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Monday, Sep. 15, 2008

N.H. NASCAR visit could help McCain in South

LOUDON, N.H. — John McCain defied all sense of geography Sunday by going north and south at the same time.

The Republican presidential contender visited the battleground state of New Hampshire to attend a NAS CAR race, an especially popular form of recreation in GOP strongholds down South.

The twofer let McCain spend time in a state where Democrat Barack Obama has opened a lead — and campaigned Saturday — while simultaneously prospecting in a different region he is counting on as part of his Election Day base.

"Thank you for your support for the men and women in the military," McCain told a meeting of race drivers. He was accompanied by NAS CAR legend Richard Petty and Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. "When I'm in Iraq and Afghanistan, they're watching you. You are their role model."

Meanwhile, former Bush political adviser Karl Rove became an unlikely critic of McCain, complaining that he had joined Obama in shading the truth in their campaign advertising.

"McCain has gone, in some of his ads, similarly gone one step too far in sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100-percent truth test," Rove told Fox News Sunday.

The Obama campaign has complained especially about an ad that declares Obama supports sex education for kindergartners. He supported a program to teach children how to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable touching to help them ward off sexual predators.

Obama spent Sunday off the campaign trail and at home in Chicago. But his campaign announced Sunday that it had raised $66 million in August, a record for a presidential candidate that illustrated his continuing appeal to donors and his robust outreach to new contributors.

The campaign said it raised the money with the help of more than a half million, first-time donors. By comparison, McCain raised $47 million in August, a personal best for his campaign as well. The monthly figures for both candidates were especially noteworthy because August is typically a slow month for fund-raising.

Obama's totals, however, also underscore the challenge he faces in the remaining two months of the campaign. McCain, for now, has a significant advantage because he has accepted $84 million in taxpayer funds under a public financing system that Obama chose to bypass in favor of raising more money.

The combined efforts of the two campaigns and the two national parties left both candidates on nearly equal financial footing with $94 million at the end of August, according to campaign and party officials who discussed the finances on Sunday.