Global Warming Strikes McCain Supporters

CONCORD -- John McCain hopped onto a makeshift stage in front of the State House here to address a mid-afternoon rally of a few hundred supporters. He took note of a group of environmental protesters in the front row who held giant signs that read, "Make Global Warming A Priority."

"I will make global warming a priority!" he announced. "And today is a lot easier day than a few days ago to say that."

Moments later, the unseasonably warm air -- it's nearly 50 degrees today -- nearly cost McCain a few votes when a sheet of snow and ice slid off the roof over the State House steps and fell about 20 feet, crashing on top of a group of McCain supporters. They shrieked. The candidate stopped talking and turned around to see what had happened. So did the crowd.

"We're OK!" one of the victims, an older woman, announced as she struggled to her feet.

"It's just snow!" McCain cracked. "There's that global climate change there."

Then he returned to his stump speech, telling the crowd -- after announcing in last night's debate that he knew how to capture Osama bin Laden and would make doing so a priority -- that Iraq "is the central front in the war against terrorism on this earth."