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McCain raises money in Hamptons

BY TOM BRUNE | tom.brune@newsday.com

July 20, 2008

In his second fundraising trip to Long Island in two months, John McCain visited the Hamptons yesterday, buzzing in and out of New York City by helicopter, as he sought to catch up with his rival Barack Obama, who has a commanding lead in campaign funds.

Arriving in the Hamptons about 1:15 p.m., McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, first stopped at the estate of Ronald Perlman, the billionaire owner of Revlon cosmetics, for lunch and down time. A little after 6, he went to a $2,300-per-person cocktail party at the Water Mill home of prominent real estate developer William Mack, a major Republican contributor.

This event, which campaign officials said would be attended by 150-200 people, had an organizing committee that included top New York State Republicans such as Henry Kissinger, Georgette Mosbacher, publisher and one-time presidential hopeful Steve Forbes and former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato.

Speaking from a podium on the back porch, McCain delivered his usual stump speech and jokes, but also revealed in the question-and-answer period that he reads anything by Ernest Hemingway, as well as other histories from the 1950s and earlier.

He also responded to reports that Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki expressed support for Obama's timetable for an American troop pullout from Iraq.

"We're going to debate about how quick the troops come home, how quickly we should redeploy and under what circumstances," McCain said. "We would be having no debate tonight or today if we had done what Sen. Obama wanted to do, and that was have an abrupt and immediate withdrawal of American troops."

McCain was also to make a fundraising stop in East Hampton before flying by helicopter back to the city. Today, he'll meet Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and attend the afternoon Yankees game.