Republican presidential candidate John McCain, speaking Friday evening in Durango, sought to tie Democrat Barack Obama to higher taxes and a desire to “spread the wealth around.”
McCain’s speech, before an estimated 6,000 people at the Durango High School football field, repeatedly returned to the charge that Obama would raise taxes.
“Sen. Obama is more interested in controlling wealth than creating wealth,” McCain said.
Drawing perhaps the loudest applause of the night, McCain said he would cut capital gains and business taxes and “keep American jobs in America.” The line led the crowd to chant “U-S-A!”
McCain said he needed to win Colorado, a state with nine electoral votes that backed President Bush in 2004. Recent polls show Obama with an approximately five-point lead. Only 10 days remain until the Nov. 4 election, and early voting has been under way since Monday.
McCain has tried to close the gap with a populist economic message. He mentioned “Joe the Plumber,” an Ohio man who shot to fame when he confronted Obama about his tax plans. McCain exploited the theme in Durango, reading signs in the audience, “Joe the florist,” “Joe the carpenter,” “Lindsey the Realtor,” and “Darren the cabinet-maker.”
Matt Chandler, a Colorado spokesman for the Obama campaign, said the Democrat would cut taxes for 2.3 million middle-class taxpayers in Colorado.
“For the last eight years, we’ve tried it John McCain’s way,” Chandler said in an e-mail. “It hasn’t worked. It’s time to grow this economy from the bottom up. It’s time to invest in the middle class again.”
The crowd inside the rally was as enthusiastic as the protesters outside. McCain supporters waved dozens of signs with the campaign slogan “Country First,” and others thrust blue-and-red pompoms into the air.
But to get to Durango High, McCain’s motorcade drove by long stretches of Obama supporters on Main Avenue.
Cindy McCain, introducing her husband, said he had “served his country in many different ways.” She added that the McCain family and that of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin have three young men serving in the military.
Longtime McCain ally U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., addressed the crowd, saying, “John McCain does all the things that Barack Obama talks about.”
Most in the crowd seemed already sold on the McCain-Palin ticket. One was Robert Whitt, who lives east of Durango and wore a National Rifle Association jacket to the rally. “I don’t want communism,” he said. “If Obama wins this election, they’ve won a big victory.”
Whitt said McCain respected the flag. “He’s a godly man, he’s a patriot, he’s an American.”
About 6,000 attended the rally, with 1,000-2,000 more left outside, said Durango police Capt. Micki Browning, citing the Secret Service.
Reporters were not given the opportunity to ask McCain questions, and plans for local leaders to introduce him were nixed.
Some attendees wore Obama buttons and T-shirts. One, Delia Bolster, a Durango High senior, said it was important “to see both sides.”
The last major-party candidate to visit Durango was John F. Kennedy, who addressed the state Democratic assembly on June 18, 1960. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader spoke at Fort Lewis College in September 2000.
McCain campaigned in Denver and Colorado Springs on Friday before coming to Durango. He was scheduled to appear in Albuquerque and Las Cruces, N.M., today.
McCain this week cut back his spending on TV ads in Colorado to about $63,000 a day from about $83,000 a day last week. But the Republican National Committee stepped in with independent ads at a rate of about $36,000 a day, more than making up the difference, according to data from TNS/CMAG, a firm that tracks political advertising.
Obama is still outspending the combined McCain-RNC effort with a rate of about $120,000 a day in the state, according to TNS/CMAG.
chuck@durangoherald.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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