Republican presidential candidate John McCain is scheduled to speak soon at rally on the University of Northern Iowa Campus. Earlier this morning, McCain went to a Waterloo TV studio to record the Sunday morning NBC program "Meet the Press."
"We’re doing fine. We have closed in the last week. If we continue this close here in the next week, you’re going to be up very, very late on Election Night," McCain said. "We are very competitive in many of the battleground states."
A poll of likely Iowa voters released this weekend by the Lee Enterprises newspapers found Obama holding a double-digit lead over McCain in Iowa. McCain said he does not agree with the conclusions reached in many of the polls that are bandied about. "We’re going to do well in this campaign, my friend," McCain said to "Meet the Press" host Tom Brokaw. "We’re going to win it and it’s going to be tight."
McCain also defended his running mate, Sarah Palin, from criticism over the $150,000 spent on campaign trail attire, accessories and make-up for Palin and her family. "She lives a frugal life. She and her family are not wealthy," McCain said on NBC. "She and her family were thrust into this and…some third of that money is given back. The rest will be donated to charity."
McCain called Palin a "role model" for millions of Americans and he seemed to dismiss rumblings of a rift between allies of McCain and Palin. "I’m so proud of the way she ignites the crowds," McCain said. "The way that she has conducted herself is, in my view, incredibly admirable."
Palin herself made reference to the clothing controversy during a rally Saturday in Sioux City. "It was nice and crisp getting off the airplane…it reminded me a lot of Alaska, so I put my warm jacket on. And it is my own jacket," Palin said at a rally at Sioux City West High School. "It doesn’t belong to anybody else."