McCain scoffs at Obama for taking victory lap

By Steve Holland

MESILLA, New Mexico (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee John McCain, trailing in the polls, accused Democrat Barack Obama of already taking a "victory lap" by allowing an inaugural address to be drafted for him -- a charge disputed by the Obama camp.

McCain, struggling to defend New Mexico and other Western states that in the past have mostly voted Republican from going to Obama on November 4, seized on a report that former President Bill Clinton's one time chief of staff, John Podesta, had already written a draft inaugural address for Obama.

"What America needs now is somebody who will finish the race before starting a victory lap," McCain told an enthusiastic crowd in a town square in southern New Mexico.

Obama holds a commanding lead in national opinion polls and is ahead in several key battleground states that McCain needs to win. At a rally in Reno, Nevada, Obama hammered McCain as little different than President George W. Bush

McCain compared himself to Harry Truman, the Democratic president who defied the odds to defeat Thomas Dewey in 1948, a victory that came so late that a Chicago newspaper had already printed headlines of Dewey's victory.

"Well, my friends, when I pull this thing off I have a request for my opponent. I want him to save that manuscript of his inaugural address and donate it to the Smithsonian and put it right next to the Chicago paper that said 'Dewey defeats Truman," McCain said.

The Obama campaign said McCain's charge was "completely false." A campaign official said by email: "The 'address' is from a book John Podesta wrote before Obama was the nominee. It's not a sample address for Obama. It's a sample address he wrote for whoever became the nominee."

OBAMA CAMPAIGNING IN THE WEST