McCain is calling for the release of a tape from an event attended by Barack Obama.

MIAMI, Florida (CNN)- In a radio interview with Radio Mambi in Miami Wednesday, Senator John McCain said that the Los Angeles Times should release a tape of an event that his opponent attended with Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi , a former University of Chicago professor now teaching at Columbia University who is alleged to have ties with the PLO.

“We should know about their relationship including, apparently, information that is held by the Los Angeles Times concerning an event that Mr. Ayers attended with a PLO spokesman. The Los Angeles Times refuses to make that videotape public. I’m not in the business about talking about media bias but what if there was a tape with John McCain with a neo-Nazi outfit being held by some media outlet. I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly different.”

Khalidi has denied being a part of the PLO, saying that between 1976 and 1983 — the period critics have alleged he worked for the organization - he was a full time assistant professor at the American University of Beirut, a fellow at the Institue of Palestine Studies and author of two books and had no time for anything else.

McCain’s radio interview comes a day after the McCain campaign accused the Los Angeles Times of supressing a videotape of a 2003 banquet that then state Senator Barack Obama along with Ayers and Khalidi, and where Obama talked about his friendship with the Palestinian scholar.

"A major news organization is intentionally suppressing information that could provide a clearer link between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi," said McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb. "The election is one week away, and it's unfortunate that the press so obviously favors Barack Obama that this campaign must publicly request that the Los Angeles Times do its job - make information public."

The paper was the first to report on the relationship between Obama and Khalidi in an April 2008 story - titled “Allies of Palestinians see a friend in Barack Obama” - about the Illinois senator’s ties with the Palestinian and Jewish communities in Chicago and detailed the 2003 event, which was a farewell dinner for Khalidi, who was leaving Chicago to take a job in New York.

"The Los Angeles Times did not publish the videotape because it was provided to us by a confidential source who did so on the condition that we not release it," said the newspaper's editor, Russ Stanton.

Khalidi himself said in an e-mailed statement that he was “not speaking to the media at this time, and certainly not until this idiot wind passes.” He also directed reporters to a post on the Harper’s magazine Web site that he said “has some details re a few of the stupider, and more ignorant things said about me.”

Obama was asked about his relationship with Khalidi in May at a town hall with Jewish voters.
“I do know him because I taught at the University of Chicago,” Obama said. “And he is a Palestinian. And I do know him and I have had conversations. He is not one of my advisors; he’s not one of my foreign policy people. His kids went to the Lab school where my kids go as well. He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel’s policy.”

“To pluck out one person who I know and who I’ve had a conversation with who has very different views than 900 of my friends and then to suggest that somehow that shows that maybe I’m not sufficiently pro-Israel, I think, is a very problematic stand to take,” Obama said. “so we got to be careful about guilt by association.”

And while McCain might not have known Khalidi personally, he has ties to the Palestinian as well. During the 1990s, while McCain served as chairman of the International Republican Institute, the group gave grant money to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi.

Florida, with its 27 electoral votes, is a crucial battleground for McCain. Jewish voters comprise 5 percent of the electorate in the state.

McCain is hitting Obama hard on taxes in the race’s closing days.

FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) - Senator John McCain, campaigning in the must-win states of Pennsylvania and North Carolina, charged Tuesday that Barack Obama has a "creeping" definition of what rich means.

“Senator Obama has made a lot of promises," McCain told a crowd in Hershey, Pennsylvania. "First he said people making less than $250,000 would benefit from his plan. Then this weekend he announced in an ad that if you're a family making less than 200,000 you'll benefit.

“But yesterday, right here in Pennsylvania, Senator Biden said tax relief should only go to ‘middle class people - people making under $150,000 dollars a year.’ You getting an idea of what’s on their mind. Eh? A little sneak peek. It's interesting how their definition of rich has a way of creeping down,” said the Republican nominee, to boos from the audience.

McCain added, “At this rate, it won't be long before Senator Obama is right back to his vote that Americans making just $42,000 a year should get a tax increase. We can't let that happen. We won’t let that happen.”

The Obama campaign said the Illinois senator's tax plan had not changed. “As Obama and Biden have always said, under their plan no family making less than $250,000 will see their taxes increase one cent," said Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor.

"And if your family makes less than $200,000 – as 95 percent of workers and their families do – you’ll get a tax cut. Maybe the McCain campaign keeps lying about Obama’s tax plan because with seven days left in this election, voters are rejecting McCain’s plan to give billions more in tax giveaways to big corporations and the wealthiest Americans – but nothing to more than 100 million middle-class families," said Vietor.

Sen. McCain warned Sen. Obama not to get too far ahead of himself during a campaign event Saturday.

(CNN) - Senator John McCain attacked Sen. Barack Obama for having his inaugural address ready to go and said that Obama’s presidential preparations will be proven premature at a rally in Mesilla, Arizona on Saturday.

“We just learned from a newspaper today that Senator Obama’s inaugural address is already written.”

“You know? I’m not making it up. I’m not making it up. I’m not making it up. An awful lot of voters are still undecided, but he’s decided for them that well, why wait? It’s time to move forward with his first inaugural address,” McCain said.

“My friends, when I pull this thing, I have a request for my opponent. I want him to save that manuscript of his inaugural address, and donate it to the Smithsonian. And they can put it right next to the Chicago paper that said Dewey Defeats Truman,” he said in reference to the 1948 Chicago Tribune headline incorrectly proclaiming Dewey the winner of that presidential election.

“There’s 10 days left in this election, maybe Barack Obama will have his first state of the union address ready before you head to the polls. You know, I guess I’m just a little old fashioned about these things. I prefer to let the voters weigh in before presuming the outcome. What America needs now is someone who will finish the race before starting the victory lap.”

McCain was referring to a New York Times article published Saturday that said John Podesta (who leads Senator Obama's transition team) "has been mapping out the transition so systematically that he has already written a draft Inaugural Address for Mr. Obama, which he published this summer in a book called ‘The Power of Progress’.”

Minutes after the Republican presidential candidate finished his speech, an Obama aide clarified that the address was in a book John Podesta wrote before Obama was the nominee and was written for a generic Democratic president.

In another response, Obama-Biden spokesman Bill Burton denied McCain's claim and linked him to a very unpopular Republican president.

“While this charge is completely false and there is no draft of an inaugural address for Senator Obama, the last thing we need is a candidate like John McCain who just plans on re-reading George Bush’s,” Burton said.

Sen. McCain got off his plane Saturday with the hills of Mexico in the background on his way to a campaign stop in New Mexico.

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (CNN) - At a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico Saturday, Senator John McCain told the crowd that he was a neighboring Western senator who understood the Southwest and Hispanic culture and his opponent didn’t.

“My friends I’m a fellow Westerner, I understand these issues, I understand land and water and Native American issues and border issues and I understand the challenges that a great, great western states face with our growth and our needs and our challenges,” said the Arizona Senator as he courted voters key to the state’s five electoral votes.

“My friends, Senator Obama has never been south of our border, you know that? And he doesn’t know these issues. I know them, I know what the Southwest is, I know strength and the culture and our Hispanic culture and the strength of our great states."

While McCain has been dealing with southwestern issues for over 20 years as an Arizona legislator, an Obama spokesman said that in fact the Illinois Senator did visit Mexico when he was in college.

McCain added a new line to his comments about Congressman Barney Frank’s plans to cut the defense budget, echoing the lines of GOP presidential candidates in elections past.

“The Democrats answer to the challenges we face is to lower our defenses and raise our taxes. That is not the vision I have for America. I want to strengthen our defenses and lower our taxes.”

And the Arizona Senator emphasized that while Senator Biden told donors at a Seattle fundraiser that his running mate would be tested by America’s enemies in office, McCain would test them back.

“My friends, I have been tested,” said McCain. "They may want to test Senator Obama. I’ve been tested and I'm going to test them. They’re not going to test me.”

Obama also has events in New Mexico and Nevada Saturday. These are battleground states that Bush won in 2004 but have been favoring Senator Obama in recent polling.

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania (CNN) - John McCain attacked Barack Obama in Western Pennsylvania Tuesday over a surrogate's comments that some of the area's residents were racist, telling locals the region was "the most patriotic, most God-loving" part of the nation.

“I think you may have noticed that Senator Obama’s supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about Western Pennsylvania lately,” he said, to loud boos from the crowd.

Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, who supports Obama, was quoted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette saying there is "no question that western Pennsylvania is a racist area," and predicted that those attitudes could cost the Illinois senator on Election Day.

“I couldn't agree with you more than the fact that Western Pennsylvania is the most patriotic, most God-loving, most patriotic part of America, and this is a great part of the country,” McCain said Tuesday, to cheers.

“So I'll give some of Senator Obama's supporters some credit, at least they're saying these things openly instead of behind closed doors at a San Francisco fundraiser," he said, referencing Barack Obama's spring remarks about some small-town Pennsylvanians that dominated the Democratic primary season here.

"My friends, the people of Western Pennsylvania love their Second Amendment, their amendment rights, their constitutional rights and their religion because they love their country, and they love their values and they love their families and they believe in the future of this country. That's what the people of Western Pennsylvania are all about.



”

McCain slammed Obama over Biden’s Sunday comments.

BELTON, Missouri (CNN) – John McCain is seizing on Joe Biden’s prediction that his running mate would be tested in office.

"He guaranteed that if Senator Obama is elected, Senator Biden said, we will have an international crisis to test America's new president,” McCain said at a Monday rally in Belton, Missouri Monday. “We don't want a president who invites testing from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting in two wars.”

At a Sunday night fundraiser, Biden said that within Obama’s first months in office, “we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy" - and that it may not be immediately “apparent” that an Obama administration’s actions were the right ones.

“Forget ‘apparent,’” said McCain Monday. “Senator Obama won't have the right response, and we know that because we've seen the wrong response from him over and over during this campaign.

“He opposed the surge strategy that is bringing us victory in Iraq and will bring us victory in Afghanistan. He said he would sit down unconditionally with the world's worst dictators,” McCain said to boos from the crowd on the Heartland School and Academy football field. “When Russia invaded Georgia, Sen. Obama said the invaded country should show restraint.”

The Obama-Biden campaign didn’t wait for McCain to actually deliver the speech, putting out out a statement about an hour after the text of the remarks was e-mailed out.

“With our nation facing two wars and 21st century threats abroad, Senator Biden referenced the simple fact that history shows Presidents face challenges from day one,” said campaign spokesman David Wade. “After eight years of failed foreign policy, we need Barack Obama’s steady leadership, not the erratic and ideological Bush-McCain approach that has set back our security and standing in the world.”

Full story

Powell endorsed Obama Sunday.

(CNN) - John McCain said on “FOX News Sunday” that he was not surprised by General Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama.

“Well, I've always admired and respected General Powell. We're longtime friends. This doesn't come as a surprise," he said.

"But I'm also very pleased to have the endorsement of four former secretaries of state, Secretaries Kissinger, Baker, Eagleburger and Haig. And I'm proud to have the endorsement of well over 200 retired Army generals and admirals. But I respect and continue to respect and admire Secretary Powell," he said.

The Arizona Senator did not answer a follow up question about Powell contradicting McCain’s argument that Obama wasn’t ready to lead.

But after his opponent touted Powell’s endorsement at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the McCain campaign issued a statement saying Obama needed someone like Powell to supplement his own lack of experience.

"Only an unproven and inexperienced politician like Barack Obama would have to rely so heavily on an another man's resume in making the case for his own candidacy - and it shows that he's just not ready,” said spokesman Tucker Bounds.

McCain wants Joe to campaign with him.

MELBOURNE, Florida (CNN)- At a rally in Melbourne, Florida Friday evening, Senator McCain revealed he had called Joe Wurzelbacher.

“I talked to him this morning for the first time ever,” said McCain. “And I want to tell you his sprits are good and he’s a tough guy. He is what small business people all over this country are all about. They are tough and they are good and they want to get ahead and they want to keep their money.”

McCain did apologize to the Ohio resident for thrusting him into the media spotlight on the night of the debate according to McCain press secretary Brooke Buchanan.

The night before he called, he appealed to Joe on CBS's “Late Night with David Letterman.”
“Joe, if you’re watching, I’m sorry,” he said into the camera.

Buchanan did say that the Arizona Senator invited Ohio’s most famous voter to meet up with the campaign but did not set up any specific stops.

McCain has a rally in that state on Sunday but Buchanan said she didn’t know whether Murzelbacher would appear.

When asked why he called Joe, Buchanan said, “I think he just wanted to reach out to him.”

Whether Joe is there in person or not, he is certainly a star at McCain events. McCain urged others at the rally to contact Joe and share their support. “Send Joe an email and tell him you are with him, ok,” said McCain.

And the crowd definitely seemed to be full of Joe supporters as well as John supporters, with people at the Melbourne rally were wearing tee shirts with a picture of a name tag on them that said, “My name is ... Joe the Plumber” and holding signs about Joe like one on stage that said, “Joe’s dough, not Obama’s.”

Sen. Lieberman campaigned with Sen. McCain in Pennsylvania Thursday.

DOWNINGTON, Pennsylvania (CNN) - It wasn’t quite the starring role that he had at the last presidential debate, but Joe the plumber still had top billing at the McCain event in Downingtown, Pennsylvania Thursday.

The senator from Arizona didn’t declare himself the winner in Wednesday night’s sparring match with Barack Obama, bestowing that honor instead on America’s newest star, Ohio resident Joe Wurzelbacher.

“My friends, we had a good debate last night. It was a lot of fun, you know. I thought I did pretty well. The real winner last night was Joe the plumber,” said McCain to applause and chants of “Joe.”

“Joe’s the man. He won, and small businesses won across America. They won because the American people are not going to let Senator Obama raise their taxes in a tough economy. They are not going to let him do it, my friends.”

And that wasn’t the last we heard of Joe. McCain again elaborated on what Obama to the Ohio plumber in their weekend meeting.

“He wanted to spread his wealth around. What does that mean? He wants the government to take Joe’s money and give it to somebody else, “McCain said as the crowd booed. “His hard earned dollars. We are not going to stand for that. America didn't become the greatest nation on earth by spreading the wealth; we became the greatest nation on earth by creating new wealth.”

The Republican presidential nominee had more criticism for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. “I agree with the chairman of the FDIC, who said that Secretary of the Treasury in this government is not going enough to help people stay in their homes,” he said. “That has got to be our first priority. Not Wall Street. Not the bankers. Not the investment houses.”

McCain also reprised his debate night line about George W. Bush, which had been left out of his prepared remarks Thursday.

“We can’t spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change. As I mentioned last night to Senator Obama, I’m not George Bush, and if he wanted to run against George Bush he should have run four years ago.”

Obama holds a double-digit edge over McCain in Pennsylvania in the CNN poll of polls released this week, and his road to capturing the states’ 21 electoral votes looks rocky.

But his friend and constant companion, Senator Joe Lieberman, said that last night changed the dynamic of the race.

“We turned the corner in the debate last night. We changed the momentum. We are on the road to victory in Pennsylvania.”

BLUE BELL, Pennsylvania (CNN) - John McCain unveiled his $52 billion economic package Tuesday - a mix of new initiatives and older proposals - and told Pennsylvania voters that Barack Obama was a risky choice.

Listen: McCain adviser explains the new plan

"I will help to create jobs for Americans in the most effective way a president can do this - with tax cuts that are directed specifically to create jobs and protect your life savings," said McCain at a rally in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.

Most of the new proposals featured a GOP favorite economic tool, the tax cut. McCain proposed cutting the tax rate for withdrawals from retirement accounts to 10 percent, cutting the capital gains tax on stocks purchased and held for more than a year, eliminating taxes on unemployment benefits, and increasing the amount of capital losses from $3,000 to $15,000 which could be deducted from in come in tax years 2008 and 2009.

The plan also featured a guarantee of all savings accounts for a period of six months.

Many of the measures hold major appeal for seniors, a key voting bloc. Pennsylvania has one of the nation’s largest senior populations.

“Retirees have suffered enough and need relief, and the surest relief is to let them keep more of their own savings,” said McCain. While the McCain campaign was very specific about the costs of the plan, economic adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin told CNN’s Dana Bash that where McCain would get the $52 billion to pay for it was not specified in the proposal.

The Obama campaign posted an online tax calculator that made the case to voters that the Democratic nominee’s plan would trim their tax bill. The Republican National Committee responded with a spend-o-meter stressing the cost of Obama’s proposals.

“Perhaps never before in history have the American people been asked to risk so much based on so little,” McCain said about Obama.

“You can look at the record of what he's done or you can just go with your gut, but either way you're left with the same conclusion: Senator Obama is going to raise your taxes. And in this economy, raising taxes is the surest way to turn a recession into a depression.”

McCain did not address the administration’s plan to invest in some of the country’s major banks in his speech, but did field questions on it during local interviews.

“I think it’s a bad idea, but I think it is something that has to be done in this period of crisis,” said the Arizona senator. “As soon as the economy stabilizes and starts growing again the government should get out of the banking business as quickly as possible.”

McCain is behind in polls in Pennsylvania, but the state’s Montgomery County has a relatively even number of registered Republicans and Democrats. Still, the residents of this suburban Philadelphia county have supported the Democratic candidate for president in the past four elections.

A pastor at a McCain rally said non-Christians are hoping for an Obama win.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (CNN) – A minister delivering the invocation at John McCain’s rally in Davenport, Iowa Saturday told the crowd non-Christian religions around the world were praying for Barack Obama to win the U.S. presidential election.

“There are millions of people around this world praying to their god—whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah—that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons. And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their God is bigger than you, if that happens,” said Arnold Conrad, the former pastor of Grace Evangelical Free Church in Davenport.

The remark was made before McCain arrived at the rally but the Republican nominee's campaign quickly put out a statement distancing itself from the remarks.

“While we understand the important role that faith plays in informing the votes of Iowans, questions about the religious background of the candidates only serve to distract from the real questions in this race about Barack Obama's judgment, policies and readiness to lead as commander in chief,” said McCain campaign spokesperson Wendy Riemann.

This incident comes a day after a Minnesota voter asked Senator McCain if Barack Obama was an Arab at a town hall in Lakeville, Minnesota and just three days after Lehigh GOP County Chairman Bill Platt made a speech at a McCain rally in Pennsylvania where he refered to the Democrat nominee for president as Barack Hussein Obama.

McCain acknowledged anger on the trail Saturday.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (CNN) - After days of headlines over the emotion at his campaign events, John McCain acknowledged at a rally in Davenport, Iowa Saturday that he and his supporters are angry - but insisted the anger wasn't directed at opponent Barack Obama.

After a week of headlines about angry outbursts from the audience at McCain-Palin rallies directed toward Obama, the Republican nominee added some new lines in his stump speech giving a nod to the emotion on the trail.

"My friends, I have traveled all over this great country, and one thing I have heard from Americans at every stop is that they are angry. They’re angry. They’re angry. They’re angry about the mess in Washington and Wall Street. They’re angry about the failure of leadership at this hour of national crisis,” said McCain. “Well you’re angry, and I’m angry too, and when Sarah Palin and I get to the White House we’ll turn Washington upside down.”

But Obama’s record didn’t entirely escape McCain’s wrath. The GOP presidential candidate pointed to a large contribution to Obama’s political campaign from a beneficiary of one of his opponent's earmarks.

“I guess it was sheer coincidence that the chairman of the planetarium pledged to raise more than $200,000 dollars for Senator Obama’s political campaign,” said McCain. “My friends, the appearance of this insider dealing angers Americans. I am going to put a stop to that, my friends, when I am president.”

A protestor brandishing a sign that read “war is over” brought the crowd back to a more familiar kind of anger - but drew a measured response from McCain.

“You know, my friends, there’s a perfect example of some people that just don’t get it," said the Arizona senator. "You know, as people trying to stay in their homes, keep their jobs and afford health care, is what they want is for us to yell at each other ? No. They want us to sit down together, Republican and Democrat, and work together in this terrible time of crisis, the largest financial crisis in our history.”

“And by the way my friends, as you know, I’ve had hundreds of town hall meetings and I always give people a chance to talk. I don’t always enjoy it but I give them a chance to talk and that’s what its all about,” he said to cheers from the crowd. “So if there is anyone else that has a problem, come to the next town hall meeting. I’ll be glad to talk to ya.”

McCain called for the crowd to cool its rhetoric Friday.

LAKEVILLE, Minnesota (CNN) – John McCain heard boos at a town hall meeting Friday night after the Republican presidential nominee called for the crowd to be more respectful towards rival Barack Obama.

“We would like you to remain a true American hero,” an elderly military veteran told him. “We want you to fight.”

“I will fight, but we will be respectful,” McCain said. “I admire Senator Obama and his accomplishments and I will respect him.”

When the crowd began to boo, McCain told them “No, no. I want everyone to be respectful.”

Watch: McCain tries to calm the crowd

Along with the veteran, four others pleaded with McCain to put up more of a fight against Obama.

One woman who said she had a lot of undecided neighbors said she wanted McCain to “go to the mattresses” on in his third and final debate with Obama on Wednesday.

While McCain said “I got my marching orders” from the supporters, he still seemed to resist their red-meat rhetoric.

One man said he was scared of an Obama presidency.

“My wife and I are expecting our first child, in April 2nd, next year,” the man said. “And frankly, we're scared. We're scared of an Obama presidency.”

McCain told the man he should not fear Obama.

“I want to be president of the United States, and I don't want Obama to be,” he said. “But I have to tell you, I have to tell you, he is a decent person, and a person that you do not have to be scared as President of the United States.”

McCain's response was met with more boos from the crowd.

A McCain campaign senior adviser later denied that there was a change of tone at Friday night's town hall.

“I believe someone called (Obama) an Arab Muslim, which is factually incorrect, and he corrected that person,” said Mark Salter. “We’re going to campaign hard against this guy. I don’t think he pulled any punches on any issues.”

Since last weekend, when Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin first accused Barack Obama of "palling around with a terrorist" - a reference to 1960s radical William Ayers - rowdy crowds have called Obama a liar, terrorist and worse.

Asked about these outbursts, campaign manager Rick Davis said that he didn’t know who those people were, and if they were there as supporters or to disrupt the rallies. He said while people are “incredibly frustrated” that he is “very confident that it has nothing to do with what our candidates are saying or doing on the stump because I think that if you compared the rhetoric of Barack Obama on a daily basis with the rhetoric of John McCain and Sarah Palin, you’ll find that our rhetoric pales in comparison to what Barack Obama says about John McCain every day.”

And while McCain may be trying to tamp down the rhetoric on Obama, he may be walking a fine line, careful to not extinguish the enthusiasm he needs to win.

"Now, I don't mean that has to reduce your ferocity, but that just means it's got to be respectful. Ok?” he told the crowd Friday.

The RNC launched a new Web site Friday about Sen. Obama's relationship with ACORN on the same day that the McCain campaign also sought to highlight the same issue.

(CNN) - John McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis and Missouri Governor Matt Blunt accused Barack Obama of ties to ACORN, the embattled community group facing allegations of voter registration violations in several battleground states.

Governor Blunt talked about the community organization’s voting law violations in Missouri and Davis said he hoped that the press would examine ACORN’s activities “so that none of those battleground states are stolen from the campaign in this election.”

This week ACORN and Project Vote announced that their voter registration drive had been the most succeful in history with more than 1.3 million voters registered in 21 states.

As they have done with recent attempts to link Obama to Bill Ayers, the McCain campaign tried to raise questions over whether the Illinois senator was being truthful about his past association with ACORN.

Listen: Davis, Blunt on Obama, ACORN

The Missouri governor said Obama’s ties to ACORN went a long way back, to a period “before he launched his political career in the land of Bill Ayers,” and cited that in 1993 Obama acted as their lawyer on a case and ran a 1992 ran a voter registration drive and taught classes with them in the early 1990s.

When a reporter asked point-blank if the campaign was charging the Obama camp of conspiring with ACORN, Campaign manager Rick Davis said that the Democrat had given $832,000 to a front group for ACORN, and said the McCain campaign was just trying to get questions answered about his association with the group.

Asked whether McCain would address the issue in his debate with Obama, Davis demurred, saying that he hoped the media would ask the Democrat before the debate.

And asked about the angry crowds at recent events that had shouted out things like “terrorist” and “off with his head” at recent rallies, Davis said that he didn’t know who those people were, and if they were there as supporters or to disrupt the rallies.

He said while people are “incredibly frustrated” that he is “very confident that it has nothing to do with what the candidates are saying on the stump” because their red-meat rhetoric pales in comparison with Obama and Biden. Davis alleged that there were similar incident at Obama rallies but that they didn’t get the same attention that the McCain disruptions did.

The McCain campaign and the RNC also looked to emphasize Obama’s links to ACORN by releasing a web video and launching a Web site that highlights those alleged ties, and provides information about the group’s activities in a number of states likely to be battlegrounds in November.

As it has with the McCain-Palin’s effort to highlight Obama’s ties to William Ayers, the Obama campaign accused the McCain campaign of trying to distract attention away from the many issues the country is facing less than a month before Election Day.

“Today’s conference call was another effort by the McCain campaign to throw out false charges to ‘turn the page’ from the issues that matter to American families,” said Obama-Biden campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor. “Barack Obama strongly condemns voter registration fraud or any other breach of election law by any party or group. The McCain campaign’s allegations about Sen. Obama are completely transparent and false. He believes that the registration of voters at record levels is good for our democracy, and the McCain-Palin campaign’s false claims are nothing more than another dishonorable, shameful attempt to divert voters’ attention from the unprecedented challenges facing their families and our nation,” Vietor added.

Six Republicans in the House of Representatives who were all previously Secretaries of State asked Attorney General Mukasey Friday to begin an investigation into whether ACORN is engaging in voter fraud, echoing a similar request from McCain Thursday on the campaign trail. A number of congressional Republicans also urged Thursday that any federal funding to ACORN be immediately cut off.

ACORN's Las Vegas office was raided by Nevada state officials last week. CNN also recently reported about questionable voter registration applications submitted as a result of ACORN’s registration efforts in Lake County, Indiana.

Related: ACORN responds to McCain Web video

(CNN) - As a dip in gas prices barely registers at the pump, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain continued his pressure on opponent Barack Obama over the politically popular policy of offshore drilling with a visit to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We need to start drilling offshore,” McCain said Tuesday, standing on a Chevron oil platform that pumps out 10,000 gallons of oil and 15 million cubic feet of natural gas each day. “Sen. Obama opposes new drilling. He has said it will not ‘solve our problem’ and that ‘it’s not real.’ He’s wrong, and the American people know it. I hope he’ll seize the opportunity to come out and pay a visit like this one and I think it would probably change his mind.”

Both McCain and Obama opposed offshore drilling when the campaign began. But as prices at the pump reached $4 a gallon – and polls showed a significant majority of Americans favor the idea - both men shifted their positions.

The Arizona senator has embraced the policy. His fall rival says he remains personally opposed, but would consider legislation that includes a provision expanding the practice if the compromise was required to pass comprehensive energy legislation.

"Americans across our country are hurting, as we all know, because of the cost of energy," McCain said aboard the rig. "Gas prices are through the roof. Energy costs have seeped into our grocery bills, making it more expensive to feed our families. Now as we prepare for the winter, it's time for us to be more serious about our home heating oil needs…"

“New drilling has to be part of our energy solution,” McCain said. “When I’m president there will be a whole more like this, not only here in the Gulf, but also off of our East and West Coasts.”

McCain’s original plans to visit an oil rig in the Gulf several weeks ago had to be scrapped because of Hurricane Dolly. During a Wednesday safety briefing on the rigm McCain asked if anyone had ever fallen in the water. “Never,” replied offshore installation manager Joe St. Ann. “Knock on wood.”

New McCain press pass coincides with Obama’s European swing.

(CNN) - Barack Obama's campaign correspondents went to Europe - but all the reporters covering John McCain got was a European press pass.

Campaign reporters trailing McCain across the United States as the press corps covering Obama gears up for the European leg of the presumptive Democratic nominee's journey still got a set of continental media credentials Tuesday night, courtesy of the Arizona senator's campaign.

Reporters arriving in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania with the campaign were handed press passes that feature a shot of the Statue of Liberty in front of an American flag, and the words: "McCain Press Corps/JV Squad/"Left Behind To Report in America."

The back features a picture of what appears to be a Frenchman - sporting a beret and a neck scarf - standing in front of a silhouette of the Eiffel Tower, staring at the camera as he pours a glass of wine. The legend below is the McCain campaign's take on a translation of the English on the front of the pass: "Le groupe de presse de McCain/L'equipe junior/"Laisse en arriere pour faire un rapport en Amerique."

ON BOARD THE MCCAIN CAMPAIGN PLANE, En route to Mexico City (CNN) - After a scheduled meeting between John McCain and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Tuesday, the presumptive Republican nominee was briefed on the upcoming hostage rescue raid carried out Wednesday.

As he left Colombia Wednesday afternoon, McCain learned that raid had been successfully completed, and congratulated Uribe by phone.

Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, both traveling with McCain, were also briefed. Lieberman said McCain's advance knowledge of the raid signals a vote of confidence by foreign leaders.

UPDATE: John McCain released a statement on the operation later Wednesday afternoon. (Full statement after the jump)

“Today, I spoke by phone to President Uribe. He told me some of the details of the dramatic rescue of the people who were held hostage. Three Americans are now free and Ingrid Betancourt is now in good condition. I’m pleased with the success of this very high-risk operation. Sometimes in the past, the FARC has killed the hostages rather than let them be rescued.

“So I congratulate President Uribe, the military and the nation of Colombia. It is great news. Now we must renew our efforts to free all of the other innocent people held hostage. With regard to the three Americans and Ingrid Betancourt - they had been held many years, as many as six years.

“Last night, President Uribe and the defense minister did brief us that the operation was going to take place today.”

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) - Sen. John McCain said Wednesday that he is "pleasantly surprised" that the Iraqi prime minister "is now behaving like a leader."

The presumptive Republican nominee for president told about 450 supporters at a Boston fund-raiser that the Iraqi government has made notable progress in Baghdad, Basra and Mosul. The Iraqi military, supported by U.S. troops, has launched major offensives in those cities to wrest control from militants.

"That was the whole idea behind the surge," he said. "Go in, hold, clear, establish order and then have the Iraqi military and government take over. And then we can withdraw and then we can come home in victory with honor, not in defeat."

McCain has criticized his Democratic rival, Sen. Barack Obama, for proposing the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

McCain spoke at an event that his campaign said raised about $2 million.

One of his former rivals for the GOP nomination, former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, praised McCain as a "great leader."

(CNN) - Sen. John McCain, who will be the oldest person ever sworn in to a first term as president should he win the White House in November, made it clear Tuesday that he is going to fight hard for the youth vote notwithstanding his age.

“I will contest every vote of every young American,” McCain told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews during an appearance on Matthews’s show set at Villanova University.

“He’s extremely eloquent,” McCain said when asked by Matthews why McCain thought so many young people are excited by Sen. Barack Obama’s oratory. “I think that there is a desire for change out there in America,” McCain added, sounding Obama’s dominant campaign theme.

“And the kind of change that I think I can make is reaffirm Americans’ faith in their future, in their ability to educate their children, to serve this country, and I think that I can provide that motivation,” McCain added.

Obama has overwhelmingly won over young voters in the Democratic primaries t so far. Should McCain face off against Obama in the general election, an age gap of some 25 years would separate the two men.

CNN confirms that Fred Thompson will make a visit to McCain's Sedona, Arizona home this weekend. Thompson, who ended his presidential bid in January, is a longtime friend of the Arizona senator.

John McCain’s campaign returned $3 million in donations this week.

(CNN) – Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign sent back $3 million in donations, an aide confirms to CNN.

The return of the donations seems to suggest that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee might be planning to accept public financing for the general election.

Presidential candidates can receive a maximum of $4,600 from any single donor: $2,300 for their primary run, and $2,300 for the fall campaign. But if they accept government funds for the general election campaign, they are only allowed to keep the first $2,300.

McCain will still be able to use much the money, if donors who have had their checks returned re-direct them to his “general compliance fund” instead – a move he has requested in a letter to supporters.

(General compliance funds are used for legal expenses that arise from Federal Election Commission requirements, including related payroll and fundraising costs.)

Neither of the Arizona senator’s potential fall opponents will likely be bound by the fundraising limits of the federal public financing system.

Sen. Barack Obama, who had earlier pledged to accept public money if the GOP nominee did as well, has been more equivocal on his plans since becoming the Democratic frontrunner. Sen. Hillary Clinton has said that she will not participate in the program.