The Trail

McCain piped in: "She's commander of the Alaskan National Guard."

McCain's senior advisers were cheering the performance, but not surprisingly, the Obama campaign was not impressed. "Senator McCain and Governor Palin may have taken questions together for the first time, but they didn't give a single answer about what they would do differently from George Bush to fix the economy," said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the Obama-Biden campaign.

-- Robert Barnes

THE PALIN FACTOR

McCain Attacks Obama Over Clinton's Protest Withdrawal

Hillary Rodham Clinton has carefully avoided a showdown with Sarah Palin in the weeks since the Alaska governor was named John McCain's running mate -- and now her closest allies have become infuriated by an attempt to lure the two into a joint event.

Clinton canceled an appearance at a rally next week in New York, which she had planned to attend in her official capacity as the state's junior senator, after the event's organizers surprised her by extending a last-minute invitation to Palin. Clinton had agreed to appear weeks earlier.

Clinton advisers said that the senator did not want to turn the rally, intended to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appearance at the United Nations, into a political circus by having the two women share the stage. She has attended the event before and considers it important to her constituents, the advisers said.

In response, the McCain campaign on Wednesday accused Clinton of dropping out "presumably at the request of the Obama campaign" -- and used her change of heart as an opportunity to attack Obama over his positions on Iran.

"Instead of pressuring Senator Clinton to withdraw and pressuring the event's organizers to disinvite Governor Palin, we hope Senator Obama will consider lending his own voice to this cause. And if Senator Obama subsequently wishes to clarify any remarks that might be misconstrued, he will have the opportunity to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions after he speaks at the UN the following day," McCain-Palin spokesman Michael Goldfarb said in a statement. The Obama campaign declined to comment. Clinton advisers said the senator dropped out of her own accord.

While Palin has no record on issues involving Iran, one of her new advisers does: Mark Wallace, who is conducting her debate preparation, left his position as the Bush administration's U.S. representative for U.N. management and reform earlier this year and became executive director of United Against Nuclear Iran, an organization established this summer to draw attention to Tehran's nuclear ambitions.