McCain seizes on gaffes of Democrats

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By Stephen Dinan

MESILLA, N.M. | When Republicans began booing the mention of Democratic vice-presidential nominee Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. at a McCain rally on Saturday, Sen. Lindsey Graham told them to cut it out.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, keep talking, Joe, please," Mr. Graham, a close confidant of Mr. McCain's, told the crowd - and for good reason. At this point, Sen. John McCain's campaign message is almost entirely a response to gaffes from Mr. Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama.

Most of the ads the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee have announced in the past 10 days are based on Mr. Obama's "spread the wealth" comment to "Joe the Plumber" or Mr. Biden's guarantee that enemy nations will create a crisis early in an Obama administration.

Mr. McCain's stump speech is almost entirely a riff on those two comments, which he uses as a chance to counterpose his own tax plans and to promise that he's already been tested as a national security leader.

Late last week, he added to his speech an attack based on comments by Rep. Barney Frank, Massachusetts Democrat, suggesting taxes would have to be raised and defense should be cut by 25 percent.

"We should take him at his word," Mr. McCain says on the campaign trail.

The McCain campaign has been at a disadvantage, having to defend the candidate's quarter-century-long legislative record while trying to pin down the Democratic nominee, an eloquent speaker who has far fewer votes to examine.

The campaign rhetoric changed when Joe the Plumber became famous. Mr. Obama, whose campaign message had emphasized change from the past, turned his focus to how his plans will affect Americans' wealth in the future. Mr. Biden's comments had voters looking ahead on national security.

"Joe the Plumber kind of got us looking forward rather than backward and ever since then we've been doing better," Mr. Graham told reporters this weekend. "Those two comments allow us to look forward."

Mr. Graham, who was introducing Mr. McCain at campaign rallies this weekend, called the Democratic vice-presidential nominee "Joe the Biden" and labeled him "the gift that keeps on giving."