A Southerner Heads North for McCain

Fri, January 04, 2008 - 11:30 AM

The Iowa caucuses attracted a lot of out of town politicos on Thursday to make last minute pitches for presidential candidates in both parties.

One Southerner almost didn’t make it to the first big political show of 2008. Sen. Richard Burr, R-North Carolina, had to spend the night at a hotel near the Detroit airport Wednesday night after his flight to Des Moines was cancelled.

But he made it Iowa in time on Thursday to make a case for the Republican candidate he is backing – Sen. John McCain – at a caucus site in Altoona, Iowa.

McCain finished in fourth place in Iowa, behind Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. The McCain camp is hoping for a better showing in New Hampshire, and Burr is planning to travel to that northeastern state to stump for McCain as well.

“The challenge now is to parlay this into a win in New Hampshire,” Burr said in a phone interview this morning from the Des Moines airport.

--By Sean Mussenden