Bush - McCain Bus Hits Some Bumps
Road Still Bumpy for McCain’s Retooled Bandwagon
Associated Press at Huffington Post, July 12th, 2008
HUDSON, Wis. — Every presidential campaign has its hitches. For John McCain, they felt more like full-blown lurches this week, with nearly every step forward quickly offset by a misstatement or wisecrack that seemed to blow his message off course.
It was the week McCain hoped to show off his newly focused, smoother-running operation after he rearranged his campaign hierarchy and acknowledged errors in the staging of events and other matters.
But a joke about U.S. cigarettes killing Iranians, criticism of the Social Security program and word that one of his top economic advisers had called the country “a nation of whiners” suffering a “mental recession” undermined the Arizona senator’s effort.
Democrat Barack Obama has had his own stumbles recently, but McCain’s journey through the key election states of Colorado, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin was bumpy.
McCain said he is not worried.
“I’m very aware that, from time to time, some words of mine will be taken out of context,” he told reporters Friday. “I’m not going to change the way our campaign is.”