McCain has 3 weeks to reverse Obama lead

Steven R. Hurst , The Associated Press , Washington | Sun, 10/12/2008 9:28 PM | World

Republican John McCain, his presidential hopes battered by chaos in the American economy, has just three weeks left to come up with a consistent campaign message to close the widening gap that separates him from Democrat Barack Obama.

The veteran Arizona senator and running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, having spent the last week in a largely fruitless effort to hinder Obama's rise in the polls by attacking him on character issues, appeared over the weekend to have shifted tactics yet again - trying to convince voters that they are best placed to lead the country out of its worst economic crisis in 80 years.

The U.S. economy, the dominant issue in the presidential campaign for weeks, has now become a voter obsession as the stock market fell nearly 20 percent last week alone and vital sources of credit remain frozen.

With retirement savings vanishing in the stock market plunge, tens of thousands of homeowners facing mortgage foreclosure and unemployment rising, McCain's campaign has handled the financial crisis unevenly - hard-pressed to shed associations with President George W. Bush and the blame that attaches to the incumbent Republicans with their support for limiting government's role in regulating markets.

Obama's fortunes were expected to get a further boost Sunday when former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, make their first joint campaign appearance together on his behalf - setting aside hard feelings left over from the Democratic primary contest in which Obama outdistanced the former first lady in a bitter, extended race.

The Clintons were to appear with Obama's running mate, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, at a rally Sunday in the working-class town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, a city that has taken on outsized symbolism for Democrats this year. It was Biden's birthplace and Hillary Clinton's father grew up and is buried there.

Pennsylvania is one of the few Democratic-leaning states where McCain is campaigning aggressively in hopes of putting it into his column on Election Day.

McCain had no campaign appearances scheduled Sunday as he prepares for Wednesday night's third and final presidential debate which offers one of his best remaining chances to gain ground on Obama. Palin was headed to a rally in southeast Ohio, a critical swing state where polls show the race to be a tossup.

The Clintons were taking to the campaign trail a day after McCain toned down his rhetoric against Obama, apparently concerned with angry outbursts from supporters at some of his rallies - and criticism that he had gone too far.

Obama acknowledged this shift.

"I appreciated his reminder that we can disagree while still being respectful of each other," Obama told thousands of supporters at the first of four outdoor rallies in Philadelphia. Police estimated he drew more than 60,000 people to the four events.

"Sen. McCain has served this country with honor," Obama said later. "He deserves our thanks for that."

McCain kept his speech at a rally in Davenport, Iowa, focused on the economy and his policy differences with Obama, a striking change from just days ago when his campaign redoubled its challenge to the Democratic nominee over his association with a former 1960s radical. McCain also claimed that American voters did not really know Obama and his "radical" views.

The tone at McCain's and Palin's events during the past week had been turning toward the sour as disappointed supporters see his presidential campaign lag against Obama.

Angry Republicans had shouted "terrorist" and "off with his head" at the mention of Obama's connections to former Weather Underground member William Ayers, whose group bombed federal buildings in protest of the Vietnam War when Obama was a child. The two had worked together on community projects in Chicago, and Obama has denounced Ayers' violent past.

On Friday during a town hall-style meeting in Lakeville, Minnesota, a supporter told McCain that he feared what would happen if Obama were elected. McCain drew boos when he defended his rival as a "decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

McCain returned to that note of civility on Saturday as his quandary became clearer: He needed to excite his party's base without inciting them, challenge Obama while being an honorable opponent, and find a game-changing strategy for his faltering campaign without crossing the line.

In a statement issued Saturday, Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and veteran of the civil rights movement, charged that the negative tone of the Republican presidential campaign reminded him of the hateful atmosphere that segregationist Gov. George Wallace fostered in Alabama in the 1960s.

Lewis, who is black, accused McCain and Palin of "sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse."

McCain on Saturday called Lewis' remarks "shocking and beyond the pale."

Late Saturday, Lewis said he was not trying to directly compare McCain or Palin to Wallace.

"My statement was a reminder to all Americans that toxic language can lead to destructive behavior," he said.

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