McCain in ABQ: Don’t count me out

John McCain stumping for votes this morning at a rally at the state fairground in Albuquerque. (Photo by David Alire Garcia)

ALBUQUERQUE –- John McCain won’t give up.

Forget the pundits. Forget the pollsters. Forget the insiders.

I’ve come from behind before.

That was the heart of a speech McCain gave Saturday to a crowd that half filled a courtyard in the Spanish Village section of the New Mexico state fairgrounds.

The rally was McCain’s sixth visit to New Mexico and represented the Arizona senator’s last-ditch effort to keep Democrat Barack Obama from wrestling the Land of Enchantment out of the R column and notching a D on it. Several polls, national as well as for battleground states, including New Mexico, show Obama leading McCain.

But for those who think John McCain is ready to accept second place in a two-man race for the White House, the Republican had a ready retort Saturday.

“The pundits of course, as they have four or five times … have written us off,” McCain said to the more than 1,000 people gathered. “Senator Obama is measuring the drapes, planning with Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi and Senator (Harry) Reid.”

Boos wafted up from the crowd at the mention of the two names.

“You know what, my friends, they’ve forgotten one thing,” McCain said as he approached the money line. “They have forgotten to let you decide. We got them just where we want them. We love being the underdog.”

The line killed. Wild cheers reverberated across the courtyard.

With 10 days to go in the 2008 election, the man given up for dead in the Republican presidential nominating process less than a year ago must overcome the odds and a difficult electoral map to pull off one more resurrection and beat Obama in his quest to win the White House.

The question is whether he and his supporters have it in them. While the answer is unclear, signs of the difficulties ahead were seemingly everywhere at Saturday’s rally.

The crowd of 1,200 or so, as measured by one Republican official, was much smaller than the 3,000 or so officials originally anticipated. The crowd hugged the stage and barely filled bleachers behind the speaking podium. Attendees appeared subdued before McCain’s arrival, not what one would expect in the homestretch of a closely contested presidential election. 

McCain wasn’t the only Republican official to allude to challenge ahead.

“This election has become a joke when it comes to money.  Don’t let Barack Obama buy New Mexico,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., exhorted the crowd.

Graham, who appeared with McCain and his wife, Cindy, was referring to Obama’s substantial monetary advantage that has allowed the Democrat to go on the offense in traditionally conservative areas, including southern New Mexico. Obama, who reneged on his promise to accept public financing earlier this year, collected $150 million in the month of September alone.

 Darren White, the Republican 1^st Congressional District candidate, also acknowledged the uphill battle.

“We’ve got some work to do,” said the Bernalillo County sheriff in a speech that preceded McCain’s arrival. White is himself in a tough fight with Democrat Martin Heinrich in a traditionally Republican-held congressional district.

Make phone calls, talk to your friends and “drag them to the polls,” White told the crowd.

“When in the world do Republicans ever quit,” White asked, then reminded the crowd that U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson, R-Albuquerque, had pulled off some come-from-behind victories to fend off Democratic challengers over the years.

McCain, for his part, acknowledged the difficulties, but never gave the impression that he was ready to give up. He launched into a stump speech that by now is familiar to cable news watchers or Internet-obsessed news junkies.

He played up his bona fides as a change agent, promising to “bring real change to Washington.” And he made sure to remind his listeners, and the media, that he is a Westerner and grasps the issues particular to the region –  land, water, Native American and border issues.

Obama’s tax plan also came in for a thorough whacking. “Senator Obama said he wants to soak the rich but it’s the middle class that will be put through the wringer,” McCain said.

The Republican also made sure to mention that he had been tested throughout his life, an allusion to his five years as a prisoner of war, and his ups and downs as an elected official in Washington. “They may want to test Sen. Obama. I am going to test them,” McCain said of other world leaders as well as terrorists.

Making an impression

For Allyson Dennis of Washington state, McCain’s words were soothing.

Dennis recently drove 26 hours from her home state to work for the McCain campaign in New Mexico during the last two weeks of the campaign.

Tears streaming down her face, Dennis said she had hoped to shake McCain’s hand but McCain had hugged and kissed her.

“It sounds silly, but I am beside myself,” she said. “He is such a beautiful person. He has given his blood for this nation.”

McCain has been tried more than most Americans have and he never wavered, Dennis said.

“To me Senator Obama is in this race totally for himself,” Dennis said. “I am terrified when I hear him referred to as the second Messiah. His people … they laugh about it. I am a Christian woman and I believe that God will not be mocked.”

Jared Robinson also had strong sentiments about Obama. Robinson, clad in a white shirt with ‘Plumbers for McCain stenciled in blue, said much was at stake in this election.

“The patriotic side of our nation is at stake,” Robinson said. “If Obama gets in office some of our patriotism is lost. I don’t think he’s patriotic and I don’t think the people who support him are patriotic.”