John McCain thinks Barack Obama is playing the race card.
 
The Republican presidential candidate and his staff were upset by a comment Obama made on the campaign trail.
 
During a campaign speech, the Illinois Democrat told supporters Republicans were trying to make voters scared of him.
 
“What they’re saying is, well, we know we’re not very good, but you can’t risk electing Obama. You know, he’s new, he’s — he doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency. He — you know, he’s got a — he’s got a funny name. I mean, that’s basically the argument, he’s too risky,” Obama said.
 
McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, jumped on the comment.
 
“Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong,” Davis said in a written statement.

 
McCain agreed with Davis, telling reporters he was “very disappointed” that Obama had used the race card.”Race will not have any role in my campaign, nor is there any place for it. I’m disappointed that he’s used it.” 
 
The back and forth came a day after Davis unveiled a new McCain attack ad comparing Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, insisting in a conference call with reporters that Obama was the biggest celebrity in the world.
 
A report out the same day said about a third of McCain’s advertisements are negative attacks on Obama, while 90 percent of Obama’s ads don’t even mention McCain.
 
Obama spokesman David Plouffe told reporters Obama in no way used race as an issue and that McCain’s camp was trying to distract voters from larger issues.
 
“Folks ought to just buckle up their seat belts,” he added. “We assume this is what the campaign will be like.”

McCain dismissed Democratic charges he was taking the low road, saying Obama had “run negative ads on me continuously, and I might point out for the record that his was the first.” 

So what do you think? Does the McCain campaign have a legitimate complaint? Or is this just part of a strategy of using negative attacks erode Obama’s standing with voters? 

RACINE, Wisconsin — There aren’t many times when Republican presidential hopeful John McCain finds himself at a loss for words, but in Wisconsin today he steered clear of the controversy involving legendary Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre.

Favre is locked in a dispute with the Packers management over his bid to end his retirement and play again in the NFL.

Needless to say it’s a big story in these parts, and it was the first question that came up at a town hall meeting in the Milwaukee suburb of Racine.

As the crowd chuckled, McCain said he has often eagerly leapt into controversies over the years, “But I’m not so dumb that I’m going to jump into that.” 

He went on to praise Favre’s achievements as Green Bay’s quarterback.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Allen Fredrickson (Favre speaks at a news conference earlier this month)

KANSAS CITY, Missouri - Republican presidential candidate John McCain is tangling with taxes again.
 
The Arizona senator found himself in hot water with conservatives after telling ABC’s “This Week” last Sunday that “nothing is off the table” in trying to protect the Social Security benefits system for seniors.
    
At a town hall meeting in Aurora, Colorado, McCain said: “I want to look you in the eye: I will not raise your taxes nor support a tax increase. I will not do it.”
 
He added, “I am opposed to raising taxes on Social Security. I want to fix the system without raising taxes.”
    
That statement earned the praise of the conservative Club for Growth organization in Washington, whose president, Pat Toomey, called it “exactly what the country needed to hear.”
    
McCain, at a fundraising event for his campaign, returned to the subject. “I am opposed to raising taxes. I am opposed to raising taxes,” he said.
    
“And any negotiation that I might have when I go in, my position will be that I’m opposed to raising taxes. But we have to work together to save Social Security.”
    
“This young man standing right in front — Social Security beneifts won’t be there for him when he retires. Is this right for us to lay off to the next generation of Americans a burden that we imposed on them? No. And it’s not America, it is not America,” he said.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage

Photo credit: Reuters/Mike Blake (covers of McCain and Obama biographies at ComicCon covention in San Diego)

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama can’t seem to please the folks running John McCain’s campaign for the U.S. presidency.
 
They criticized the Democratic candidate for not visiting Iraq, but then he spent nine days abroad, visited both fronts in the U.S. war on terror, didn’t make any fatal mistakes and drew 200,000 people to a speech in Berlin.
 
Now the Republican’s campaign has a new beef against the Illinois senator — he’s way too popular, the most popular celebrity in the world, bigger even than Britney Spears or Paris Hilton.
 
It’s a point McCain makes in a new TV advertisement.
 
“I would say that it’s beyond dispute that he has become the biggest celebrity in the world. It’s a statement of fact. It’s backed up by the reality of his tour around the world,” McCain adviser Steve Schmidt told reporters in a conference call.
 
“They have more fans around the world than Britney Spears does. I make that bold blank statement,” added McCain campaign manager Rick Davis.
 
But McCain traveled around the world and met leaders too, so isn’t he a global celebrity as well? What’s the difference?
 
“We see him more as a global leader than a global celebrity,” Davis said. “When people in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, want to talk to somebody who has a leadership and knowledge of positions around the world, they talk to John McCain. I contrast that with Barack Obama’s own trip to Europe. The focus on media, the focus on events and activities, is much more something you would expect from someone releasing a new movie than running for president.”
 
McCain’s crew sees devious motives behind the cultivation of popularity. Davis said it lets Obama “create a fan base around the world that allows him to get a lot of media attention and avoids him having to address the important issues of our time.”
 
But won’t people see the ad as negative campaigning?
 
Barack Obama started it, Davis said. He attacks McCain harshly every day on the campaign trail. Plus he was the first to turn to negative advertising, both in the primary and in the general election.
 
“I’m going to do everything in my power to protect my candidate,” Davis said.
 
“I’m going to let the American public decide what is negative or not negative.”

So what do you think, is it a fair ad or not?

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage. 

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Crowds cheer Obama outside No. 10 Downing St. in London on July 26); Reuters/Brian Snyder (McCain speaks at campaign evenint in Maine July 21)

WASHINGTON - With the clock ticking on his hunt for a running mate, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama spent nearly three hours on Monday meeting with his vice presidential search team and campaign advisers.

Obama visited the downtown office of Eric Holder, a former deputy attorney general who is leading the process of researching and analyzing potential vice presidential picks, and emerged with little to say.

Asked by reporters who he met with, Obama replied: “Some guys.” As he got into his car, he asked reporters how they were doing then told them: “Get back on the bus.”

A few minutes after Obama pulled away, the Politico newspaper reported that the other leader of the search process, Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John Kennedy, and campaign manager David Plouffe and strategist David Axelrod left the building through a separate entrance.

The Washington Post reported Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has had “very serious” talks about joining the ticket, according to sources close to Kaine. Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh are also being seriously vetted for the job, the Post said.

Neither Obama nor Republican rival John McCain is expected to make a choice during the opening week of the Olympic Games in China, which start on Aug. 8, giving them less than two weeks to make their decisions known or wait until near the nominating conventions.

The Democratic convention opens on Aug. 25.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage  

- Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama speaks alongside his top economic advisors during a roundtable meeting at a hotel in Washington, D.C., on July 28)

ARLINGTON, Va. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama likes his chances in the White House battle with Republican John McCain, telling a fundraising reception the odds of his winning are “very good.”
    
“Let’s face it, there weren’t too many people who thought we were going to pull this off,” Obama told a fundraiser attended by about 40 people on Monday in Arlington, Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington.
    
“We are now in a position where the odds of us winning are very good. But it is still going to be difficult.”
    
Obama said he was pleased with his trip to Europe and the Middle East — “we executed very well” — but did not expect it to give him a big bump in polls.
    
He said people were still evaluating his candidacy because he was a new face in national politics.
    
“I don’t look like any presidential candidate America has ever seen,” said Obama, the son of a black African father and white mother from Kansas who spent part of his youth in Indonesia.
    
“It’s not just a function of race, it’s background, experience, resume — this is new for them, and new for us as a country,” he said. He expects a close race to the end.
    
“We’re not going to see some huge gap develop, some huge separation develop between now and Nov. 4,” he said. “This is going to be a close election for a long time because I’m new on the national scene. 

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage:  
http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/2008candidates 
   

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.  - John McCain may not be giving any clues about who he wants as his No. 2, but the Republican presidential candidate does have a few ideas about how to choose. 

Rule one: Do no harm. 

“First, you want to make sure you have a candidate that’s not going to hurt the ticket,” the Arizona senator told a fundraising event webcast to American citizens in Bermuda.

“The second thing is, and I think it’s the key criteria, is it someone who shares your principles, your values, your philosophy and your priorities? Hardest thing for the president is to establish priorities.”

McCain said his list was full of good candidates. See if you can guess who he’s referring to here:

“There’s so many highly qualified people in our party, ranging - and I won’t mention names - ranging from people who have been stalwarts in our party for a long time, great governors and senators and businesspeople,” he said.

Fill in the blanks, folks. But don’t expect a timetable. McCain declined to identify a deadline for his decision.

“I will announce it just as soon as the process is completed, but it won’t be driven by any other factors — the Olympics or the Democratic convention or any other.  It will be strictly on when we can arrive at a conclusion,” he said on CNN.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (Republican presidential candidate John McCain speaks at a campaign picnic last week outside the Maine Military Museum in South Portland)

Are you going to the Democratic convention in Denver or the Republican convention in St. Paul?

This year’s nominating conventions are poised to be some of the most exciting and newsworthy in decades. And because of new technology and online distribution, entire elections can now hinge on moments captured not by traditional journalists, but by ordinary citizens and those closest to the action.

Reuters is looking for participants in a new mobile journalism project that will capture this year’s conventions from the ground up. We will be equipping attendees with video cameras, and helping them to shoot footage from their own perspective and upload it to Reuters.com and other sites.

We hope to capture an unseen side of the conventions, from those most involved — delegates, donors, convention volunteers and others. Unfortunately we can’t provide passes into the conventions. But if you already have plans to attend, or know someone who does, email reutersmojo@gmail.com for more details.

Even if you’re not going to Denver or St. Paul, what kind of coverage would you like to see? What questions would you like on-the-scene reporters to ask? Leave your suggestions in the comments section.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

 BERLIN - U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama dropped a plan to visit wounded U.S. troops in Germany to avoid perceptions that the stop was political.

“Senator Obama had hoped to and had every intention of visiting our troops to express his appreciation and gratitude for their service to our country,” said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, an adviser to Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Gration said the Pentagon had informed Obama’s staff that a visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center would be viewed as a a campaign event and Obama opted against going forward with it.

“Senator Obama did not want to have a trip to see our wounded warriors perceived as a campaign event,” Gration said.

The visit to Landstuhl had not been officially announced but Obama’s campaign acknowledged it had been planned after Republicans criticized Obama for canceling the visit.

Senior Obama aide Robert Gibbs noted that the Illinois senator had visited troops during the earlier part of his foreign tour in Iraq and Afghanistan, including a stop at a combat support hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad.

“The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign,” Gibbs said.

The campaign of Republican John McCain, Obama’s rival in the November election, criticized the statement from Gibbs.

“It is never inappropriate to visit and comfort our brave men and women who have served in combat,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Tobias Schwarz (Barack Obama waves to crowd as he leaves hotel in Berlin)

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican John McCain  added a pledge on Thursday to his list of goals if he wins the White House: help people quit smoking. 

McCain, who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day before ceasing 29 years ago, told a summit organized by cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong that preventive measures were key to keeping people healthy. 

“So as president, I will work with business and insurance companies in support of programs to help people quit smoking,” he said. 

Armstrong pressed McCain on whether he would stop a trend seen during the Bush administration in which funding for the National Cancer Institute had decreased. 

“We will reverse that trend,” McCain said, though he declined to be specific about how much he would increase funding. 

McCain veered off of his prepared remarks to speak briefly about his own battle with melanoma. He joked later with Armstrong about whom the champion cyclist would prefer to exercise with: McCain or his Democratic rival Barack Obama. 

“I don’t have an answer for you on who I would work out with,” Armstrong told reporters. “Probably best just to do a little triathlon. You know, we could hike one day with Senator McCain and play basketball one day with Senator Obama and then the other day they have to go ride with me, and then we’ll figure it out.” 

Armstrong also hinted that he might be interested in running for office someday. 

“There might come a time when you feel like you’ve reached a wall and you need to step into public office and try to make change through that channel or those ends,” he said. “But not right now.” 

Armstrong’s foundation did not endorse McCain. The cyclist said he would also press Obama to talk about his plans and experience related to cancer issues.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credits: (top) Reuters/Mike Blake (Comic book biographies of the candidates displayed at Comic-Con in San Diego,  July 23, 2008) and (bottom) Reuters/Jim Young  (Armstrong testifies on Capitol Hill in May)