Obama Cuts Down Events, but Not Attack ELECTIONS 2008
By: By Jeff Zeleny and Monica Davey (in Alaska)

International Herald Tribune

With Hurricane Ike cutting a savage path through Texas, Senator Barack Obama canceled plans to appear on the season premiere of "Saturday Night Live" and asked voters to consider the "quiet storms" taking place in the lives of many Americans as they weigh their choice in the presidential race.

After Obama asked supporters to send prayers and donations to victims of the Gulf Coast storm, he aggressively attacked his Republican rivals and argued that Senator John McCain would do little to improve the nation's economic condition. Although he pared back his campaigning because of the hurricane, his criticism of McCain reflected the new urgency of the contest.

"John McCain doesn't get it," Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, said Saturday at a large rally in a Manchester park. "He doesn't know what's going on in your lives. He is out of touch with the American people."

McCain, the Republican nominee, took a day away from campaigning Saturday, but his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin, held a rally in Anchorage, Alaska, before setting off for Carson City, Nevada, and her first campaign swing without him.

Before a large, raucous crowd in a pavilion in Nevada on Saturday evening, Palin called on Americans to "pull together" and to offer help to those affected by the storm. "Today and in the days ahead," she said, "the American heart will be on display."

Palin and McCain are expected to resume their joint appearances after he attends a Nascar race on Sunday.

A day after Palin sat down for her first national television interviews since being named the Republican vice-presidential candidate, she barely mentioned the opposing ticket, focusing instead on what she described as her and McCain's records as mavericks. "We're going to Washington, D.C., to shake things up," she said, to approving screams from the crowd. She also conveyed a broad, upbeat message, one that some members of the audience later said appealed to their sense of optimism and to their wish that politics not be quite so mean.

"America is an exceptional country," Palin said, "and you are all exceptional Americans."

In Alaska, along with what has become her stump speech - a slight variation from her address at the Republican convention - Palin lavished affection on her home state and promised to carry its message to the rest of the country. "I pledge to do my level best," she said, "and to be worthy of the confidence that this beautiful state has put in me."

Though she has her critics at home, Palin cheerily offered a reminder of the state's sparse population. "You know, thank you, God, for that," Palin said. "We're small enough to be family. And we can look past some political differences to work as a family."

While the hurricane provided another diversion from the presidential race, the rivals continued to raise the intensity of their exchanges in dueling television advertisements. Senator Joseph Biden Jr., the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, was planning to introduce a new line of criticism on Saturday, but aides said he canceled his appearance to keep the partisan attacks at bay.

Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for McCain, criticized Obama for leveling partisan critiques in a campaign rally as millions of residents along the Gulf Coast were battling the storm.

"It says a lot about Barack Obama's judgment that while his campaign canceled his appearance on 'Saturday Night Live' and his running mate stayed home, Obama went ahead and delivered a series of scathing personal attacks," Bounds said. "Today's attacks mark a new low from Barack Obama."

At his rally in New Hampshire, Obama said the McCain-Palin ticket would be an extension of President George W. Bush's eight years in office. He seized on a line from the Republican convention as an example of how, he said, the Republican ticket would not offer a new direction on energy policy.

"When you see at the Republican convention everyone shouting 'drill, baby, drill,' that's not a slogan for a 21st-century America," Obama said. "We are going to create a new energy policy that actually leads us into the 21st century and creates thousands of new jobs."

In Anchorage, Palin said that a McCain-Palin administration would press for more energy exploration, to which the crowd began chanting, "Drill, baby, drill!" A similar cheer went up several times in the crowd in Nevada, to which Palin answered: "You're right! You are right! Drill, baby, drill!"

Obama flew back to Chicago after his appearance in New Hampshire, scrapping his plan to appear alongside the swimmer Michael Phelps on "Saturday Night Live." His aides said it would be inappropriate to be making jokes in the wake of the hurricane.

Obama is scheduled to resume his campaigning Monday as he begins a swing through Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

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