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Obama is back on defense against McCain

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-10 16:11

Democrats, if not Obama himself, seem unsure how exactly to go after Palin, and some Democratic strategists say they hope Obama will assign Biden the task of countering Palin, rather than do it himself.

McCain has jumped to a tie or lead in national polls, depending on the survey, with Palin helping to drive the gains, particularly by solidifying the conservative base and attracting swing voters as well as a slew of white women.

And, after trailing Obama and Democrats all year, McCain and Republicans are now flush in the money hunt, with the candidate getting $84 million in taxpayer money while the party easily fills its bank accounts. Obama, meanwhile, is feverishly fundraising and urging his legions of small donors to give more because he opted out of the public financing system. Also, the Democratic National Committee isn't nearly as well off as its GOP counterpart.

While Obama still has an edge in the state-by-state Electoral College vote count, McCain is in a competitive position in some vote-rich states that Democrats won four years ago, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The action is centered on states where both are advertising: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, as well as North Carolina, where McCain recently went on the air after Obama made headway in the traditionally GOP state by running months of ads.

Obama also is making a play for historically Republican strongholds of Indiana, Montana and North Dakota. He pulled ads and staffers from Georgia after failing to get a lead and is going dark in Alaska this week now that Palin is on the ticket. McCain, in turn, is going after Minnesota, which voted Democratic four years ago.

For now, at least, the fight is over which candidate can convincingly claim change.

McCain's campaign argues that Obama offers "empty rhetoric" of change without any proven accomplishments to back it up, while McCain offers the "experience to bring change" coupled with a record of fighting for reforms in Washington.

Obama argues that only he offers fundamental change, because McCain offers President Bush's policies. That argument played well in the summer, with most voters agreeing. But more recent polls find that McCain has made progress in separating himself from Bush.

Some Republicans are privately fretting that McCain may be peaking too soon, while some Democrats are questioning whether Obama has a "second act" beyond a message of change. But Obama is sticking with his position that change of ideology in the White House is what voters want most. He said Republican efforts to take the change mantle may be giving them a boost, but he predicts it will be temporary.

Republicans "realize that this is going to be a change election, and they want to have now a debate about who's going about policies that actually will make a difference in peoples' lives," Obama said. "That's a debate we welcome. That's the debate we wanted to have throughout this campaign."

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