Today on the presidential campaign trail

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - IN THE HEADLINES

McCain to tour Colombian drug interdiction efforts, says illegal drugs a major challenge ... With Obama atop Dem ticket, candidates from Mississippi to Wisconsin use race as wedge issue ... GOP Sen. Cochran says McCain roughed up a Sandinista on diplomatic visit to Nicaragua in 1987 ... AP-Yahoo News poll: More would invite Obama than McCain to barbecue; Public cool to Michelle, doesn't know Cindy

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McCain to tour Colombian drug control efforts

CARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) — Republican John McCain planned to tour a Colombian port by boat Wednesday to get a firsthand look at the country's drug interdiction programs, a day after he praised President Alvaro Uribe for Colombia's anti-drug efforts but pressed him to improve the government's record on human rights.

The Republican presidential hopeful was on a three-day visit to Colombia and Mexico, where the eradication of illegal drugs topped the agenda.

"Drugs is a big, big problem in America. The continued flow of drugs from Colombia through Mexico into the United States is still one of our major challenges for all Americans," McCain told ABC's "Good Morning America" Wednesday in an interview from Cartagena.

McCain was also promoting free trade deals like NAFTA he said would benefit the U.S. economy over time, even though such agreements have been deeply unpopular in several general election swing states like Ohio and Michigan.

McCain acknowledged that the economy is a top concern for many voters, and said he is better prepared to deal with the economy than his Democratic rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

"I'm very strong on the economy," McCain said. "I understand it, I have a lot more experience than my opponent."

In December, McCain told reporters: "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should."

The Arizona senator was also meeting with cabinet ministers and business leaders. He was scheduled to depart Wednesday afternoon for Mexico City.

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US politicians find ways to play on racial fears

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A Republican congressional candidate in a majority-white Mississippi district runs ads trying to tie his Democratic rival with Barack Obama's former pastor, seen by some as an anti-white firebrand. Democrats distribute fliers accusing the Republican of wanting a statue to honor the founder of the Ku Klux Klan.

In the first year a major party is poised to choose a black nominee for president, American politicians are still appealing to voters' racial fears, with varying degrees of success.

"Racial fears and racial conflict are certainly not segregated to the South," said Michael Dawson, a University of Chicago political scientist who has studied race in politics. "Certainly, I think we see it in most parts of the country."

Republicans have a long — and often successful — history of trying to label local Democrats as national Democrats, even when the local candidate disagrees with the national party on some issues.

That happened a few weeks ago in special elections for open congressional seats in Mississippi and Louisiana, where the Democrats both ran as anti-abortion and pro-gun candidates — positions that put them at odds with their national party.

After both Democrats won, Republican campaign leaders immediately said they would re-evaluate their strategy because the tactic appeared to backfire by increasing black voter turnout for the Democrats.

Andra Gillespie, an Emory University political scientist, said candidates in the U.S. have long played to people's fears and biases, but they're now using more subtle methods than politicians did in the days of the Dixiecrats, the Southern segregationists who split from the Democratic Party in the mid-1960s.

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GOP senator: McCain roughed up Nicaraguan

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of John McCain's Republican colleagues says he saw the presumed GOP presidential nominee roughly grab an associate of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and lift him out of his chair during a diplomatic mission to the Central American nation in 1987.

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said he saw McCain, who has a reputation for being hot tempered, rough up an Ortega associate during a trip to Nicaragua led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.

"McCain was down at the end of the table and we were talking to the head of the guerrilla group here at this end of the table and I don't know what attracted my attention," Cochran said in an interview with the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. "But I saw some kind of quick movement at the bottom of the table and I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever ...

"I don't know what he was telling him but I thought, 'Good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission.' I don't know what had happened to provoke John, but he obviously got mad at the guy ... and he just reached over there and snatched ... him."

Cochran, who has complained about McCain's temper before, said only a handful of senators took part in the trip, including former Sen. Steve Symms of Idaho. He said he didn't know who the man McCain grabbed was except that he was an associate of Ortega.

The newspaper posted the audio of its interview on its Web site.

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Poll: Obama beats McCain as barbecue guest

WASHINGTON (AP) — People would rather barbecue burgers with Barack Obama than with John McCain.

While many are still deciding who should be president, by 52 percent to 45 percent they would prefer having Obama than McCain to their summer cookout, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Wednesday.

Men are about evenly divided between the two while women prefer Obama by 11 percentage points. Whites prefer McCain, minorities Obama. And Obama is a more popular guest with younger voters while McCain does best with the oldest.

Having Obama to a barbecue would be like a relaxed family gathering, while inviting McCain "would be more like a retirement party than something fun," said Wesley Welbourne, 38, a systems engineer from Washington, D.C.

One in six people saying they'd vote for McCain prefer Obama as their barbecue guest; just one in 20 Obama backers would invite McCain.

The AP-Yahoo News survey of 1,759 adults was conducted online by Knowledge Networks from June 13-23 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for subgroups was larger.

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Poll: Public cool to Michelle, doesn't know Cindy

WASHINGTON (AP) — The public hasn't taken to Michelle Obama yet, especially whites. And it's got a question about Cindy McCain: Who is she?

People are divided over whether they like the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, with 30 percent seeing her favorably and 35 percent unfavorably, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Wednesday.

They tilt positively toward the spouse of Republican hopeful John McCain, by 27 percent to 17 percent.

In other words: While the two women are about equally liked, Michelle Obama is twice as disliked as Cindy McCain.

Michelle Obama does better with unmarried people and college graduates but is viewed poorly by people age 65 and up. Cindy McCain is seen more favorably by older people, those who are married and the more affluent, but she is less well-received by singles.

Cindy McCain is also more of a mystery. Nearly six in 10, or 56 percent, said they know too little to say much about her — exceeding the 34 percent clueless about Michelle Obama. Half of Republicans say they don't know Cindy McCain, while three in 10 Democrats say that about Michelle Obama.

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THE DEMOCRATS

Barack Obama campaigns in Colorado Springs, Colo.

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THE REPUBLICANS

John McCain holds an informal news conference in Cartagena, Colombia.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Mitt Romney is a great person and he's done a great job for us and we're really pleased at the cooperation and help that he's given us and he won millions of Republican votes so there will be a big place for him in the Republican party in the future, but obviously we're not talking about specific candidates." — John McCain on Romney as a potential running mate.

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STAT OF THE DAY:

Hillary Rodham Clinton, who bowed out of the Democratic contest on June 7, had $3.4 million cash on hand left for primary spending, according to her May fundraising reports. She also had more than $23 million for the general election, money her campaign cannot use.

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Compiled by Jesse J. Holland and Joan Lowy.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080702/ap_on_el_pr/2008_race_rundown [link]