Anxiety Rules At McCain Campaign Stops

"Campaign - Presidential"

10/11/2008

by Scott Horsley
National Public Radio
October 10, 2008


All Things Considered, October 10, 2008 · Republican John McCain has not been stopping by any diners this week. Instead, he has held a series of rallies and town hall meetings with increasingly nervous supporters.

It's not the plunging stock market or faltering economy that worries many of them, but their candidate's slump in the polls.

Voter Ron Weisflog might have been speaking for many McCain fans when he stood up this week at a town hall meeting in Waukesha, Wis.

"I'm mad. I'm really mad," he said. "And what's going to surprise you, it's not the economy. It's the socialists taking over our country."

Weisflog and other supporters are outspoken in their dismay at the prospect that Democrat Barack Obama might be president. They are even more outspoken than McCain himself, who had a hard time getting a word in at the meeting where voters chanted, "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!" and bashed prominent Democrats such as House Speaker Nancy Pelsoi.

There is more defiance than celebration in McCain's audiences these days. They worry that the game may be slipping.

Milwaukee talk radio host James T. Harris urged McCain to go on the attack in his final debate with Obama next week.

"It is absolutely vital that you take it to Obama. That you hit him where it hits," Harris said.

McCain promised he would. Speeches by running mate Sarah Palin last weekend and new McCain ads this week both spotlight the fact that Obama has crossed paths with William Ayers, a former member of a radical group that bombed government buildings in the Vietnam era. Ayers is now a professor of education in Chicago. He and Obama served together on two nonprofit boards. Ayers also hosted a reception for Obama in 1995.

McCain used to rebuff supporters when they would attack his opponent's character, insisting he wanted a respectful campaign. But when a backer brought up Ayers this week, McCain was happy to take the bait.

"We don't care about an old, washed-up terrorist and his wife who still, at least on Sept. 11, 2001, said he still wanted to bomb more," McCain said. "That's not the point. The point is, Sen. Obama said he was just a guy in the neighborhood. We know that's not true. We need to know the full extent of the relationship because of whether Sen. Obama is telling the truth to the American people or not. That's the question."

News organizations that have looked into the matter have consistently concluded that Obama and Ayers had hardly any relationship in recent years.

But that's not good enough for Louise Spheeris. The homemaker from Delafield, Wis., glared at reporters covering the town hall meeting and suggested they're not telling the truth.

"I feel like I get it when I talk to John McCain. But I don't feel like I get it from the major media. I feel NBC, CBS and ABC are on Obama's side, and they're flagrant about it," she said.

Still, Spheeris insists that she is not angry.

"I think I find a lot of optimism and hope in this room. Absolutely. Absolutely. When you're backing the right person and you're proud to be American, this is the guy," she said.

McCain has been embracing his underdog status daily, yet he says that he's optimistic, too. All this week, he's been urging supporters to keep the faith.

"Do you know how many times in the last two years the political pundits have written off my campaign?" he said.

They were wrong then, McCain says, and they're wrong now.