McCain Rejects Racially Tinged Attack on Obama Senator John McCain, who refused to make President Obama's association with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright an issue during his 2008 presidential campaign, repudiated a proposal by Republican strategists to "do exactly what John McCain would not let us do" - open an incendiary, racially tinged attack on the president. Mr. McCain also shrugged off the slights against him in a proposal for the political ad campaign, which was brought to light by The New York Times. "I don't know whether to be offended or not," Mr. McCain said with a smile. It is what it is. Look, my life has moved on. He added that such third-party attacks are "a way for political operatives to continue to make money." The authors of the ad campaign, timed to rock the Democratic National Convention in September, asserted that "if the nation had seen that ad, they'd never have elected Barack Obama." The proposed ad opened with a series of jabs against Mr. McCain, whose campaign was portrayed as punchless and befuddled. Written by former McCain campaign advisers, the ad's opening paragraphs refer to him as "a crusty old politician who often seemed confused, burdened with a campaign just as confused." Speaking to reporters at the Capitol, Mr. McCain appeared untroubled Thursday. "I remain proud of our campaign and proud of what we were able to accomplish, and I would do it over again," he said. I noticed that the Romney campaign quickly issued a statement saying they repudiated that strategy as well. The strategists" memo and detailed advertisement proposal was the talk of Capitol Hill. Speaker John A. Boehner, reflecting the campaign of the presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, tried to keep the political focus on the economy. "This campaign is going to be about the economy, is going to be about jobs, as it should be," he said. The politics of the proposed ad were also repudiated on Thursday by the man who commissioned it, Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade and patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs. Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, the House minority leader, was more voluable. She said friends of hers had told her they were renouncing their allegiance to the Cubs and shifting to Chicago's South Side team, the White Sox - Mr. Obama's team. "I hope they're as successful with this campaign as the Cubs are with baseball," Ms. Pelosi jabbed.