Amid Criticism, Obama Turns Up Heat on McCain

LYNCHBURG, Va., Aug. 20, 2008— -- With the Democratic National Convention less than a week away, the political world is in a frenzy awaiting Sen. Barack Obama's running mate announcement.

Eyes are fixed on e-mail boxes and cell phone screens, all eagerly awaiting the message delivering one of Obama's most important campaign decisions to date.

But while the world's collective consciousness is focused on Obama's vice presidential pick, the Illinois senator seems more focused on his White House rival -- taking a sharper tone since returning from a Hawaiian vacation last week.

Obama Criticizes McCain Policy, Not Biography

Obama is clearly mindful of the difficulty of attacking a war hero who spent 5½ years in a prisoner-of-war camp, just as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., faces his own challenges attacking Obama, the first black major party presidential nominee. Obama is protective of his image as a "hope-monger" and tries to be careful not to attack McCain personally, instead focusing on McCain's policy positions.

During a town hall meeting in Martinsville, Va., today, Obama acknowledged McCain's experience and service, but criticized him nonetheless.

"John McCain -- let's face it -- he has a compelling biography," Obama said, spelling out his challenge. "He is a POW, and so that is what people kind of think about instead of focusing on the fact that he wants to continue the same economic policies that George Bush has been doing for the last eight years."

Obama also decried McCain's allegation that his Democratic rival -- by pushing a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq -- puts his personal ambition before the country's best interests.

While speaking at the VFW's 109th National Convention in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday, Obama said of McCain, "I believe that he genuinely wants to serve America's national interest. Now, it's time for him to acknowledge that I want to do the same."

At a town hall meeting at New Mexico State University today, McCain rejected that argument. "Let me be clear: I am not questioning his patriotism, I am questioning his judgment, " he said.

Obama's pushback has also come with a note of bravado.

"John McCain doesn't know what he is up against right now," Obama said during a rally Tuesday night in Raleigh, N.C.

Obama has recently started mocking McCain's bravado and poking fun at McCain's May 2007 pledge to pursue Osama bin Laden personally, contrasting it with McCain's support for the Iraq War.

"John McCain says he'd follow him to the gates of hell," Obama told supporters in Raleigh. "All he's got to do is go to Afghanistan and Pakistan! We shouldn't have been distracted in the first place."

Obama Fights Back, Learning Lessons From Democrats Past

Obama says he's learned from previous Democratic nominees and his new rhetoric corresponds with a series of sharply worded television ads airing in pivotal swing states that attack his Republican challenger.

Since the start of August, Obama's camp has aired nearly eight new ads centered on economic issues such as unemployment, the loss of U.S. jobs, the ongoing energy crisis and McCain's inability to identify with the difficulties of average working-class Americans.

On Thursday, he will launch a new TV ad suggesting that McCain, who led the hearings that highlighted the corruption of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, compromised those hearings to help a future fundraiser, an accusation the McCain campaign calls "ridiculous."

A common theme throughout the advertisements is McCain's relationship with President Bush -- potentially a poison pill as the Republican president remains unpopular at home.

Until recently, it appeared as though the campaign's advertising aimed at casting the Illinois senator in a positive light.

Now, with negative ads running in 18 states, it's clear that Obama's campaign is pursuing a new strategy.

ABC News' Avery Miller, Andrew Fies, and Natalie Gewargis contributed to this report.