Both Campaigns Continue Their Battle for Va. Votes

Sen. John McCain's brother Joe headlined a rally for the Republican presidential candidate yesterday in Loudoun County that drew hundreds of supporters, many of them veterans.

Elsewhere in the battleground state, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) drew thousands of supporters to Newport News for a speech on health care.

The Loudoun event, at an outdoor pavilion at Lansdowne Town Center, included remarks from Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) and a handful of former prisoners of war. Joe McCain recounted his brother's ordeal as a POW in Vietnam and his refusal to be released before others.

"That's not just unimaginable courage, but that's character," Joe McCain said. "And when that proverbial phone rings at 3 a.m. that you keep hearing about, it's that kind of character that you want connected to the hand that picks up that phone."

Joe McCain added: "I'll go a step further. That's the kind of character that you need to answer that phone."

At another point, Joe McCain apparently sought to make a joke about part of Northern Virginia, referring to "Arlington or Alexandria, up in communist country." The remark drew laughter from the crowd.

Brian Harrell, 30, a security officer from Purcellville and a former Marine, brought his children Savannah, 5, and Brian Jr., 2, to the event.

"If anybody knows how to get a country out of war, or go into war, it's somebody that's done it himself," Harrell said. "It's important that we as Loudoun County folk show our support."

"I'm not a big McCain fan, actually, truthfully. But I do respect him, and I trust him," said Ted Halpern, 40, of Lansdowne, a small-businessman also in the crowd.

McCain and Obama are competing aggressively for Virginia's 13 electoral votes.

Obama, in his event at Victory Landing Park along the James River, turned folksy at times as he spoke to an energized crowd that was full of black people.

After someone shouted "That ain't right!" as the Democratic nominee described some of the problems of the health-care system, Obama punctuated his arguments by adding, "That ain't right." Obama promoted his proposal for universal health care and attacked McCain's plans. He told voters not to let McCain "hoodwink" or "bamboozle" them with ads that Obama has described as misleading.

It was Obama's eighth visit to the state since securing his party's nomination.

Bacon reported from Newport News.