Sen. John McCain, trailing in national polls with just three weeks until the presidential election, warned in a new stump speech at a campaign rally Monday that his opponent is already “measuring the drapes” at the White House.
“We have 22 days to go, six points down, the national media has written us off,” he said. “Senator Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with [House] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and Senator [Harry] Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq.”
Standing before a sprawling Virginia Beach crowd alongside his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain sought to reinvigorate the region’s Republican base with a speech that promised “a new direction” for America, a message that seemed to repudiate the Bushe administration as much as it did congressional Democrats.
“We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight — waiting for our luck to change,” McCain said.
The Arizona senator likened opponent Obama to President Herbert Hoover, who presided over the beginning of the Great Depression. And, despite painting a grim picture of the state of the race, McCain said, “We’ve got them just where we want them.”
The event drew some 25,000 supporters, according to the McCain campaign estimates, many of whom identified themselves as members of the armed forces. The campaign sees the region, flush with military voters, as critical to preventing the Old Dominion from voting for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1964.
“It’s coming right down to the wire here,” Palin said. “And it’s pretty clear that the road to victory in 2008 is going to run right through the Hampton Roads.”
Palin traveled afterward to Richmond for a solo appearance, where many in the crowd of thousands had heard about what McCain said in Virginia Beach.
“I do think it’s Obama’s race to lose,” acknowledged McCain backer Sammy Lawrence, 58, who drove with wife Linda from Mechanicsville to hear Palin speak. “But I think come Election Day it’s going to be a lot closer than people think and I still think he can win.”
Kelly Champion, 38, and Jeannie Barke, 37, heard McCain speak, then got in their car and drove two hours to the second rally. Champion described McCain’s speech as “incredible.”
“People are saying he is the underdog and he is going to come out on top,” Champion said. “He’s not stepping down.”
“Fight was in almost every other sentence,” Barke added. “Passion, it was there.”
When he walked on stage to introduce Palin, Republican U.S. Senate candidate James Gilmore III, who is also behind in the polls, repeatedly told the audience, “The race is not decided.”
Palin echoed much of what she said earlier in the day, promising to cut taxes to help small businesses create jobs and touting McCain as a trustworthy and experienced candidate.
“Virginia, there is only one man in this race who has ever really fought for you,” Palin said to wild applause, referring to McCain’s 22 years in the Navy.
The event attracted mostly McCain-Palin backers donning red T-shirts and pins, but at least a few undecided voters also showed up, such as retired pre-school teacher Nancy Rechenbach, 60, a former Hillary Clinton supporter who said she is bitter about the outcome of the Democratic primary.
“I like Palin and that would be the thing that would sway me to vote for McCain,” Rechenbach said.
McCain, she said, “comes off as a little desperate now,” and while she likes Obama, she is “nervous about his lack of experience.”
Flook reported from Virginia Beach. Ferrechio reported from Richmond.
