McCain, Obama hit the West
The candidates court voters in New Mexico and Nevada, as the Democrat returns to the campaign trail after a 36-hour break to visit his ailing grandmother.
Reporting from Albuquerque, N.M. Seema Mehta, and Reno, Nev. — John McCain and Barack Obama's presidential duel moved west today as the candidates held rallies in New Mexico and Nevada, key contests in the final 10 days of the race.
Fewer than 1,000 supporters came out to cheer McCain in a morning rally under crisp blue skies at the State Fair Grounds in Albuquerque. Making his sixth visit to New Mexico, the four-term Republican senator from neighboring Arizona touted his understanding of regional concerns, from water rights to the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
"My friends, Sen. Obama has never been south of our border," McCain said. "He doesn't know these issues. I know them. . . . I'm proud to be a senator from the West." Obama's aides noted that the Democrat had visited Mexico while in college.
McCain trails Obama in New Mexico by eight percentage points in an average of recent polls, according to realclearpolitics.com.
Early voting began statewide Oct. 18, but McCain did not mention that at his rally. Obama's campaign says that Democrats have cast half of all early and absentee votes in New Mexico so far, with Republicans and independents splitting the rest.
The Democratic nominee rejoined the campaign trail today after taking a break to visit his ailing grandmother in Hawaii.
Speaking to more than 11,000 supporters at the University of Nevada-Reno this morning, the Democratic nominee sharpened his criticism of McCain -- comparing him to President Bush nearly two dozen times.
Noting that McCain has been trying to distance himself from Bush, Obama laughed and mocked his Republican rival:
"John McCain is so opposed to George Bush's policies that he voted with him 90% of the time for the first eight years. That's right, he decided to really stick it to George Bush -- 10% of the time.
"Well, let's be clear," Obama said "John McCain attacking George Bush for his out-of-hand economic policy is like Dick Cheney attacking George Bush for his go-it-alone foreign policy. . . . It's like Tonto getting mad at the Lone Ranger."
Obama is spending most of the day in Nevada, which has five electoral votes up for grabs. His campaign is aggressively courting early voters, and more than 200,000 Nevadans have cast their ballots so far. The campaign says about 60% of those are Democrats.
