... For just about every Republican urging McCain to focus relentlessly on the economy, there was another who said McCain should continue questioning Obama's character by citing his association with William Ayers, a Vietnam-era radical. Some said the GOP nominee needed to do both, and also bring up the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Obama's controversial former pastor; others called that a mistake and said that a mix of messages was part of McCain's problem ...
He spent several days last week criticizing Obama's relationship with Ayers (though he never brought up the matter in last Tuesday night's debate). McCain then abruptly halted the criticism and even defended his Democratic rival when some of his own supporters responded with slurs.
Campaigning Monday in Virginia and North Carolina, states Republicans once took for granted, McCain made no mention of Ayers at his rallies and largely avoided the character questions he had raised previously. Instead, he returned to the promise of change -- a major theme of last month's successful GOP convention -- and distanced himself not so subtly from the Bush administration.
"We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight," McCain told a boisterous crowd of about 12,000 supporters in Virginia Beach. "The hour is late. Our troubles are getting worse. Our enemies watch. We have to act immediately. We have to change direction now" ...
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-mccain14-2008oct14,0,4862444.story
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