Campaign Trail

Relishing the underdog mantle

• Matthew Price
• 21 Oct 08, 12:22 AM GMT

For a moment I thought the McCain-Palin campaign had changed its slogan. In the car park here in Belton, Missouri I saw a bus, with big colour pictures of the two candidates grinning from the side, and in-between them words along the lines of "Stop the Obama campaign." It wasn't THE campaign bus though, just a supporter's group rallying the faithful. Someone nearby was shouting: "Obama! Socialist!"

"If I become president..." John McCain said. His audience wouldn't let him get away with that. "WHEN I become president." A huge cheer, but from a crowd significantly smaller than two events Barack Obama held here in Missouri recently.

John McCain's people estimated he got about 6,000 here in Belton today. It may have been as many as that. It certainly was not as diverse as Obama's.

A large man with a big belly, a white beard and an oversized red suit waved two cheerleader's pom-poms in the air as John McCain took to the stage.

"He does Santa at Christmas," the middle aged man next to me said.

Do you think McCain can win this? I asked the non-Santa. "McCain's got to win this, for the country. Otherwise...." He grimaced.

You don't like Obama? "I wouldn't care if his skin was all polka dots, but I don't trust him."

Up on stage John McCain was continuing what is certainly his move back to basics. He is enjoying campaigning on an issue he can get his teeth into. Taxes.

"Senator Obama is more interested in controlling who gets your piece of the pie than he is in growing the pie."

Today we had a new line of attack too. He spoke of "Joe the Biden" as he's calling Obama's running mate - and what the McCain campaign clearly believes is a Biden gaffe - or rather (as far as they're concerned) a Biden factoid.

As the McCain campaign is gleefully pointing out Joe Biden said this last night:

"We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president... Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

So senator McCain is turning a rather clumsy Biden moment into this: "Senator Biden guaranteed that if Senator Obama is elected, we will have an international crisis."

Now you know and I know what Biden really meant, and we also know why McCain is twisting the words here. It is though potentially important. It could stick, just as the message on tax and "spreading the wealth" might be sticking.

There are two weeks left. The polls seem to be tightening slightly. McCain insists it's not too late. He is re-invigorated at the moment, and seems to have renewed energy.

He can't compete on crowds, on money, on endorsements - but he's relishing his new mantle as the tax-cutting underdog.

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