McCain campaigns hard in German Village

COLUMBUS (AP) — Republican presidential candidate John McCain had his own German experience Thursday — at a restaurant in Ohio. He asserted that he was happy to devote his time this week to touring the nation’s heartland.

“I’d love to give a speech in Germany. But I’d much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for president,” McCain told reporters after a meal of bratwurst with local business leaders at Schmidt’s Sausage Haus und Restaurant in Columbus’ German Village neighborhood.

As Barack Obama delivered a high-profile speech in Berlin, McCain said he was focusing his attention this week on economic issues, including soaring food and fuel costs. He has been busy campaigning and raising funds in key battleground states such as Ohio.

In what was clearly not a coincidence, McCain spoke with reporters shortly before Obama began his speech at Berlin’s Victory Column.

At the same time, the Republican National Committee was running anti-Obama ads in Berlin, Pa., and other namesake villages in Wisconsin and New Hampshire.

McCain is trying hard to get attention during Obama’s week abroad. He had planned to visit an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, but rough seas left over from Hurricane Dolly caused him to scrub that trip. He was to appear with famed cyclist Lance Armstrong later Thursday at a town-hall meeting here that is focused on cancer. And today, he’ll meet with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, in Aspen, Colo.

He said he regretted not being able to make the trip to the drilling rig, a visit intended to emphasize his support for lifting of the ban on offshore drilling. President Bush earlier this month rescinded an executive order reinforcing the congressional ban, but Congress must act as well for the moratorium on Outer Continental Shelf drilling to be abolished.

“I’m sorry Congress is gridlocked again on offshore drilling,” McCain said. “When I’m president, we’ll all sit down together and work this out.”

On Europe, where Obama has been meeting with leaders, McCain said cultivating good relations with a new generation of European leaders was important. “A lot of these leaders are a lot more pro-American than their predecessors were,” he said.