Candidates fight for votes coast to coast

"I went to Iowa and told them that I was against subsidies for ethanol; he was for them," McCain said, alluding to a major issue in farm states that produce fuel from crops. "I went to Michigan and said the old automobile jobs aren't coming back -- new ones are, but old ones aren't. He wants to give . . . $20 billion to Detroit over four years."

Joining McCain in New England was his mother, Roberta, 95. "She's been a great, great asset, particularly whenever the age issue comes up," McCain, 71, half-joked to Fox News.

Responding to her recent remark that conservatives would be "holding their nose" to vote for him, McCain said, "I love my mother dearly, more than anything in the world, but really, my mom is not a complete expert on this issue."

McCain, who was heckled by war protesters at a rally in Fairfield, Conn., said he expected to unite the party's factions once he won the nomination. He plans to travel late this week to Germany for a security conference and might go to Iraq.

"If we win, and have the nomination sewn up," McCain said, knocking on a table at the back of his bus, "then you take a little time off."

Romney struck a more aggressive posture. He told CNN that McCain had "been around a long time," and he dismissed him as a "lifelong Washington politician" who was ill-suited to guide the country out of its economic troubles.

"It's interesting to see how Washington politicians think about action," said Romney, who has stressed his private-sector resume as an investment executive and leader of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. "For them, it's reaching across aisles, and committee meetings and bills. Action where I come from means getting the job done."

At a rally outside Chicago, Romney stood before a "Washington Is Broken" sign, but was introduced by former Rep. J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, the longest-serving Republican speaker of the House.

At the risk of putting off moderates in the Northeast and California, Romney also slammed McCain for opposing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and pushing a bill to stem global warming that he said would boost gasoline prices.

Romney cast himself as a sterling conservative, citing support from radio personality Rush Limbaugh and others on the right. Conservatives, he told CNN, are saying: "Whoa, we have to get behind Mitt Romney" and "We really can't afford John McCain as the nominee of our party."