Republican John McCain Friday urged his supporters to stop hurling abuse against Barack Obama at his rallies, saying he admired and respected his Democratic rival.
"We want to fight, and I will fight, but we will be respectful. I admire Senator Obama and his accomplishments and I will respect him," McCain said at a Minnesota rally.
"I want everyone to be respectful and let's make sure we are, because that is the way that politics should be conducted in America."
The tone at the rallies of McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin has become increasing inflammatory in recent days with shouts of "terrorist" and "liar" from the crowds directed against Obama. At one Florida rally, someone even shouted "kill him."
The stream of vicious attacks against Obama, who has left McCain trailing in the polls ahead of the November 4 vote, was ramped up at the weekend by Palin who accused the Chicago senator of "palling around with terrorists."
And McCain has taken to asking, "Who is the real Barack Obama?" leading one supporter in Pennsylvania to shout back, "he is a bomb."
But on Friday McCain told the rally in Lakeville, Minnesota: "I want to be president ... but I have to tell you that he is a decent person and a person you don't have to be scared of."
His comments went against the tone of two new ads launched by the McCain campaign on Friday targeting Obama.
One ad accused Obama of lying about his links to Vietnam War era radical William Ayers, a member of the radical Weather Underground Group, whom Obama met in his formative years in Chicago politics.
Then later in the day, the McCain campaign took aim at Obama's links with a non-profit housing counselling group called Acorn, which on Friday was at the center of a storm amid investigations into alleged voter fraud.
The ad ends with the words: "Barack Obama. Bad judgment. Blind ambition. Too risky for America."
