by Jill Zuckman
Cedar Falls, Iowa - On the 41st anniversary of being shot down over Hanoi, Sen. John McCain faced a barrage of questions about his campaign's viability, the benefits of his running mate, and his criticisms of Sen. Barack Obama.
"We're doing fine," McCain told Tom Brokaw on NBC's Meet the Press. "We have closed in the last week. We continue this close through next week, you're going to be up very, very late on election night."
While McCain played defense on the Sunday morning talk show, Obama accused him of finally admitting to his common beliefs with President Bush during a campaign stop in Denver.
"Just this morning, Senator McCain said that he and President Bush - 'share a common philosophy.' That's right, Colorado," Obama said. "I guess that was John McCain finally giving us a little straight talk, and owning up to the fact that he and George Bush actually have a whole lot in common."
But at Northern Iowa University here, Obama was the recipient of tough criticism from McCain's warm-up act, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). Graham accused Obama "of making a joke of our political system," by raising $600 million "from God knows who" to finance his campaign.
"Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid need adult supervision," Graham said, raising the specter of total Democratic control in Washington should Obama be elected president.
McCain dismissed questions this morning about polls show him dropping further and further behind Obama, saying they are "all over the map" depending upon the turnout model. A new Reuters/C-Span/Zogby poll showed the race narrowing to five points, with Obama at 49 and McCain at 44.
"I choose to trust my senses as well as polls. And the enthusiasm at almost all of our campaign events is at a higher level that I've ever seen," McCain said. "I see intensity out there and I see passion."
Yet McCain's crowd of about 2,000 people inside the gymnasium at the university paled in comparison to the enormous gathering in a Denver park today for Obama. Estimates for Obama's crowd exceeded 100,000 people, according to city officials.
Comments
Say HEY! Now we find out that John McCain not only was a terrible pilot, whom they nicknamed ACE! But that when he ejected from his jet when shot down over Vietnam, he broke his kneecap, and both of his arms while ejecting. TORTURE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH HIS DISABILITIES, IT WAS HIS OWN INADEQUITE SKILLS. THE VIETNAMESE DID NOT TORTURE HIM, IT WAS JUST A BUNCH OF HYPE!!LIES!!! whiteagle38
Posted by: R. Juneau | October 26, 2008 3:01 PM
I think I've never heard a Republican president ask for a Democratic Congress of vice versa. This divided government argument is bunk, and even if the party has both the executive branch and Congress, they are not always on the same page as Jimmy Carter and JFK found out, although they both had more conservative Southern Democrats that gave them their majority who often allied with Republicans.
Posted by: EJ | October 26, 2008 3:34 PM
Showing up at a rally is not voting...displaying a sign on your lawn is not voting...answering polling questions is not voting. Make sure you show up and cast your ballot!
Posted by: lochnessmonster | October 26, 2008 3:36 PM
The U.S.S. McCain is taking on water and he is bailing the ship with a thimble.
How can he say the campaign is doing fine? It is one thing to be optimistic and another to be completely wrong. Which poll is he up in? NONE. Rome is burning and he is talking about the drapes.
Posted by: Lance Collins | October 26, 2008 3:51 PM
Oh yes, McCain is pulling even with Obama in the polling. He'll be ahead in battle ground states by November 20th, you wait and see!
I saw his interview with Brokaw this morning, and you have to give him credit for the level of cognitive dissonance he is treading in now. He looked Brokaw straight in the eye and basically said that none of the polling mattered... implying that some how, some way, all of the polls, even the partisan ones, are wrong or that they don't matter. Which is to say that the opinion of the American people doesn't matter to McCain.
He bristled when Brokaw suggested that he is stuck defending Palin, "I don't defend her, I praise her," he said, again with a straight face. I suppose it all depends on what the meaning of "defends" is...
I wish McCain had gotten his shot at the Whitehouse in 2000 instead of Bush. I wish that the religious right hadn't closed lined him in South Carolina during the primary. I wish that the discussion wasn't whether McCain sided with Bush 92% of the time. I wish that we didn't have witness one of our better Senate leaders strapped to an Anchor like Palin by the same people who sunk him in 2000.
I wish that a lot of things about the past eight years were different. Most of all I wish that McCain would just fade away with some grace instead of grinding our nation further into dust with his pit-bull in lipstick tactics of division and fear...
One of the highlights of the after-election glow will be seeing Palin thrown under the dog sled and quietly shuffled off back to her frozen wasteland of a state, to fester away as one of the stranger moments in American election history.
Oh yeah, the election is a turning point to be sure. Not just because Americans will elect a black man this Nov. 4th, but because we'll all take a stand finally to the credulous antics of the religious right and the former "base" of a failing party who's red meat appetites have all given us an upset stomach these past eight years.
Good riddance I say, and don't let the igloo door hit you in the behind on the way back to Alaska.
Posted by: mrgoodbar | October 26, 2008 4:29 PM
Crowd size isn't everything. In 1972, McGovern drew much bigger crowds than Nixon whose silent majority crushed McGovern in 49 states.
The most accurate pollster in 2004 -- TIPP -- has Obama ahead by 3.2 points today.
Posted by: Mugwump | October 26, 2008 4:37 PM
I wonder what the next McCain campaign stunt will be?
So far we've had:
-----------------------
- Ashley the Fraud
- Joe the pretend Plumber
- OMG! Bill Ayers!
- Drill, baby, drill
- Sarah the Crazy VP pick
----------------------
Am I missing any?
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03fcGelz8Hw
.
Posted by: John E | October 26, 2008 4:45 PM
I don't blame McCain for talking up his campaign, but if he truly believes his own propaganda....
Posted by: Tom J | October 26, 2008 4:48 PM
Not that it matters, but unless things have changed in the last year or so it's the University of Northern Iowa.
Posted by: marxichusetts | October 26, 2008 5:06 PM
What in the world is McCain doing in Iowa one week before the election? Even the head of the Iowa Rep Party said his time would be better off spent in battleground states. Maybe he'll spend the next few days in California attacking Pelossi?
Posted by: JimH | October 26, 2008 7:01 PM
Let's see.... In one day this week we had:
A McCain campaign worker beaten up that was a hoax
Palin spending $150,000 on clothing for her and the First Dude
$22,000 on her hair in two weeks while McCain's campaign cries about money
Joe McCain calling the 9-1-1 operator in Virginia twice cussing her out and yelling because he was caught in traffic
Michele Bachmann calling Obama Anti-American on Hardball that may loss her that seat in Congress.
And Obama picking up 4 more Republican endorsements and that of over 100 major newspapers.
Posted by: carolo | October 26, 2008 8:39 PM
Are you guys serious about McCain and his service to the military in this country? The guy gave some of his best years to the military. Lets stick to the issues at hand. Economy and the security of this country. If think Obama is the way to go, fine, but don't go making accusations about McCain's military career. The liberal media has had plenty of time to drum up dirt on his military career and what do we have...zero dirt.
Posted by: JVuko | October 26, 2008 8:43 PM
Are you guys serious about McCain and his service to the military in this country? The guy gave some of his best years to the military.
Posted by: JVuko | October 26, 2008 8:43 PM
I see....now a veteran should not be a target. Funny how the right has no problem attacking the service of a democrat, but their boy is the real deal. The republican motto on veterans: Ours are heros....yours are zeros. The hypocrisy slays me.
Posted by: bill r. | October 26, 2008 9:56 PM
"Lets stick to the issues at hand. "
It's hard to do so when McCain himself keeps throwing POW, POW, POW at us all the time...tell that to your fearless leader.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | October 27, 2008 7:00 AM
McCain's campaign is doing fine in the same sense that the fundementals of our economy are strong.
Posted by: JT | October 27, 2008 7:51 AM
JT nailed it. Nobody ever mentions how Bush said the economy was fine, then went on TV like chicken little. And McParrot regurgitated that message and then turned around and suspened his campaign to deal with the "crisis". The republican in office is clueless and the one seeking office is quoting him. We cannot afford that. Republicans do only one thing - they leave a HUGE insurmountable economic catastrophe behind whenever they leave office. Reagan, Bush, Jr. They find a way to go to war and leave us in a cavernous debt. Its a pattern. Democrats get the country just right fiscally and then the right peddles their fear - get into office and ruin us. And they are not just leaving debts, they create tsunami-like economic rifts that threaten our existence worse than any terrorist ever could. This is definitely a pattern we have to break. Republicans have to stop it.
Posted by: Southsyde | October 27, 2008 11:17 AM