ARLINGTON, Virginia (AFP) — Republicans Sunday pushed back against charges that John McCain's campaign had been sowing "hatred" against Barack Obama, as they struggled to put their White House bid back on track.
Just over three weeks until the November 4 elections, Republican presidential nominee McCain reacted furiously at the accusations leveled against him by 1960s civil rights icon John Lewis.
The latest political turbulence came as Obama, 47, builds a steady lead over McCain, 72, on the national level, and on the state-by-state electoral map.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, on CBS television's "Face the Nation," said: "The idea that John McCain and Sarah Palin are conducting themselves like George Wallace is just incredibly offensive."
He added: "We are not going to take this. We are going to challenge Senator Obama's record versus his rhetoric."
Lewis, revered as one of the key figures in the 1960s US civil rights movement, ignited a political firestorm by issuing a statement about McCain's recent searing character attacks on Obama.
Republicans "are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse," Lewis said.
He also appeared to suggest attacks on Obama were reminiscent of late segregationist Alabama governor and presidential candidate George Wallace, whose rhetoric in 1963 was blamed for a church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four little girls.
But McCain said Lewis had launched a "character attack against Governor Sarah Palin and me that is shocking and beyond the pale."
He said Lewis' apparent reference to Wallace was "unacceptable and has no place in this campaign."
"Where was John McCain when George Wallace was spreading his hate and segregationist policies at that time?" asked McCain spokesman Rick Davis on Fox News Sunday.
"He was in a Vietnam prison camp serving his country with his civil rights also denied."
Later, Lewis issued a second statement in an apparent attempt to defuse the row, saying he had not meant to draw a link between Wallace and McCain.
"My statement was a reminder to all Americans that toxic language can lead to destructive behavior. I am glad that Senator McCain has taken some steps to correct divisive speech at his rallies," he said.
New Gallup tracking figures Sunday showed that Obama's lead over McCain had narrowed to seven percentage points at the end of the past week.
Based on polling from Thursday through Saturday, Gallup put the Illinois senator at 50 percent to 43 precent for his rival.
With his campaign on a roll, Democratic heavy hitters Bill and Hillary Clinton appeared at their first joint rally for Obama in Scranton, Pennsylvania alongside vice presidential candidate Joseph Biden.
Bill Clinton, the former president, said he was later traveling to Virginia to stump for Obama.
The New York Times reported Sunday that Republican leaders are worried that McCain is heading for defeat unless he brings stability to his campaign and settled on a clear message.
"You're starting to feel real frustration because we are running out of time. Our message, the campaign's message, isn't connecting," Saul Anuzis, the Republican chairman in Michigan, was quoted as saying.
But Republican Congressman Adam Putnam, speaking on CBS's Face The Nation said the Arizona senator could still pull ahead in the race.
"Obama has had a good couple of weeks and has opened up a small lead, but we have a long way to go. And I think John McCain is going to retake that momentum with this upcoming debate," he said.
McCain Sunday visited his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, a battleground state near Washington. He then returned to his nearby home to prepare for the third and final presidential debate with Obama on Wednesday at Hofstra University in New York state.
Obama was in Toledo, Ohio, also readying himself for the debate. Campaign spokesman Bill Burton said the Illinois senator did not believe in the comparison between McCain and Wallace.
But he said Lewis "was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked."
Chants of "terrorist" and "kill him" were reportedly heard at recent McCain events and some commentators blamed hard-hitting negative advertisements which claimed Obama consorted with a domestic "terrorist" -- 1960s radical William Ayers.
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