John McCain, U.S. senator from Arizona and Republican presidential candidate, speaking at the National Urban League Annual Conference in Orlando last Friday. (Matt Stroshane/Bloomberg News )


McCain joins Obama on offshore drilling

By Brian Knowlton
Published: August 3, 2008


WASHINGTON: A day after Senator Barack Obama said he could support broad energy legislation even though it would permit offshore oil drilling, which he has opposed, an aide to Senator John McCain said Sunday that he too might support such a package.

But there was little other common ground Sunday between representatives of the presidential rivals after a deeply contentious week that saw tough attack ads from the McCain camp, the insertion of race into the election campaign and the apparent evaporation of Obama's lead in polls.

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, an Obama supporter, said the new McCain ads amounted to "character assassination"; Senator Lindsey Graham, a McCain ally, said that for Obama to suggest that McCain was attacking him based on his name or race was "a lie."

In Florida, Obama said that he remained concerned about potential environmental damage from offshore drilling but was open to compromise.

"My interest is in making sure we've got the kind of comprehensive energy policy that can bring down gas prices," Obama said in an interview with The Palm Beach Post. "If, in order to get that passed, we have to compromise in terms of a careful, well-thought-out drilling strategy that was carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage - I don't want to be so rigid that we can't get something done." The bipartisan package he referred to would include more subsidies for alternative energy sources.

Nancy Pfotenhauer, a McCain economic adviser, said on CNN on Sunday that "Senator McCain is open to compromise packages" on energy.

McCain had dropped his own opposition to offshore drilling, saying that soaring gasoline prices demanded new approaches.

The two sides continued a sharp back-and-forth over ads the McCain camp released that depicted Obama as a shallow celebrity unready to lead, including a commercial that compared him with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

Perhaps goaded by the ads, Obama said last week that he was being attacked partly because he had a "funny-sounding name" and did not look like past presidents. The remark from Obama, an Illinois Democrat who seeks to become the first black president, brought a charge from a top McCain aide that Obama was "playing the race card."

Graham vigorously defended such criticism of Obama. "He is living off celebrity, not ideas," the South Carolinian told Fox News. Referring to Obama's comment, he said, "To say that that's not trying to interject the idea that you're a victim of John McCain trying to make fun of your name and your racial background is a lie."

But Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat whose 2004 presidential campaign was derailed partly by tough ads questioning his service in Vietnam, said Obama's remark had been justified.

"What he was saying is, They're trying to scare you, they're trying to scare the American people. And believe me, I'm an expert on how they do that. They are engaged in character assassination," Kerry said.

"They've decided they can't win on the issues, so now they've decided they're going to try to destroy his character," Kerry continued.

The two sides also differed over the schedule for three presidential debates, a day after the Obama campaign had agreed to two presidential debates and one vice presidential debate. Months ago, Obama had said that a proposal from McCain for a series of joint appearances was "a great idea."

A lead of nine percentage points, meanwhile, that Obama held in a Gallup tracking poll after his recent overseas trip has evaporated, leaving the candidates tied among registered voters.



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