McCain cancels meetings due to Hurricane

Media analysts said the event at which McCain was to raise the issue of offshore oil drilling and technology that made it safe was aimed at stealing some thunder from his Democratic rival Barack Obama's big-time address in Berlin.     

By midday yesterday, just as blogs were trumpeting McCain's coming campaign stop on the rig, the McCain team cancelled the trip and postponed the meeting with Jindal, the New York Times said.     

Jindal is one of the several names being discussed in US media as the possible running mate of McCain. Asked last night by Fox News whether he had made a decision on his vice-presidential choice, the Arizona Senator responded, "No".     

The campaign blamed Hurricane Dolly, which had just crossed the Texas coast with wind-speed of 160 kilometres an hour, for cancellation of the event.     

The Times said it did not mention that an oil tanker had just collided with a barge near New Orleans, shutting down 29 miles of the Mississippi river and sending hundreds of thousands of gallons of heavy fuel oil into the water.     

The accident had nothing to do with the safety of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, but McCain has highlighted the environmental safety of offshore drilling, the paper said.     

An aide was quoted as saying that McCain, whose campaign has been overshadowed by Obama's foreign trip, was not having a bad week. "I'm not dissatisfied...I think we've said what we had to say," the aide said.