October 31, 2008	Friday	Ziqa'ad 1, 1429

WASHINGTON, Oct 30: Democrat Barack Obama took to the airwaves with a half-hour paid television appeal on Wednesday in an effort to lock in his lead in the polls just six days before a presidential election that could alter the US political landscape.

The programme, running on several major television networks simultaneously, was an extraordinary last-minute effort to win over undecided voters, made possible by his huge financial advantage over Republican John McCain.

McCain derided the event as a “gauzy, feel-good commercial”, paid for with broken promises.

He appeared as a guest on CNN’s “Larry King Live” after charging earlier that Obama lacks “what it takes to protect America from terrorists”.

In Obama’s broadcast, the candidate was shown addressing large crowds on issues including health care, education and jobs, interspersed with the story of struggling American families, and interviews with Obama’s family and colleagues.

Obama talked about how his mother died young of cancer. “I know what it’s like to see a loved one suffer, not just because they are sick, but because of a broken health care system.” He also pledged to protect the US while seeking to wind down the war in Iraq.

“I will not be a perfect president,” Obama said. “But I can promise you this — I will always tell you what I think and where I stand.”

As the commercial ended, it cut to live shots of an Obama rally in Florida, where the candidate was shown with his running mate, vice presidential candidate Joe Biden.

McCain dismissed the Obama broadcast as a “TV special”.

“As with other infomercials, he’s got something to sell you,” McCain said in West Palm Beach, Florida. “He’s offering you government-run health care.”

BILL CLINTON: After Obama’s broadcast, the candidate made his first joint campaign appearance with former president Bill Clinton, a fellow Democrat.

At the rally in Kissimmee, Florida, Clinton declared: “Folks, we can’t fool with this. Our country is hanging in the balance. And we have so much promise and so much peril. This man should be our president.”

“Barack Obama represents America’s future, and you’ve got to be there for him next Tuesday,” Clinton said to the cheers of a partisan crowd.

The broadcasts came as a new Associated Press-Gfk poll shows Obama well-positioned to dominate the state-by-state races that will decide the presidency.

With Obama poised to win all the traditionally Democratic states, the poll shows him leading McCain in four solidly Republican states — Ohio, Nevada, Colorado and Virginia. The candidates are tied in two others, North Carolina and Florida.

The poll numbers apparently reflect Obama’s decision to pour money and effort into states that in previous elections could be relied on to back McCain.

In addition, Democrats are dominating early voting in six key states that President George Bush won four years ago, forcing McCain to play catch-up even before election day.

Democrats outnumber Republicans among early voters in Iowa, North Carolina, Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, according to statistics from election and party officials in those states. Bush won all six in 2004, and McCain needs to win most of them to claim the White House this year.

Georgia, another usually Republican state, doesn’t track early voters by party, but it does by race.

About 1.4m Georgians have already cast ballots, and blacks are voting in disproportionately large numbers. Black voters overwhelmingly support Obama, who is bidding to become the nation’s first black president.

The beleaguered Republican, meanwhile, has been forced to commit his limited time and resources to shoring up his support in these traditional party strongholds.—AP

The AP-GfK polls show Obama winning among early voters, favoured on almost every issue and benefiting from the country’s sour mood.

McCain faces a tight race even in his home state of Arizona, where the Cronkite-Eight poll showed him statistically tied with Obama. McCain led by only 46 to 44 percent, within the poll’s margin of error of three percentage points.

“If you believe in miracles,” said Republican consultant Joe Gaylord of Arlington, Virginia, “you still believe in McCain.”

Republicans control the White House, and the McCain campaign has struggled to distance itself from President Bush — whose popularity has evaporated as the public has grown weary of war abroad and fearful of economic turmoil at home.—AP

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, McCain’s vice presidential candidate, has called for a “clean break” from the Bush administration’s energy policies, which she said relied too much on imported oil.—AP

Palin also suggested that she will not disappear from the national political scene if she and McCain lose on Tuesday. “Absolutely not. ... I’m not doing this for naught,” Palin said in an interview with ABC News, according to excerpts released by the television network.

In recent days, the McCain campaign has accused Obama of aspiring to be the “redistributionist-in-chief” by advocating steeper taxes for couples making more than $250,000.

Other Republicans have called Obama a socialist.

Obama told a crowd in North Carolina he expected the Republicans soon to accuse him of being “a secret Communist” because he shared his toys as a child.

Obama leads in just about every national poll, but aides to McCain, a four-term Arizona senator, insist their internal surveys show victory is still within reach.

A reversal of fortune cannot be ruled out for the Republican. The mood of the electorate has shifted radically in the course of the campaign.

McCain was written off by experts early in the campaign last year, and Obama seemed poised for victory in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary just before Hillary Rodham Clinton charged to victory there.—AP