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McCain: ‘I`m going to win it`

Filed by Associated Press October 27th, 2008 in Top Stories.
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WASHINGTON — Republican John McCain declared “I’m going to win it,” dismissing polls showing him behind with little more than a week to go in the presidential race. A confident Democrat Barack Obama drew a jaw-dropping 100,000 people to a single rally and rolled out a new TV ad asserting his rival is “running out of time.”

Heading into the final nine days of the 2008 contest, the White House competitors campaigned in key battlegrounds that President Bush won four years ago as the state-by-state Electoral College map tilts strongly in Obama’s favor. Democrats and Republicans alike say it will be extraordinarily difficult for McCain to change the trajectory of the campaign before the Nov. 4 election.

“Unfortunately, I think John McCain might be added to that long list of Arizonans who ran for president but were never elected,” McCain’s fellow senator from Arizona, Republican Jon Kyl, told the Arizona Daily Star editorial board in an interview published Sunday.

The candidates sparred from a distance, each criticizing the other anew in hopes of swaying the roughly one-fourth of voters who are undecided or could still change their minds. The campaign trail images and rhetoric said perhaps more about the state of the race than any poll could.

In Colorado, Obama reveled in his largest U.S. crowd to date.

Local police estimated that “well over” 100,000 people packed Denver’s Civic Center Park and stretched even to the distant steps of the state Capitol. The enthusiastic sea of people prompted a “goodness gracious” from Obama as he took the stage. Another enormous swarm — an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 — greeted him in Fort Collins later on the perhaps aptly named Colorado State University lawn; it’s known as “The Oval.”

At each rambunctious stop Obama portrayed McCain as more of the same, saying, “For eight years, we’ve seen the Bush-McCain philosophy put our country on the wrong track, and we cannot have another four years that look just like the last eight.”

Later, amid 5,000 people in Zanesville, Ohio, McCain warned of the perils of one-party rule, targeting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as vigorously as Obama.

With the race drawing to a close, Obama is working to solidify his lead in national and key state surveys, while McCain is looking for a comeback. The political environment has become increasingly favorable for Democrats and challenging for Republicans as the global economic crisis dominates the campaign.

In coming days, both candidates will focus primarily on Bush-won, vote-rich battlegrounds like Ohio and Florida, which decided the last two presidential elections.

Pennsylvania is the only state that Democrat John Kerry won four years ago that both candidates are expected to visit before Election Day. It hasn’t voted for a Republican president since 1988, but McCain is courting white, working-class voters who overwhelmingly chose Hillary Clinton in the primary over Obama, who would become the country’s first black president.

Obama’s campaign was exuding optimism though leaving nothing to chance.

The Democrat hit McCain with the fresh ad, to air on national cable stations, that says he has “no plan to lift our economy up” and, thus, is tearing down Obama with “scare tactics and smears.” It says McCain is “out of ideas, out of touch, and running out of time.”

The Illinois senator was spending the next four days in GOP-held Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida, with a quick stop in Pennsylvania.

Aides say Obama will lay out his closing argument in a speech today in Canton. Behind the scenes, advisers were preparing the 30-minute advertisement he planned to air Wednesday on national TV networks as part of that last pitch, and also were mapping the transition to the White House.

McCain was trying to stay focused on his uphill battle amid new distractions.

Over the past few days, there has been finger-pointing inside the GOP over who is to blame for McCain’s struggles; reports of friction between his top advisers and aides for running mate Sarah Palin; and the continued fallout of the Republican National Committee’s $150,000 purchase of high-end clothing for the Alaska governor and her family.

Palin has insisted that she and her family live frugally. To emphasize her point Sunday night, she wore jeans at an event in Asheville, N.C.

In the TV interview, McCain dismissed the Palin wardrobe flap and said many of the clothing items were immediately returned. Aides said that was for a variety of reasons, including the wrong sizes, and said the rest will be donated to charity.

“I don’t defend her. I praise her. She is exactly what Washington needs,” McCain said. He also said of the race: “We’re going to win it, and it’s going to be tight, and we’re going to be up late” on election night. And, he worked anew to distance himself from the unpopular Bush.

“The fact is I am not George Bush,” McCain said. Then, he added: “Do we share a common philosophy of the Republican Party? Of course.”

Obama pounced on that comment, telling his Denver audience, “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.”

He noted that Bush already has cast his vote for McCain and said, “We’re not going to let George Bush pass the torch to John McCain.” 

 



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67 Responses to “McCain: ‘I`m going to win it`”

  1. crystal forest says:

    Great Article….Broken promises already…If someone was such a cash wh0re why not donate it…no lets spend it…yeah he is working for the middle man. What a joke. Thank god it came out now than when he was president.

    http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/campbell.brown.obama/index.html

    (Report comment)

  2. Bill Wallace says:

    A little off the recent topic, I was driving my daughter to school this morning and was listening to weol 930 and was blown away when I heard them talking about a judge somewhere that ruled that homeless people can vote and use a park bench as a address.

    You want to talk about the possibility for voter fraud now.
    The homeless can now use a park bench or other locations that are not buildings as an address.

    Unbelievable.

    (Report comment)

  3. The Raven says:

    Just for your info MAERD….there has been a law in Cuyahoga County for 2 years that says they must use a shelter address when registering to vote, it is however STATE LAW that allows them to “use a shelter, alley or park bench as an address”. It’s not a judge that allowed that, it’s the LAW…

    This law is not new, and is in effect in many other states.

    Would you refuse the homeless the right to vote?

    Once you have that in place where does it stop?

    Would you refuse renters the right to vote next, or Americans with only a high school diploma?

    Disenfranchising lower economic class Americans seems to be ok with you?

    (Report comment)

  4. crystal forest says:

    How is the homeless updated on current events? Why are they homeless? What is welfare for?

    (Report comment)

  5. BriDawg29 says:

    Raven,

    Every time you respond to my post you hurl personal insults…

    Every time you respond to one of my posts you CLAIM to know what my situation is….

    Every time you respond to one of my posts you claim to know what I’m thinking and what my “ulterior motives” are…

    Now you claim to know the inner workings of my business and what my priorities are as a business owner.

    You have no clue. Maybe that’s why you’re so out of touch…

    In your own little mind, it’s really all about you and what you think the truth is. You somehow think that you are all-knowing and you use your presumptions to judge others…all the while you couldn’t be further from the truth. Your assessment of me and my business is COMPLETELY incorrect.

    Maybe your misunderstanding of how my business really works is the reason yours isn’t doing so well. That being said, I understand that there’s only so many newspapers a guy can deliver in a day. I feel for you, bud.

    And I stand by my original claim. If I had a $5,000 tax cut, it wopuld go straight to my payroll to increase the hours of my staff. That IS what my business needs to get it to the next level at this point.

    By the way, did you look up that tax rate yet?

    (Report comment)

  6. BriDawg29 says:

    Oh, Raven…I’m sorry…I just realized my mistake. You’re not a newspaper delivery boy after all. Undoubtedly with your keen ability to see into the lives of others and know their circumstances, you’ve got to be a tarot card reader. A professional soothsayer, if you will…

    And to make it clear…my point was that we HAVE to lower the corporate tax rate, depite what the left believes.

    I am a small-businessowner who is a PERSONAL SERVICE CORPORATION (PSC). Look up my FEDERAL tax rate, because it’s a flat rate. It’s what I pay on my FIRST dollar of profit AND my LAST dollar of profit.

    Obama’s $250K figure does not apply to PSC’s, which (ironically) are the fastest growing segment of small businesses today. His plan does nothing to do away with the PSC status, so it will do NOTHING to benefit the fastest growing area of small business today!

    Also - from your earlier post…If you really want to argue the economic benefits of repaving the driveway as opposed to paying taxes, I’m prepared to do that.

    I’m also willing to discuss the impact of the Dems’ latest “idea” on SIMPLE IRA’s (which are the choice for a lot of small businesses, and the one I use to cover my employees).

    Just let me know…I’m up for the debate. However, I do ask that you have that PSC tax rate handy first - and stop trying to “assume” you know my situation before you really know my situation.

    (Report comment)

  7. DonTCare says:

    Dan S, Maerd, and Raven are the same person so he can through more insults out…. notice they all agree on the same thing…

    On here its hard to find two people who totally agree but these three agree and insult exactly the same way.

    They/He probably has no friends and the computer is the only way they can vent, and hurl insults. In real life no one really knows they even exists. They/He is just living the cyberlife…..

    (Report comment)

  8. BriDawg29 says:

    I do not have a problem with homeless voting - it’s their right.

    I do, however, have a problem with them being loaded in a bus and having the bus driver leading O-B-A-M-A cheers on the way to the polls.

    Attempting to influence their vote is wrong - and that practice has been well documented.

    (Report comment)

  9. DonTCare says:

    If the Dems don’t take the folks who don’t vote out usually and if they try to make the whole election a “race” issue they couldn’t win.

    Before the freaking DEM-adivas start spouting….

    A good friend of mine who is biracial (just like obama), as she would say raised by her White Grandmother, (just like Obama), has a McCain sticker on her car.

    She has been yelled at, screamed at things thrown at her car with her child in the car, and even forced to stop or get ran off the road by fellow “Americans with Africian ancestry” as told she is a traitor to her culture and race (she’s biracial) to vote for that white man.

    She also noted that many of the folks yelling at her couldn’t tell you who obama running mate is, or that biden is even white.

    So if the Dem-adivas win, more power to them, however the homeless and other folks that they got out of the gutter/etc to vote will dissapear from the DEM-adivas radar until the next big election.

    (Report comment)

  10. silkskin1960 says:

    DEMOCRAP: I guess this means that the rest of your year is probably shot to hell hunh………LOLOLOL Because guess what, you are surely not going to be getting yours this year. DEMS SHALL RULE THIS TIME AROUND…..

    (Report comment)

  11. crystal forest says:

    During this election year let’s be reminded of these words:

    * You cannot help the poor, by destroying the rich.

    * You cannot strengthen the weak, by weakening the strong.

    * You cannot bring about prosperity, by discouraging thrift.

    * You cannot lift the wage earner up, by pulling the wage payer down.

    * You cannot further the brotherhood of man, by inciting class hatred.

    * You cannot build character and courage, by taking away people’s initiative and independence.

    * You cannot help people permanently, by doing for them what they could and should, do for themselves.

    Do you recognize the author?

    It was Abraham Lincoln

    (Report comment)

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