Today on the presidential campaign trail

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IN THE HEADLINES

Criticized for saying 'lipstick on a pig,' Obama accuses McCain camp of lies, phony outrage ... McCain equates earmarks with corruption ... Biden says McCain reprising 2000 Bush attacks in campaign against Obama ... Ron Paul rejects appeal to endorse McCain ... British Prime Minister Gordon Brown praises Obama

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Obama accuses McCain camp of lies, phony outrage

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Wednesday accused Republican John McCain's campaign of using "lies and phony outrage and Swift-boat politics" in claiming he used a sexist comment against vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Calling it "the latest made-up controversy by the John McCain campaign," Obama responded to the Republicans' charge that he was referring to Palin when he used the phrase "lipstick on a pig" at a campaign stop Tuesday.

"I don't care what they say about me. But I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and Swift-boat politics. Enough is enough," he said.

Obama's reference was to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an outside group that in 2004 made unsubstantiated allegations about Democratic nominee John Kerry's decorated military record in Vietnam.

In his initial comments Tuesday, Obama was delivering a dissertation about McCain and President Bush — not Palin — when he used the lipstick aphorism. In fact, his reference to the Alaska governor later on was a defense of her strong belief in religion.

The lipstick maxim is hardly new to either Obama or McCain. The Democrat has used it in the past, and McCain repeated the folksy metaphor when he criticized Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on health care. McCain was never accused of being sexist when he uttered those words.

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McCain and Palin castigate the earmarks she seeks

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Republican John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, on Wednesday equated lawmakers' requests for funding for special projects with corruption, even though Palin has requested nearly $200 million in so-called "earmarks" this year.

McCain blamed earmarks for high food and gasoline prices and the trouble many homeowners face in making mortgage payments. He vowed again to veto any bill that contains such funding.

"I got an old ink pen, my friends, and the first pork barrel-laden earmark, big-spending bill that comes across my desk, I will veto it. You will know their names. I will make them famous and we'll stop this corruption," McCain said during a rally at a park in suburban Washington, D.C.

Palin has sought $197 million worth of earmarks for 2009, down about 25 percent from the $256 million she sought in the 2008 budget year. As mayor of tiny Wasilla, Alaska, she hired a lobbyist to seek federal money for special projects. Wasilla obtained 14 earmarks, totaling $27 million, between 2000-2003, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hasn't asked for any earmarks this year. The Illinois senator sought $311 million in such funding last year. McCain, an Arizona senator, doesn't seek earmarks for his state.

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Biden says McCain reprising 2000 attacks

BOSTON (AP) — Joe Biden said Wednesday that Republican John McCain is aiming the same kind of attacks at Democratic nominee Barack Obama that Biden had defended McCain against during the 2000 White House race.

Addressing a fundraising audience of about 300, the Delaware senator recalled how then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush and his supporters in 2000 questioned McCain's commitment to his fellow Vietnam veterans and even suggested the Arizona senator was the father of an illegitimate child.

Biden said he supported Al Gore for president, but nonetheless called McCain during the campaign and said, "John, where do you want me? I'll go anywhere in the country and I'll stand before press conferences and I'll testify to your character. You just tell me."

"What really disappoints me is the very tactics used against him, they're trying to use against Barack Obama now," Biden said. "It's literally saddening. I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it. But I guess I should learn to expect everything."

Biden, Obama's vice presidential nominee, did not get into specifics, but a spokesman said he was referring to a new McCain ad suggesting the Illinois senator supported sex education for kindergartners, as well as a recent ad from a McCain fundraiser that linked Obama to 1960s radical William Ayers.

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Paul says he turned down appeal to endorse McCain

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning Texas lawmaker who attracted a devoted following in the GOP primaries, said Wednesday he rejected an appeal to endorse John McCain's presidential bid.

Paul said the request came from Phil Gramm, the former McCain adviser and ex-senator whom the campaign jettisoned after he said the country was a "nation of whiners" about the economy. Gramm defeated Paul in the Republican primary for the Senate in 1984.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference, Paul said Gramm called him this week and told him, "You need to endorse McCain." The Texas congressman said he refused.

"The idea was that he would do less harm than the other candidate," Paul said.

Paul won no primaries in the Republican nomination contest but developed a strong following on the Internet.

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Britain's Brown hails Obama; opposition cries foul

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Gordon Brown praised Democrat Barack Obama in a commentary published Wednesday, seemingly breaching protocols that prevent world leaders from endorsing candidates in foreign elections.

Brown hailed Obama's proposals for a mortgage foreclosure prevention fund and said he believed the Democratic Party is the organization offering policies to help people through the current economic woes.

"In the electrifying U.S. presidential campaign, it is the Democrats who are generating the ideas to help people through more difficult times," Brown wrote in Parliamentary Monitor magazine.

Brown's Labour Party is traditionally allied to Obama's Democrats — but under international conventions, foreign leaders refrain from intervening in ballots overseas.

The prime minister later denied he had breached protocol and said he was not endorsing anyone.

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DAILY TRACK

Republican John McCain has a 5-percentage-point lead over Democrat Barack Obama — 48 percent to Obama's 43 percent — among registered voters in the presidential race, according to the latest Gallup Poll daily tracking update.

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THE DEMOCRATS

Barack Obama discussed education in Norfolk, Va.., and appears on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" and addresses the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's annual awards dinner in Washington, D.C.

Joe Biden holds a town hall in Nashua, N.H.

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THE REPUBLICANS

John McCain and Sarah Palin campaigned in Fairfax, Va. Palin then attends a rally in Fairbanks, Alaska.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"I've been sleeping out of hotel rooms for two years now and I miss my kids." — Democrat Barack Obama, speaking to high school freshmen about running for president.

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STAT OF THE DAY:

Nearly six in 10 view Republican Sarah Palin favorably, and about a third say she was an excellent choice as the GOP's vice presidential nominee, according to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll.

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Compiled by Ann Sanner.

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