McCain has 3 weeks to reverse Obama lead

Preparations for last debate
McCain had no campaign appearances scheduled Sunday as he prepares for Wednesday night's third and final presidential debate which offers one of his best remaining chances to gain ground on Obama.

McCain vowed Sunday to "whip" Democratic rival Barack Obama's "you-know-what" when the two presidential candidates meet Wednesday in their final televised debate.

Addressing several dozen volunteers at his campaign headquarters outside Washington, McCain promised some of his signature "straight talk" about the state of the race. National and many battleground state polls have shown him trailing Obama amid the deepening market crisis.

"We're a couple points down, OK, nationally, but we're right in this game," McCain said to cheers. "The economy has hurt us a little bit in the last week or two, but in the last few days we've seen it come back up because they want experience, they want knowledge and they want vision. We'll give that to America."

McCain said he and running mate Sarah Palin would continue campaigning hard in the three weeks left before Election Day, in places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado. The two planned a joint appearance Monday in Virginia, a Republican stronghold turned battleground this time.

"We're going to spend a lot of time and after I whip his you-know-what in this debate, we're going to be going out 24/7," McCain said. Palin was headed to a rally in southeast Ohio, a critical swing state where polls show the race to be a tossup.

Toned down rhetoric
The Clintons were taking to the campaign trail a day after McCain toned down his rhetoric against Obama, apparently concerned with angry outbursts from supporters at some of his rallies — and criticism that he had gone too far.

Obama acknowledged this shift.

"I appreciated his reminder that we can disagree while still being respectful of each other," Obama told thousands of supporters at the first of four outdoor rallies in Philadelphia. Police estimated he drew more than 60,000 people to the four events.

"Sen. McCain has served this country with honor," Obama said later. "He deserves our thanks for that."

McCain kept his speech at a rally in Davenport, Iowa, focused on the economy and his policy differences with Obama, a striking change from just days ago when his campaign redoubled its challenge to the Democratic nominee over his association with a former 1960s radical. McCain also claimed that American voters did not really know Obama and his "radical" views.

The tone at McCain's and Palin's events during the past week had been turning toward the sour as disappointed supporters see his presidential campaign lag against Obama.

Angry rhetoric at rallies
Angry Republicans had shouted "terrorist" and "off with his head" at the mention of Obama's connections to former Weather Underground member William Ayers, whose group bombed federal buildings in protest of the Vietnam War when Obama was a child. The two had worked together on community projects in Chicago, and Obama has denounced Ayers' violent past.

On Friday during a town hall-style meeting in Lakeville, Minnesota, a supporter told McCain that he feared what would happen if Obama were elected. McCain drew boos when he defended his rival as a "decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

McCain returned to that note of civility on Saturday as his quandary became clearer: He needed to excite his party's base without inciting them, challenge Obama while being an honorable opponent, and find a game-changing strategy for his faltering campaign without crossing the line.

In a statement issued Saturday, Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and veteran of the civil rights movement, charged that the negative tone of the Republican presidential campaign reminded him of the hateful atmosphere that segregationist Gov. George Wallace fostered in Alabama in the 1960s.

Lewis, who is black, accused McCain and Palin of "sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse."

McCain on Saturday called Lewis' remarks "shocking and beyond the pale."

Late Saturday, Lewis said he was not trying to directly compare McCain or Palin to Wallace.

"My statement was a reminder to all Americans that toxic language can lead to destructive behavior," he said.

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