Recently in John McCain Category

DENVER--Hat tip to the Chicago Tribune's Jill Zuckman, who is reporting Friday, "A Republican source confirms that John McCain has chosen Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate. Campaign officials, however, remain mum this morning." McCain is poised to make his official announcement soon. Palin......who?

DENVER -- A flag-waving, star-studded, made-for-television spectacular, punctuated with a parade of down-and-out "real people" and comparisons to Abraham Lincoln, set the stage for Barack Obama's historic speech accepting the Democratic party nomination.

DENVER--Hours before Barack Obama makes his historic acceptance speech at an outdoor stadium, campaign manager David Plouffe and chief strategist David Axelrod deemed the Democratic convention so far a success.

Tonight, Obama not only gives a speech with important message goals, but the thousands in the crowd--including some 20,000 from the battleground state of Colorado--will get trained in the Obama grass roots operation.

"The first three days of convention, we could not be more thrilled with how they've gone," said Plouffe.

"Each night had a purpose in terms of the strategy of the convention and quite candidly had exceeded all our goals.

"We think that all three of these nights so far have fit together and our fourth night tonight is going to be the capstone to what we think is a very very important week. Our hope and sense is that voters around the country have learned more about who Barack Obama is," he said.

"Barack Obama has proposed raising taxes on small businesses and America's working families during an economic downturn. You don't have to 'know much' to understand that Barack Obama's plans to raise taxes will hurt an already struggling economy. And it's particularly revealing that the Obama campaign feels forced to cast flimsy attack ads during his own convention - Barack Obama's politics of hope is waning." ---Tucker Bounds, spokesman John McCain 2008

DENVER -- John McCain's campaign released a wicked ad Sunday designed to divide and conquer sulking Hillary Clinton supporters by sticking it to Barack Obama for not tapping her to be his running mate, just as Obama's team is trying to patch everything up at the convention.

The spot continues a storyline that the Obama campaign hopes is exhausted once Democrats leave here after nominating the Obama-Biden ticket.

The Obama camp wants to smother Clinton backers with respect. Their plan may be thrown some by the news in today's Sun-Times that Illinois state Sen. President Emil Jones (D-Chicago) called an African-American Illinois Clinton delegate an "Uncle Tom."

By Tim Carney

The RNC has set up a warroom just outside of downtown Denver, and plastered with clever posters declaring Obama "A Mile High, an Inch Deep."

This space (which can only be entered through a back alley) appears to have two functions: a media and oppo-research hub for RNC and McCain 2008 staff; and a staging area for the GOP "party crashers" coming to town.

By Lynn Sweet, Abdon M. Pallasch, and Dave McKinney
Sun-Times Staff Reporters
DENVER - At 2 a.m. Chicago time, from a laptop in the "new media" office of Barack Obama's Michigan Avennue national campaign headquarters, the text message went out: Obama is tapping Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate. "Spread the Word," the dispatch concluded.

And with that click, Sprint reported a 255 percent increase in traffic on their Obama site.

"There has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama's lack of experience than Joe Biden. Biden has denounced Barack Obama's poor foreign policy judgment and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realizing -- that Barack Obama is not ready to be President." --McCain spokesman Ben Porritt

The McCain campaign, zinged by Obama as rich, out-of-touch to the point he does not know how many homes he owns, roars back that Obama bought his mansion only with the help of Tony Rezko--now awaiting sentencing for his conviction on corruption charges.

As part of the strong, aggresive rebuttal, the RNC launched a Obama Rezko "Shady Deal" web site.

From the McCain campaign...

"Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people "cling" to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who's in touch with regular Americans?

"The reality is that Barack Obama's plans to raise taxes and opposition to producing more energy here at home as gas prices skyrocket show he's completely out of touch with the concerns of average Americans." --McCain spokesman Brian Rogers

The Obama campaign, using the opening John McCain gave them, is planning a campaign-within-a campaign--fully coordinated with local Democrats-- to portray McCain as the candidate who is out of touch with the middle class because he could not recall how many homes he had.

McCain's many homes--are actually owned by his wife, Cindy, heiress to a beer fortune. For details, PolitiFact has a complete report on McCain's homes.

PolitiFact is a great resource for fact-checking and fact tracking McCain and Obama.

John McCain may regret the day he said he could not remember how many homes he owns. The number is seven. Obama's team--tarred with the rich celebrity tag by McCain, and thrown off stride by this--was given a gift by McCain and is intent on making the most of it.

Jewish support is vital to the Obama campaign. Jewish donors play a major role in his fund-raising efforts and Jewish voters live in key battleground states--Florida and Pennsylvania in particular--that can make a difference.

The Obama team gets hit on two Jewish voter fronts on Wednesday:

*The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) called on Obama and the Democratic Party leadership to remove former President Jimmy Carter as a Democratic National Convention speaker because of what they called his "anti-Israel" bias.

"In April 2008, despite strong protests by Israeli leaders, the U.S. State Department and several Democratic leaders, Carter met with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Syria," the RJC said.

*Obama foreign policy advisor Daniel Kurtzer --on a trip to Syria unrelated to the Obama campaign--met with Syrian officials, the New York Sun reported. In reaction to this, the McCain
is holding a press conference call Wednesday afternoon with former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani and Randy Scheunemann, McCain 2008 Senior Foreign Policy Adviser to discuss Kurtzer.

*Before the call started, Obama's Tommy Vietor shot off a memo about McCain and Syria.

from the Obama campaign....

Please see our response, below, to the latest McCain attack ad "Millions" and a fact check of the claims made in it:

"Yet again, John McCain makes another false, low-road