McCain, Obama Vie For 'Reformist' Mantle

"When they're talking about reform today, they're talking about spending -- cutting spending, cutting earmarks, cutting the corruption," said David A. Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, who battled McCain on campaign finance reform, immigration and taxes. "It's not inside-the-beltway process reforms that John McCain has been associated with in the past. That is a very different meaning than what those of us sitting around Washington heard two or three years ago."

In the vacuum of details from the McCain campaign, Obama and his spokesmen and surrogates have rushed in, trying to prevent the reformist label from sticking to the McCain-Palin ticket.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), a prominent Obama ally, questioned Palin's stated goal of battling earmarks when as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, she hired a Washington lobbyist to secure millions of federal dollars for pet projects.

"I don't know any mayor in small towns in Kansas that hires a lobbyist and goes after earmarks," Sebelius said. "That isn't a reform strategy. That's an inside-Washington strategy."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said that would be only an opening salvo.

"If your case that you're a reformer is based on a complete fabrication, we're going to make sure the American people know the truth," he said.

Weaver said McCain should start adding meat to the reformer bone and remind voters of his efforts to push special interest money out of campaigns. Obama's decision to opt out of public campaign financing gave McCain an avenue to draw sharper distinctions over campaign finance reform, Weaver said, yet he has not taken it.

Conservatives think they know why. Keene said the campaign finance law that McCain championed "whips up about as much excitement as navel lint," but infuriated such groups as the National Right to Life Committee and the National Rifle Association, which saw it as a way to diminish their influence. McCain now needs their backing, Keene said. With his selection of a rock-ribbed conservative as his running mate and his hands-off attitude toward the Republican platform, McCain signaled that his notion of reform has changed -- at least for now.

"I don't think he's changed," Keene said, "but I think he's learned a lot from this whole nomination run, that these are people you cannot simply dis."