a quick briefing about the campaign and we did a Q&A with him. I thought it would be good for him to hear what his lieutenants in the field are thinking and why they are stepping up to the plate for him. He answered a whole series of questions about Iran, U.S.-Israel relations, the Palestinian Authority, and that sort of stuff.”

After the roundtable ended, McCain and his entourage entered the ballroom, and eager members of the audience stood and moved closer to the stage.

Referring to Obama as “a bright young man who is not ready to be president,” Lieberman opened the evening by pointing to the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

“Unpredictable things can happen in the world,” he said. “John McCain is season and ready to handle them.”

Calling himself “a Democrat – an independent Democrat,” Lieberman said McCain “has a track record of working across the aisle in the Senate to get things done.”

As he began a 15-minute address, McCain thanked Lieberman for his friendship and support as he paced back and forth on the ballroom stage, speaking into a handheld microphone.

Mentioning their recent trip together to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Israel, McCain said “we cannot allow a second Holocaust to take place,” referring obliquely to the possibility that Iran might develop nuclear weapons and use them against Israel.
Turning to domestic issues, he said “the country needs to be reformed. Spending is out of control.” Citing a quotation from the late President Ronald Reagan that “Congress spends money like a drunken sailor,” McCain said he recently received an email from a Navy veteran.

“It said ‘I used to be a drunken sailor myself, and I resent being compared to members of Congress’.”

His words were received with laughter, followed by applause a moment later when he pledged not to raise taxes.

The applause came again when McCain insisted that “we have to drill for oil offshore now. We have to use wind and wave and solar power, but we must have nuclear power plants. We have to build 45 of them in the next ten years.”

Referring to oil-producing nations, he said “we have to stop giving billions of dollars a year to countries who don’t like us.”

McCain said he strongly supported the government of Georgia and its embattled president, Mikheil Saakashvili, whom he referred to as “a friend.” He suggested that Russia should be “thrown out of the G8,” the association of industrialized nations. “Russia must be made to understand that what was not acceptable in the 20th Century will not be acceptable in the 21st Century,” he vowed.

Then, in a concluding remark, he appealed “to a new generation of Americans to look beyond their self-interest in the coming years.”
On the morning after the event he organized, NORPAC’s president, was beaming.

“It worked out beautifully. Sen. McCain made people very happy,” Chouake said.

He brushed aside the findings of a new Quinnipiac University poll released a day after the fundraiser. It showed Democrat Barack Obama 10 points ahead of the Republican – 51 percent to 41 — among likely voters in New Jersey, a gain of four points since the previous poll in June.

“I think McCain is going to win,” said Chouake, who has been an admirer since the Arizona senator first ran for president in 2000.

“Barack Obama is an electrifying candidate. He does a great job. He connects very well with people. But at the end of the day, people want someone to run the country, a commander-in-chief who is qualified, who is experienced, who has merit, and who has wisdom.”