WASHINGTON (AP):United States presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain were campaigning in conservative territory this weekend Obama trying to snatch states previously seen as out-of-reach for Democrats; McCain struggling to defend states long presumed to be solidly Republican.
McCain was campaigning yesterday in North Carolina and Virginia, where polls show Obama has moved into the lead during the past month.
The fact that the first black presidential candidate of a major US political party was leading in these states underscored the challenging electoral map for the McCain campaign.
The last Democratic candidate to win North Carolina was fellow southerner Jimmy Carter in 1976 when the Republicans were reeling from President Richard Nixons resignation following the Watergate scandal. Virginia has not voted for a Democratic nominee since President Lyndon B. Johnsons landslide victory in 1964.
But despite his substantial lead in the polls 18 days before the November 4 election, Obama warned supporters in Virginia on Friday not to be lulled by overconfidence as he accused McCain of seeking to cut back health-care benefits for the elderly.
McCain, meanwhile, returned to what is likely to be his theme for the final days of the campaign. He accused Obama of favouring a socialistic economic approach by supporting tax cuts and tax credits the Republican says would merely redistribute wealth rather than create it.
government giveaway
At least in Europe, the Socialist leaders who so admire my opponent are upfront about their objectives, McCain said in a radio address Saturday. They use real numbers and honest language. And we should demand equal candour from Senator Obama. Raising taxes on some in order to give cheques to others is not a tax cut; its just another government giveaway.
Obama has said that his tax plan would cut taxes for 95 per cent of working Americans, while increasing them only for the richest families making more than $250,000 a year.
Obama was taking his campaign yesterday to St Louis and Kansas City the two urban centres in Missouri where he needs a huge turnout to win the prototypical swing state. Only once since 1904 when Missourians chose Adlai Stevenson over Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 has the midwestern state failed to vote for the ultimate election winner.
Anxiety over the teetering US economy, uncertainty over the wisdom of McCains choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, and the Republicans vicious character attacks against Obama in the last month all have been cited as possible reasons for McCains drop in the polls, which was confirmed Friday by yet another new survey.
In a sideshow, Palin confirmed she will make a high-risk guest appearance on NBCs Saturday Night Live TV comedy sketch show, where she has been mercilessly caricatured by Tina Fey as an incoherent but charming air-headed flirt.
Earlier yesterday, Palin planned to meet voters in Pennsylvania, the only Democratic-leaning state which the McCain campaign is still aggressively contesting even though polls show Obama with a double-digit lead.
Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden ridiculed a comment from Palin, in which she said she loves visiting pro-America parts of the country. Biden said he believed the whole country is patriotic.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have never been to a state that hasnt sent its sons and daughters to serve its country, Biden said. It doesnt matter where you live, we all love this country. And I hope it gets through that one of the reasons why Barack (Obama) and I are running is that we know how damaging the policy of division ... has been.
one nation under god
We are one nation, under God, indivisible, Biden shouted to the crowd. We are all patriotic, we all love this country.
Polls consistently show that more Americans trust Obama to turn around the economy than McCain, whom Obama has linked with President George W. Bushs unpopular policies.
The new AP-Yahoo News poll gives Obama a 15 percentage-point edge for better grasping how the raging financial crisis is affecting people. The survey also found he is now seen favourably by 57 per cent to McCains 52 per cent.
On the Democratic side, Obama was trying to stake out ground in traditionally Republican states, likely signalling that financial concerns are trumping any racial prejudices among white working-class voters. A recent AP-GfK poll showed that Obama, who would be the first black US president, has inched up among whites with no college education while McCain has lost significant ground.
He campaigned Friday in Virginia, a battleground southern state that has become less conservative in recent years with an influx of young, professional newcomers into the Washington, D.C., suburbs in the north.
The states Democratic Senator Jim Webb never mentioned race as he introduced Obama to the predominantly white crowd at the Roanoke Civic Center, in the more conservative southern part of the state. But, he said, Barack Obamas father was born in Kenya. Barack Obamas mother was born in Kansas by way of Kentucky, he said, adding that Obama would be the 14th president of the United States whose ancestry and whose family line goes back in the region.
You can trust him. I trust him, said Webb, who is white and a Vietnam War veteran like McCain.
Four prominent newspapers, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times on Friday endorsed Obama.
McCain campaign pulling ads
While the McCain campaign is pulling its ads from more states, Obama is pushing to expand the battleground into more states where polls show that sizable McCain leads have significantly dwindled.
Obama aides say he will air ads in West Virginia, where he lost the Democratic primary by 41 percentage points to Hillary Rodham Clinton who enjoyed overwhelming support from more conservative white working-class voters. He is also considering pouring money into reliably Republican Kentucky.
Obama may yet return to the airwaves in North Dakota and Georgia. Those are two states Obama had tried but failed to put in play over the summer.
It appears Obama is trying to build a mandate, said Steve Lombardo, a Republican pollster in Washington. Can McCain do anything to turn it around? Doubtful.
Obama told voters in Virginia that McCain would cut $882 billion from Medicare, the government health-care programme for the elderly, over a decade to finance his health-care plan and the result would be more costly drugs, diminished services and lower-quality care for seniors.
It would mean a cut of more than 20 per cent in Medicare benefits next year. If you count on Medicare, it would mean fewer places to get care, and less freedom to chose your own doctors, he added.
In response, McCains campaign issued a statement saying Obama was simply lying.
For weeks, Obama has been ahead in national polls, but his leads have varied. While one major poll gave him a 14-point lead early this week, the daily Gallup tracking poll Thursday showed a six-point advantage.
But, an Associated Press analysis shows Obama with the advantage in states representing 264 electoral votes just shy of the 270 needed for victory. McCain is favoured in states representing 185 votes, with six states totaling 80 electoral votes up in the air.
Obama has the lead in all the states that John Kerry won in 2004. If he can hold those states and pick up Ohio or Florida two big states won by Bush or a series of smaller Bush states, he will win the presidency.
