Text size:

McCain camp disavows use of Obama's middle name

LOS ANGELES TIMES

October 9, 2008

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Republican Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign disavowed an introduction here yesterday that included Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein.

William Platt, chairman of the Lehigh County Republican Party, twice referred to "Barack Hussein Obama," which other supporters of McCain and running mate Sarah Palin have used to link the Democratic candidate with Muslims. Obama is not a Muslim.

McCain has disavowed the tactic, most recently when it was employed earlier this week.

"We do not condone this inappropriate rhetoric which distracts from the real questions of judgment, character and experience that voters will base their decisions on this November," campaign spokesman Paul Lindsay said in a prepared statement.

The statement came as McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, campaigned here the day after the second presidential debate. Earlier, Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, campaigned in Tampa, Fla., where he chastised Palin and McCain for recent attacks on Obama in which they contend he has ties to a former founder of a violent anti-Vietnam War group.

Obama campaigned yesterday on economic issues at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis, his sixth visit to Indiana since clinching the nomination. Indiana is a state that Democrats are hoping to wrest from the Republican column.

Palin and McCain yesterday also concentrated on economic issues, particularly McCain's plan to have the government buy up bad mortgages, renegotiate them to reflect the decreased value of the property and then issue new fixed-rate mortgages at a lower interest. The goal is to give stressed homeowners some relief while helping to stabilize credit markets.

"Last night I set forth a critical first step our country must take to get through this time of crisis. We must go to the heart of the problem, and you know that problem is a housing crisis in Pennsylvania and the country," McCain told the crowd of more than 6,600.

National polls repeatedly have shown that Americans view the economic crisis as the principal problem and that voters see Obama as the person they trust to deal with the issue. That support has helped Obama widen his lead in the polls.

An indication of how fiercely both campaigns are fighting has been the recent sharp escalation of rhetoric.

Palin has accused Obama of "palling around with terrorists," because of his loose affiliation with 1960s radical William Ayers, whose views Obama has denounced. Palin, a huge hit among the Republican base, has attracted an audience in which voters respond with boos at nearly every mention of Obama's name.

The Obama campaign has fired back with advertisements about McCain's ties to disgraced banker Charles Keating Jr. McCain was exonerated of any wrongdoing by a congressional panel, which said he had engaged in poor judgment in his 1980s relationship with the Lincoln Savings and Loan banker.

Biden yesterday joined the fray, telling a rally in Florida - where Palin had just completed a two-day swing - that the Republicans were trying to take "the low road to the highest office in the land." Biden argued that McCain's campaign launched personal attacks against Obama as an attempt to get voters "to stop paying attention to what's really going on in this election."