Hey, Obama: There’s Bratwurst in Ohio, Too (but No Cheering Masses)

By ELISABETH BUMILLER
NYT

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign recovered from a near-death experience almost exactly a year ago, and political candidates stumble in and out of troughs all the time. But it is safe to say that Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, is not having a spectacular week.

As his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, met one-on-one with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the Middle East on Wednesday, Mr. McCain went on an awkward grocery-shopping trip with a mother and two children in a Pennsylvania supermarket and held a news conference at the dairy case. And as Mr. Obama spoke to a rousing crowd of more than 200,000 in Berlin on Thursday, Mr. McCain had a bratwurst lunch with the owner of a car dealership and other local business people at a German restaurant in Columbus.

“Well, I’d love to give a speech in Germany, a political speech, or a speech that maybe the German people would be interested in, but I’d much prefer to do it as president of the United States rather than as a candidate for the office of presidency,” Mr. McCain told reporters outside Schmidt’s Restaurant und Sausage Haus, shortly before Mr. Obama began speaking at the Victory Column in the heart of Berlin. (The campaign’s choice of restaurant was consistent with the Republican National Committee’s decision to run anti-Obama advertisements in Berlin, N.H.; Berlin, Wis.; and Berlin, Pa.)

(Continued here.)