McCain, Obama visit N.C.


John McCain praised Joe the Plumber. Barack Obama decried his opponent's attacks.

At a rally in Concord, the Republican presidential candidate told 7,000 enthusiastic supporters that an Ohio plumber was the real winner of the debate.

"Joe won, because he's the only person to get a real answer out of Sen. Obama about his plans for our country," he said.

The 30-minute speech was interrupted by chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A!" (Char-O)

At a rally in Fayetteville Sunday, Obama warned voters not to be "hoodwinked" by a series of Republican charges in the final weeks of the campaign.

He said Republicans were assailing his character and leveling baseless charges of socialism in speeches, robocalls and campaign fliers.

"Senator McCain's campaign actually said a couple of weeks ago that they were going to launch a series of attacks on my character," he said.

He spoke to more than 10,000 people at Crown Coliseum. (N&O

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