NEW ORLEANS—Reporters traveling with Senator John McCain were sent a gift by the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday: An “Exxon-McCain ’08” campaign kit, complete with an oil barrel-shaped stress ball for scribes theoretically stressed out by their lack of access to a candidate who no longer engages in back-of-the-bus media talk-a-thons.

Perhaps needless to point out, the shape of the stress ball was also meant to underscore Mr. McCain’s contributions from oil companies on a day when he is visiting an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico to promote his mantra of more offshore drilling, now. “The facts are indisputable: the best way to stand up for Big Oil is to vote Exxon-McCain ’08,’’ the press release from the Democrats reads.

The kit was a retort of sorts to the McCain campaign for handing out tire gauges to reporters inscribed with “Barack Obama Energy Plan,’’ which mocked Senator Barack Obama’s suggestion that Americans inflate their tires to use less gas.



Mr. McCain, who once talked so much in the back of his campaign bus that is was difficult for reporters to find time to file their stories, now reserves the bus largely for short stretches for local reporters. Under a more disciplined regime led by Steve Schmidt, a senior campaign adviser, the once-voluble Mr. McCain sticks largely to talking points and holds far fewer news conferences.