McCain, Palin to appear in Va. next week

Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin return next week to Virginia, fighting to hold a state that -- polls suggest -- could tip Democratic for president for the first time since 1964.

The Republican running mates will appear in Virginia Beach Monday morning before Palin, the vice presidential nominee, comes to Richmond for an afternoon rally.

"It is going to be a tough race in Virginia, but we are focused on winning Virginia, so that John McCain and Sarah Palin can shake things up in Washington," said Attorney General Bob McDonnell, the presumed GOP nominee for governor in 2009.

It will be the ticket's second appearance in the state, where the latest Times-Dispatch poll shows McCain and Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, in a statistical tie. McCain and Palin visited Fairfax City on Sept. 10.

McCain, the presidential nominee, and Palin will headline a rally at 10 a.m. Monday at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. Palin will appear at a 1 p.m. rally at Richmond's Arthur Ashe Center.

Tickets for both events are available through McCain's Virginia Web site, Virginia.JohnMcCain.com. They also can be obtained, starting today, at McCain-Palin offices across the state.

On the campaign trail in Albuquerque, N.M., yesterday, McCain called Obama a liar and said the campaign boils down to one basic question: Who is Obama really?

He criticized Obama's ties to Chicago, his legislative record and even his pair of best-selling memoirs.

McCain, speaking about the financial crisis, took offense at Obama's accusation that McCain opposed regulation that would have prevented the credit crunch.

Later, he added: "There are essential things that we don't know about Sen. Obama or the record he brings to this campaign."

McCain and his advisers spent the weekend working to sharpen a line of attack against Obama.

Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin expanded her attack on Obama's character yesterday to include his relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. McCain had signaled he did not want that to be a part of his campaign after Obama denounced Wright's sermons.

Wright had appeared to be off limits for the McCain campaign ever since McCain himself condemned the North Carolina Republican Party in April for an ad that called Obama "too extreme" because Wright was his pastor.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or .

The Associated Press contributed to this report.