Keating is a McCain campaign co-chair.

(CNN) — A prominent surrogate for John McCain on Thursday raised Barack Obama's admitted cocaine use as a teenager and said the Illinois senator should speak candidly about it to the American people.

Speaking to Dennis Miller, a comedian and conservative radio talk show host, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating said Obama should be more forthright about his background and what he called his "very extreme" record.

"He ought to admit, ‘You know, I've got to be honest with you. I was a guy of the street. I was way to the left. I used cocaine. I voted liberally, but I'm back at the center,'" Keating, a co-chair of McCain’s campaign, said Obama should tell voters. "I mean, I understand the big picture of America. But he hasn't done that."

An aide to John McCain said Keating was not directed by the campaign to make the comments.

"We didn’t ask him to do it,” the aide said. “He didn’t clear it with us, but obviously he’s read Senator Obama’s books.”

The Obama campaign has not responded to the comments.

The remarks ring similar to comments made by prominent New Hampshire Democrat Bill Shaheen, a Hillary Clinton supporter, during the primary. Shaheen, who predicted in December that Obama’s drug past would be a major Republican talking point if her were the Democratic nominee. He later apologized for the comments, but stepped down from his role in the Clinton campaign. Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson, another Hillary Clinton backer, also had to apologize after making overt references to Obama's drug use at campaign rally in South Carolina.

In Obama's 1995 book Dreams of My Father, he writes that he was once headed in the direction of a "junkie" and a "pothead. Referring to his emotional struggles as a young man, Obama writes, "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though."

Obama did speak during his primary campaign about his past experimentation with drugs and alcohol in high school.

"I made some bad decisions that I've actually written about," he told New Hampshire high school students last November. "There were times when I, you know, got into drinking, experimented with drugs. There was a whole stretch of time where I didn't really apply myself a lot."

Sen. John McCain spent part of the day making phone calls to make sure negotiations go well on the bailout plan.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – A top aide to Senator John McCain said the Republican presidential candidate will not go to Capitol Hill Saturday afternoon, as negotiators meet to work out a deal on the financial bailout plan.

Senior adviser Mark Salter just told reporters outside McCain’s campaign headquarters in Arlington, VA that the Senator will instead continue to make calls to members of Congress.

Salter said he will not go because “he can effectively do what he needs to do by phone. "He’s calling members on both sides, talking to people in the administration, helping out as he can.’’ The campaign said it will release a list of people McCain spoke with later Saturday.

Senator Barack Obama, traveling for campaign events in North Carolina and Virginia, spoke Saturday with Congressman Barney Frank, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Senator Harry Reid, his campaign said. The Democratic presidential candidate was briefed on the latest with the negotiations.

McCain returned to Washington early Saturday morning from Memphis following last night’s debate because of the bailout situation. He decided to deliver a Saturday evening speech by satellite to a group in Columbus rather than traveling there in person.

Salter said, “We hope to have a deal in place so we can get back on the trail.”

Update: According to the McCain campaign, the Republican nominee called President Bush, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, Sen. Mitch McConnell , Sen. Judd Gregg, Sen. Jon Kyl, Leader Boehner, Rep. Blunt, Rep. Putnam, Rep. Cantor, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, Rep. Tom Davis, Rep. Chip Pickering, Rep. Heather Wilson, Rep. John Shadegg, Rep. Flake, and Rep. Marsha Blackburn on Saturday.

Sen. John McCain's campaign is doing what it can to counter the publicity from Sen. Barack Obama's trip.

(CNN) — Sen. John McCain sharpened his attacks against Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday, saying he'd rather give a speech in Germany as president than as a presidential candidate.

Obama was in Berlin for the latest leg of an international trip intended to bolster his foreign policy credentials at home and set out his vision for a new era of transatlantic cooperation.

Watch: McCain says he'd prefer to speak in Germany as President

McCain was campaigning Thursday in Ohio, focusing on health care.

Speaking to reporters outside Schmidt's Restaurant and Banquet Haus, a German eatery in Columbus, Ohio, McCain responded to Obama's Berlin speech, which attracted large crowds at the Victory Column.

Watch: McCain discusses Obama's Berlin speech

"Well, I'd love to give a speech in Germany … a political speech or a speech that maybe the German people would be interested in," he said. "But I would much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for the office of the presidency."

Full story

McCain campaigned in Pennsylvania Wednesday.'

BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania (CNN) – John McCain defended comments he made in an interview on Tuesday when he incorrectly argued that the surge in Iraq gave way to the so-called “Anbar Awakening” - when Sunni leaders joined forces with U.S. troops to fight Al Qaeda in the fall of 2006.

The Arizona senator told reporters Wednesday afternoon that when he refers to the surge, it encompasses not just the January 2007 increase in troop levels but also the counter-insurgency that started in Iraq’s Al Anbar province months prior.

“A surge is really a counter-insurgency strategy, and it’s made up of a number of components,” McCain said. “This counter-insurgency was initiated to some degree by Colonel McFarland in Anbar province, relatively on his own.”

“General Petraeus said that the surge would not have worked, and the Anbar Awakening would not have taken place, successfully, if they hadn’t had an increase in the number of troops,” McCain added.

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Watch McCain slam Obama on Iraq.

(CNN) — After Barack Obama spoke out against the surge again Tuesday, John McCain's campaign responded by repeating athe charge that the Illinois senator favors “unconditional withdrawal.”

Earlier: Obama: Stability in hands of Iraqis

“By continuing his opposition to the surge strategy long after it has proven successful and by admitting that his plan for withdrawal places him at odds with General David Patraeus, Barack Obama has made clear that his goal remains unconditional withdrawal rather than securing the victory our troops have earned and the surge has made possible," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said.

The McCain campaign is also conducting a conference call with Rep. Heather Wilson, Sen. Sam Brownback, and McCain adviser Randy Scheunemann to keep up the pressure on Obama.

Listen: McCain surrogates target Obama over his Iraq policy

UPDATE: McCain himself also took a swipe at Obama over his Iraq policy at a New Hampshire town hall Tuesday.

"You might recall that Senator Obama, my opponent, said the surge would not succeed, that he wanted us out. If he had his way, we'd been out last March. .. We would have had defeat," he said. "And my friends, that would have been a catastrophe for the United States of America. He was wrong then, he's wrong now and he still failed to acknowledge that the surge succeeded … remarkable, remarkable. "

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Straight Talk Express — perhaps the most visible symbol of Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign — is taking to the skies.

The Republican Party's presumptive nominee will unveil his new campaign airplane on Monday: a Boeing 737-400.

The aircraft shares its name with McCain's ever-present campaign bus, which has been a staple of the candidate's 2000 and 2008 campaigns.

The 95-seat plane — with seats for the candidate, his staffers and the press — has the "Straight Talk Express" logo emblazoned on its fuselage.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — John McCain's national finance co-chairman has stepped down — the latest adviser to leave the Republican senator's presidential campaign due to ties with lobbyists.

Former Texas Congressman Thomas G. Loeffler, a major fundraiser for McCain, is the fifth person to leave the campaign in the last eight days over questions about lobbying or past connections to lobbyists.

"Mr. Loeffler has resigned from his position with the campaign," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds told CNN Sunday.

For the most part, McCain keeps a veil of privacy around his faith.

ABOARD THE STRAIGHT TALK EXPRESS (CNN) — John McCain, who rarely talks about his faith publicly, discussed some of his religious beliefs with reporters Wednesday - including the question of whether he might consider being baptized again.

The presumptive Republican nominee talked with journalists traveling with him from Kentucky to West Virginia about his home congregation, North Phoenix Baptist Church.

"Pastor Dan Yeary has a message I enjoy and appreciate," he said, adding that he and his family have "grown close to [Yeary] over the years" and that he tried to attend services at the church whenever he was home in Arizona.

"The message that Dan Yeary conveys of Christian love and redemption is one that I welcome," said McCain. "And I'm always spiritually helped and assisted when I attend those church services, as I think most Americans are when they attend church services."

The Arizona senator, who was raised an Episcopalian, has attended North Phoenix for nearly two decades, but is not a member because he has not been baptized into the church.
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Obama campaigned in North Dakota Friday.

(CNN) — John McCain criticized Barack Obama Saturday for not denouncing comments from a speaker at a North Dakota Democratic Party event calling the Arizona senator a "warmonger."

The comments in question came Friday evening at an event in North Dakota where Barack Obama also spoke. Radio talk show host Ed Schultz addressed the crowd, during which he criticized McCain's support of the Iraq war and called him a "warmonger." Obama was not present for Schultz's comments and spoke later at the event.

"I hope that in keeping with the spirit of Sen. Obama, that they condemn, that Sen. Obama will condemn such language since it was a part of his campaign," McCain said. "But that kind of language is unnecessary for this campaign. I think its very clear how I feel about war and my experiences with it."

Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday McCain should not have been described that way.

"John McCain is not a warmonger and should not be described as such. He's a supporter of a war that Senator Obama believes should have never been authorized and never been waged," she said.

Obama's campaign also notes Schultz is not an official supporter of the campaign and was asked to speak by the North Dakota Democratic Party, not the Obama campaign.

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(CNN) – Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, told reporters Monday that the Bush administration’s surge strategy in Iraq is succeeding and, at the same time, recognized the 4000 Americans who have died in Iraq since 2003.

“Gen. Petraeus is correct when he says that the central battleground in the struggle against al Qaeda is Iraq and Osama bin Laden just confirmed that again with his comments last week,” McCain told reporters, referring to a recent statement by bin Laden that called Iraq “the perfect base to set up the jihad to liberate Palestine.”

“I have commented on hundreds of occasions of the sacrifice the great and brave young Americans have made in Iraq and elsewhere in the world in the struggle against radical Islamic extremism,” said McCain. “I wear a bracelet on my hand, not only as a symbol of the sacrifice that a brave young man named Matthew Stanley, but that of 4000 other brave young Americans who have served and sacrificed as well. My thoughts and my prayers go out to those families every day,” McCain added.

The Arizona senator also took the opportunity to target Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over their views on the Iraq war. “It is obvious that they are dead wrong and they are wrong when they say that we should leave Iraq immediately,” he said. “The surge is succeeding and it’s time that they acknowledge that the surge is succeeding,” he added.

On Monday, Sen. Clinton mentioned the 4000th U.S. fatality in Iraq at the beginning of an economic speech and Sen. Obama released a statement regarding the milestone.

Related video: Watch Sen. McCain's comments on Iraq

– CNN’s Tasha Diakides and Martina Stewart