Courier Lee News Service

DAVENPORT - A hot-tempered week on the campaign trail concluded Saturday with Republican presidential candidate John McCain rallying supporters in Davenport, where he criticized Democratic rival Barack Obama for not being honest about his plans.

However, the anger that has marked other Republican rallies this week, particularly an event in Minnesota on Friday, was absent at the RiverCenter on Saturday.

There was a disruption when two protesters interrupted McCain's speech, yelling and holding a sign that read: "The war is over."

They were led away by police as the crowd booed and chanted, "We want John."

The Arizona senator, making his third trip to Iowa in roughly three weeks, said Obama has failed to say how much his health care and tax plans would cost small business.

He also accused the Illinois senator of doing nothing to try to prevent the current financial crisis.

In an interview with the Quad-City Times afterward, McCain rejected the idea his campaign ads, which refer to Obama as "dangerous," played a role in some of the Republican anger.

Supporters have shouted "terrorist" at some rallies, and Friday night, a woman at a McCain event in Minnesota called Obama "an Arab." McCain corrected her.

McCain said it's Obama's policy positions that are "dangerous."

"I have clearly stated to all of my supporters we do not want to attack Sen. Obama's character and integrity. We do want to question his record and his rhetoric, which don't match," McCain said.

He added it is Obama who has called him a "liar" and launched the first attack ads at him.

As the protesters were being led out of the RiverCenter, the Republican took the occasion to turn the tables on critics who say he's been hitting below the belt at a time of national crisis.

"This is a perfect example of some people who just don't get it," he said. "People are trying to stay in their homes, keep their jobs and afford health care. Is what they want for us to yell at each other?"

McCain also pressed Saturday for a plan he introduced at the debate last week to buy up bad mortgages from people and replace them with ones that are more manageable.

He said subprime loans were "pushed on people who couldn't afford it."