McCain gets cool reception at speech

From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy ORLANDO, FL -- Just a day after his campaign accused Obama of playing the race card, McCain appeared at the National Urban League's conference here this afternoon and received a much cooler reception than his appearance last month before the NAACP. The crowd sat in silence for much of the first half of McCain's prepared remarks before hesitantly clapping when McCain called for school funding to be placed in the control of "the office of the school principal," rather than district or national offices. The audience warmed up when McCain began taking questions, and Urban League President Marc Morial commended McCain's decision to take questions as "unprecedented." Part of the response could be attributed to McCain's early criticisms of Obama. Unlike his earlier NAACP speech, in which McCain prefaced any criticisms of his opponent with glowing praise, McCain today began to criticize Obama in the second paragraph of his speech -- without any senatorial ... (link)