maverick

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama at a Concord rally: Photo Credit: PolitickerNH.com

CONCORD--U.S. Sen. Barack Obama used a rally in New Hampshire to connect his rival to President George W. Bush.

Obama said that U.S. Sen. John McCain has voted with Bush ninety percent of the time and would be unable to deliver change to Washington.

MINNEAPOLIS--New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley issued a statement on the last night of the Republican National Convention arguing that U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is not the type of maverick McCain says he is.

"Sen. John McCain cannot run from his record," Buckley said in a statement. "He certainly has not been a maverick during the last eight years when it came to supporting the failed policies of the Bush administration. He has marched in lock step with George Bush as he has erased the budget surplus, led us into a costly and unnecessary war, and demonstrated a complete misunderstanding of the economic realities faced by middle class families."

Not sure if John McCain's ad is up yet here, but I suspect we'll see it a lot in the coming weeks. Here's the script:

ANNCR: Washington's broken. John McCain knows it. We're worse off than we were four years ago.

Only McCain has taken on big tobacco, drug companies, fought corruption in both parties. He'll reform Wall Street, battle Big Oil, make America prosper again.

He's the original maverick.

One is ready to lead -- McCain.

Populist stuff like this makes establishment Republicans a little queasy (Take on big tobacco and drug companies? Reform Wall Street? Battle Big Oil?), but this sort of ad could be a winner among independent voters.