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As Finish Line Looms, Tone Gets Sharper

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The Washington Post

Published: October 9, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS - Sen. Barack Obama delivered a reassuring economic message and a combative Sen. John McCain blistered his opponent as ill-prepared and opportunistic as the two entered the final four weeks of the marathon presidential campaign with swings through the battleground states of the Midwest.

Obama followed Tuesday night's debate in Nashville with a rollicking rally in this normally reliably Republican state, delivering an optimistic view that the economic crisis is simply the latest challenge for a nation that has overcome worse.

"Listen here, Indiana: I'm here today to tell you that there are better days ahead," the Democrat told thousands who packed the grandstand at the wet and muddy Indiana State Fair. "I know these times are tough and I know that many of you are anxious about the future. But this isn't a time for fear or for panic. This is a time for resolve and steady leadership."

McCain campaigned Wednesday in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and punctuated the day by telling an interviewer that his rival is not prepared to be president.

"I'll let the American people make a judgment in just 28 days," McCain told Fox News' Sean Hannity. "But I think he lacks the experience and the knowledge, and most importantly, the judgment that he has displayed."

And that was among the milder attacks on Obama from the McCain campaign, which include a personal and stinging rebuke from McCain's wife, Cindy.

"The day that Senator Obama decided to cast a vote to not fund my son when he was serving sent a cold chill through my body," Cindy McCain said.

The Obama campaign said McCain has distorted his vote, which was an attempt to force Bush to come up with a plan to withdraw troops from Iraq by setting a cutoff date.

But Cindy McCain's words may not have even been the strongest of the day.

"Barack Obama's friend tried to kill my family," said a statement from John Murtagh released by McCain's campaign, the latest attempt to link Obama to Vietnam-era radical William Ayers, now a Chicago academic who has served with Obama on various boards and organizations.

Murtagh, a lawyer who has been critical of Obama, said the Weather Underground firebombed his house when he was 9 years old, an act aimed at his father, a judge who was presiding over a trial of Black Panthers.

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