With Foe In Limelight, McCain Gets Folksy

This story was written by CBSNews.com political reporter Brian Montopoli.

It's been that kind of week for McCain: The following day, as his Democratic rival was speaking to an estimated 200,000 plus enthusiastic Germans at Berlin's Victory Column, McCain was talking with a few dozen people at a German restaurant - in Ohio. Political pundits have seized on these sorts of contrasts to characterize the McCain campaign as "flat footed" or worse, arguing that Obama has completely dominated his opponent this week.

Ask the McCain campaign, however, and they'll tell you that the situation is nowhere near as grim as the pundits suggest.

"I don't think the national media is in touch with what's going on out there," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said. He said that the McCain campaign has gotten "tremendous local and regional coverage" this week, pointing to news reports in places like Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and Rochester, New Hampshire.

Rogers may have a point: The cover of the New Hampshire Union-Leader on Wednesday featured a large photo of a smiling McCain and the headline "Back, and on attack"; Thursday, Wilkes-Barre's Times Leader proclaimed "McCain straight talks W-B," while Pennsylvania's Citizens' Voice featured a full-page color shot of a waving McCain Thursday and a headline about the candidate coming to town.

"Our focus this week is talking directly to hardworking Americans about the issues that effect their lives," Rogers said. Asked if Obama's international trip plays into their strategy because the presumptive Democratic nominee is not focused on everyday pocketbook issues at home, Rogers had this to say: "We run our campaign based on John McCain's priorities. But it's a nice contrast for us."

For all the talk of Obama's recent success, the race remains relatively close: Most recent national polls show Obama in the lead, but the average spread is only 4 points. As the Obama campaign has looked to widen that gap with this week's international tour, the McCain campaign has counter-programmed by zeroing in on the economic concerns of average Americans. Obama may look good in Berlin, the implicit critique goes, but he's not going to get milk under $4 per gallon.

"What we've been doing is going into important markets, and target states, and talking about economic policies and gas prices," said McCain senior advisor Charlie Black. "It doesn't make national news, but it dominates the news in the markets we're in."

Nonetheless, even the most optimistic members of the McCain camp would have to concede that this week has not exactly gone smoothly. McCain had to play defense on national security when critics accused him of misstating the Iraq War timeline in an interview with CBS News. His planned trip to an oil rig to advocate for offshore drilling to lower gas prices was canceled thanks to hurricane Dolly. An oil spill on the Mississippi River made for a powerful talking point for opponents of his drilling plan. And he (once again) made reference to Czechoslovakia, despite the fact that that country has not existed for 15 years.

Still, the campaign believes it has made progress in battleground states even as Obama has dominated the national headlines and the media have engaged in hand-wringing over the the Arizona senator's campaign. Black suggested the national media have a tendency to overestimate its importance - "The question folks [in the national media] have to ask is how much influence do you have versus local news and everything else that goes on in a campaign," he said.

McCain vowed this week to spend his time "campaigning across the heartland of America and talking about the issues that are challenging America today," and he has focused on high food and gas prices. Obama, McCain and his surrogates have suggested, doesn't recognize the importance of finding short-term solutions. Adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin said in a conference call Thursday that McCain's policies are the ones that address "the real economic duress that people feel right now."

Not everyone feels that message is getting out. Conservative activist Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, said McCain's economic message is actually better than that of President George W. Bush, arguing that if voters understood the difference between the candidates, "Obama would be ten points down, not a couple points up."

That message is simply not reaching their ears, Norquist argued - though he didn't blame the McCain campaign for that.

"How could he command attention? I don't know - short of torching himself like a Buddhist monk," Norquist said. "He has a good message. But it is difficult to get the establishment press to cover those stories. I do not expect Time Magazine will put on its cover how many dollars Obama will cost your family."

Critics have knocked the McCain campaign for being largely reactive in recent days - running advertisements in places like Berlin, Wisconsin, as a cheeky response to Obama's Berlin speech, for example. But Black, McCain's senior advisor, brushes off such concerns, saying he feels comfortable with how the week has gone.

"Obama is spending the week trying to enhance his commander in chief credentials - with some voters he has to pass a threshold on that," he said. "Be he hasn't moved in tracking polls, and we're going to beat him on the commander in chief issue no matter what he does. So we're focused on the domestic issues, the pocketbook issues." (While Obama trails on the commander in chief question, McCain trails on the economic front: The Arizona senator was seen by just 31 percent of respondents in a recent CBS News/New York Times poll as the candidate is "better able to improve economic conditions." Obama was cited as "better able to improve economic conditions" by 51 percent of registered voters.)

Rogers put it more bluntly.

"200,000 screaming Germans isn't going to do it for him," he said.
By Brian Montopoli