McCain: "We've Got Them Just Where We Want Them"

From CBS News' John Bentley:

(VIRGINIA BEACH, VA.) – Telling his supporters not to believe the media or the polls, John McCain cast himself as the only candidate who would really fight for the American people.

“Let me give you the state of the race today. We have 22 days to go. We're six points down. The national media has written us off. Sen. Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Sen. Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq,” McCain said.

“But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we've got them just where we want them.”

There had been speculation that McCain was also going to unveil new economic proposals today, fueled by his close friend and adviser Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) telling Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation” yesterday that the campaign was talking about what those proposals were going to be. But McCain spoke only of having to “change direction now” from the policies of the last eight years.

“The next President won't have time to get used to the office. He won't have the luxury of studying up on the issues before he acts. He will have to act immediately. And to do that, he will need experience, courage, judgment and a bold plan of action to take this country in a new direction,” McCain said.

“We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change. The hour is late; our troubles are getting worse; our enemies watch. We have to act immediately.”

Obama is outlining his economic rescue plan today, and his campaign criticized McCain for his speech here.

“Less than twelve hours after his campaign announced that Sen. McCain would finally have some new ideas on the economy, he decided that it was more important to give a new political speech about where he is in the polls,” said Obama Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer.

“But the American people know that this election isn’t about who’s up or who’s down, it’s about who will change the disastrous Bush-McCain economic policies of the last eight years.”