NEW YORK (CNN) – Standing at home plate in the House that Ruth Built, John McCain put running for president in perspective: “It is like being in Double A and then all of a sudden you’re in Yankee Stadium.”
McCain attended Sunday’s Yankees-A’s game with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Before the game, the two went down on the field signing autographs posing for pictures and chatting with New York manager Joe Girardi and Oakland skipper Bob Geren.
The GOP presidential candidate wore his blue Navy hat, while Giuliani sported the traditional Yankee NY cap. They talked sports with the managers, with McCain telling them, “I really am a big sports nut because I was a mediocre high school athlete.”
Before settling in to watch the game, they toured the legendary Monument Park in left center field, with tributes to the greatest Yankee players.
McCain, an Arizona Diamondbacks fan, talked of watching his team in the 2001 World Series against Yankees with Giuliani, just a month after the 9-11 attacks. He often tells the story on the trail of being moved by the cheers Giuliani received from fans.
He told the YES Network as he sat in the Yankees dugout “it was an emotional time," saying, “I’ll never forget it as long as I live. Such an incredible time in our history.”
Giuliani told reporters before the game, “we have great memories, and very, very difficult memories of that period of time... Then I went out to Arizona with him for two games, and it was a very emotional World Series, that particular one. He's a good friend. We've also been to the Fiesta Bowl together, and I've gone to sporting events with John throughout the years. So, it's a little different now that he's a presidential candidate, but it's the same John McCain."
Asked whether runs for vice president or New York Governor might be in his future, Giuliani said, "I'm not thinking about any of those things. I'm thinking just about – I know you are! You have a right to think about it. And I have a right not to think about it because we've got an election right now to think about and get it done right."
McCain flew to Portland, Maine after the game where he has campaign events Monday.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson assured CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Sunday morning that the stimulus tax rebate issued to millions of Americans this year is working.
“When you look at the consumer data we have for the second quarter; you look at retail sales, the stimulus package is working,” Paulson said. “And it's coming at a time when it's very much needed.”
But Paulson rejected the idea of a second stimulus package of $50 billion, which has been proposed by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other democrats.
“We put it together so it would be big enough to be meaningful to the economy today, and not so big that it was going to jeopardize our fiscal responsibilities and some of our longer-term priorities,” Paulson said.
He stressed that the focus needs to be on the stability of our capital markets, energy prices, and the housing market.
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