McCain, Obama unite for 9/11 memorial

SEPTEMBER 11, 2008
WASHINGTON - As Americans pause today to remember victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, it will become something else, a presidential campaign stop.

In a rare display of political unity in a tense election season, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain will visit Lower Manhattan to commemorate the seventh anniversary of an event that killed more than 2,700 people in New York and transformed American politics.

"All of us came together on 9/11 -- not as Democrats or Republicans -- but as Americans. In smoke-filled corridors and on the steps of the Capitol; at blood banks and at vigils -- we were united as one American family," Obama and McCain said in a joint statement.

But don't expect the bipartisan goodwill to last -- the stakes are simply too high.

Obama said on Wednesday there's nothing cheeky about accusations he directed a sexist slur against McCain's running mate by comparing GOP promises of political reform to putting "lipstick on a pig."

Facing Republican demands he apologize to Sarah Palin, Obama instead denounced McCain's campaign for using a "made-up controversy" to win favour among female voters.

The latest tempest to engulf the presidential campaign began Tuesday when Obama used a time-worn political put-down to denounce McCain's policies.

"John McCain says he's about change, too. Except, and so I guess his whole angle is, 'Watch out, George Bush, except for economic policy, health-care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy .... We're really gonna shake things up in Washington,' " Obama said. "That's not change. That's just calling the same thing, something different. But you know, you can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig."

McCain's campaign maintained Obama's was clearly aimed at Palin, the 44-year-old rookie governor and self-described "hockey mom," who captured headlines when she said the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull terrier was lipstick.