WASHINGTON, Pa. — John McCain voiced concern for Gulf Coast residents fleeing the path of Hurricane Gustav on Saturday even as he reintroduced running mate Sarah Palin to a raucous crowd in a key battleground state.
“I would like, obviously, to keep in our thoughts and prayers the people on the Gulf Coast, especially in New Orleans, that are threatened by this terrible natural disaster of a hurricane,” McCain said, recalling the devastation New Orleans suffered from Hurricane Katrina three years ago.
The Arizona senator appeared on stage with Palin at a baseball park rally under a hot sun outside Pittsburgh. To shouts of “Sa-rah! Sa-rah!” the Alaska governor thanked the crowd for the warm welcome.
“And it is warm! Not something I’m really used to,” Palin said, laughing.
McCain aides say that the campaign has brought in $7 million online since Palin’s selection was announced Friday and that her strong anti-abortion credentials have helped energize conservatives, especially conservative women.
But the Palin rollout threatened to be overshadowed by Gustav, with the storm likely to change the course of the Republican convention scheduled to open Monday in St. Paul, Minn.
Gulf state governors could decide to remain at home if the storm threatens to bring serious damage. It could also affect the opening-night address by President Bush.
McCain and Palin made a stop at Tom’s Diner in Pittsburgh’s Southside neighborhood. The running mates, with spouses in tow, posed for pictures. Palin’s daughters Willow and Piper were on hand, with Willow carrying Palin’s 4-month-old son, Trig.
Palin said she was having fun. “It’s great to see another part of the country,” she said.
Palin also issued her first fundraising appeal, saying in an e-mail, “Some of life’s greatest opportunities come unexpectedly, and this is certainly the case for me.”
A day after his selection of Palin, McCain planned to work part of the day on his convention acceptance speech.
The Democratic team of Barack Obama and Joe Biden began their day with a diner stop in the Youngstown, Ohio, suburb of Boardman as they continued their post-Democratic convention bus tour of Rust Belt battleground states.
Obama said in a television interview that he had wished Palin luck “but not too much luck on the campaign trail” in a congratulatory phone call Friday.
He told CBS’s “60 Minutes” he had yet to meet Palin but “she seems to have a compelling life story. Obviously, she’s a fine mother and an up-and-coming public servant.”
Of his own choice for a ticket-mate, Obama said Biden “can step in and become president. And I don’t think anybody has any doubt about that.”
He also said he wanted the “counsel and advice of somebody who’s not going to agree with me 100 percent of the time.”
The Delaware senator, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has a reputation for outspokenness. “Joe Biden doesn’t bite his tongue,” Obama said in the interview, taped Friday in Pittsburgh.
As Republicans began to gather in St. Paul, a new Obama ad that began airing nationally on cable television on Saturday acknowledged McCain’s selection of Palin — but in images and words that left no doubt that Obama still wants the public to judge McCain by the policies of Bush.
“Well, he’s made his choice,” the ad states, “But for the rest of us, there’s still no change.”
During their diner stop, Obama and Biden and their wives chatted with patrons and told reporters they hoped the lessons of Katrina would help the Gulf Coast this time.
“Just pray to God that those levees hold,” Biden said.
