The BG News

Issue date: 10/14/08 Section: Nation

Media Credit: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Changing direction: Presidential candidate John McCain spoke at a rally in Virginia yesterday.

Virginia Beach, Va. - Republican John McCain pledged to fight for a new direction for the country in an energetic new campaign stump speech yesterday that sought to distance him from the economic policies of President Bush.

"We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change," McCain said while campaigning with running mate Sarah Palin in this once reliably Republican state that has become a battleground this year. "The hour is late; our troubles are getting worse; our enemies watch. We have to act immediately. We have to change direction now."

The Arizona senator insisted he understood Americans' concerns about the deepening financial crisis, even as fears about the meltdown have moved voters firmly in Democrat Barack Obama's direction in recent weeks.

The repudiation of the Republican incumbent's economic policies came as McCain has struggled to find a message that would reverse his sagging poll results nationally and in some battleground states. Yet, McCain echoed a line from President George H.W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush, about Democrats "measuring the drapes" that proved ineffectual for the GOP in 1992 and 2006.

"Sen. Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi and Sen. (Harry) Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq," McCain said, targeting the prospect of one-party government with references to the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate.

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush told a Houston rally when he went to the Oval Office he expected to find Democratic candidate Bill Clinton "there measuring the drapes. Put those drapes on hold, it's going to be curtain time." Clinton unseated Bush.

In October 2006, President George W. Bush said congressional Democrats "were measuring the drapes" and planning to take control of Congress. A month later, Democrats won the House and Senate.

McCain acknowledged Obama's lead in the polls. "The national media has written us off," McCain added. "But they forgot to let you decide."

Continued...

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