John Frary, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Congress, paid a visit to the Morning Sentinel office in Waterville this week. Yes, he had his hat and cane.

Frary opposes the re-election of Democrat U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, who has a formidably good chance of winning.

That didn't seem to faze Frary. He was upbeat, funny, droll and certainly unorthodox. Here's what he emphasized:

• He believes higher education is his strong suit (he's a former professor) and we invest too much money into teen-agers just entering college. The college dropout rate for young adults exceeds 40 percent, he said. We should focus more on older college students than we do because they are more serious and graduate at a higher rate.

• He said the war in Iraq is tough to gauge. Nation-building never or almost never works, he said, but the U.S. faces a threat abroad and we cannot act as if it does not exist.

• His campaign is low on funds. He has put $10,000 in personal assets into the campaign and has collected a few thousand more. He hopes that a big grand opening for his Web site next week will get things going. (The site is not yet live.)

He seemed like a man content with his decision to run, no matter the outcome in November.