Colleagues criticize McCain

October 25, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

Ex-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge criticized McCain’s selection of Palin.

DENVER (AP) — Frustrated Republicans voiced concern with their own presidential candidate, John McCain, on Friday as he sought one more comeback in a career full of them. He warned that the middle class will “get put through the wringer” if Barack Obama wins the White House.

Obama, ahead in the polls, took a day off from campaigning to visit his critically ill grandmother in Hawaii. But two Republicans popped up to darken McCain’s day.

“I would have done things differently the last few weeks,” Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Noting that Obama has outspent the Republican on television advertising in the state, he added, “I think McCain’s economic and health-care plans should have been more vigorously defended, and unfortunately Obama has been able to incorrectly define McCain’s plans and ideas.”

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge expressed a different concern to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Ridge said the race would have been different in his state if McCain had chosen him as running mate instead of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

“I think we’d be foolish not to admit it publicly,” he said.

Ridge later released a written statement saying his remarks had been taken out of context and that he had often praised Palin. With 11 days remaining before Election Day, Republican aides described an endgame strategy that relies on television advertising and personal campaigning to raise doubts about Obama’s tax proposals on one hand and his readiness to handle a crisis on the other.

A new television commercial, unveiled during the day, cites Democratic running mate Joe Biden’s prediction that “it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama. ... We’re going to have an international crisis.”

But, the announcer says, “It doesn’t have to happen. Vote McCain.”

McCain assailed his rival’s economic proposals as he campaigned in three Colorado communities during the day.

Palin campaigned in Pennsylvania during the day, where she pledged that she and McCain would provide full federal funding for a program that benefits children with special needs.