Tuesday, October 21, 2008

McCain and Obama campaigns barnstorm into crucial swing states


Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton stressed economic themes at a campaign rally Monday evening in Orlando, the onetime Democratic rivals' first joint event since their appearance four months ago in Unity, New Hampshire.

The rally in June was staged when the prolonged primary fight threatened party unity, but now fewer Democrats worry about Sen. John McCain's appeal to Clinton's disappointed supporters. When some in the Florida crowd began chanting, "Hillary! Hillary!" on Monday, Obama joined them.

Their joint appearance capped a day in which both presidential campaigns barnstormed into the crucial swing states of Florida, Colorado and Missouri, with just two weeks remaining in the presidential race. Each party sounded familiar themes, with Democrats tying McCain to President George W. Bush and Republicans deriding Obama's tax policies as socialism.

With voters' attention focused almost exclusively on the economy and on their bleeding investment portfolios, the Democratic and Republican campaigns spent the day talking about jobs, taxes and an Ohio plumber named Joe, ratcheting up the fight for middle-class voters.

"Sending the Republicans to clean up the economic mess in Washington is like sending the bull to clean up the china closet," Clinton said Monday evening, with Obama standing on her left. "We're not buying that anymore."McCain, the Republican nominee, spoke at rallies in the suburbs of St. Louis and Kansas City on Monday while his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, was campaigning in Colorado. Republicans won both states in the 2004 presidential election, but polls this year have shown Obama is leading or tied in each.

With 47 electoral votes among them, Florida, Colorado and Missouri are rich prizes for both candidates but comprise a virtual must-win territory for McCain. Obama has made an aggressive play for all three, spending $42.8 million on television advertisements to the McCain campaign's $22.7 million, according to data from TNS Media Intelligence.

At a rally Monday morning in St. Charles, Missouri, McCain stressed economic themes and criticized Obama's tax plans, saying they would stifle small businesses. He again cited "Joe the plumber," an Ohio man who has become a campaign archetype at Republican rallies since McCain repeatedly invoked him during the third presidential debate.

"As Joe has reminded us all, America did not become the greatest nation on Earth by giving money to the government to 'spread the wealth around,' " McCain told supporters, referring to the phrase Obama used while talking to Joe Wurzelbacher, the plumbing businessman now woven into the final weeks of political rhetoric.

Palin sharpened her economic attack as she spoke Monday on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, telling crowds that Democrats would raise taxes on struggling Americans, "redistribute wealth" and accelerate job losses. She cast Obama's economic plans as tantamount to socialism.

"Now is not the time to experiment with socialism," Palin said to wild cheers in Loveland, Colorado.

Meanwhile, Obama sought to ride the momentum from his record $150 million worth of fundraising in September and endorsement over the weekend from former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Speaking in Tampa, he assailed Republicans, including McCain, who have equated Obama's tax plans with socialism and said they would deepen the economy's troubles.

He defended his plans to raise taxes on individuals with more than $250,000 a year in taxable income, and he pointed out that McCain originally opposed the Bush tax cuts, voting against them in 2001.

"He was right then, and I am right now," Obama said at a rally on Monday.

In an interview on Monday on NBC's "Today Show," Obama provided a few new details of the Powell endorsement, saying that he did not speak to Powell about it until after it was announced, and that Powell could play a role in an Obama administration.

"He will have a role as one of my advisers," Obama said. "He's already served in that function even before he endorsed me. Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether there's something that's a good fit for him, I think is something he and I would have to discuss."

Early voting, already under way in some states, started Monday in Florida, Colorado and Texas, among others. Both parties Monday urged their supporters to vote early if they could, and avoid long lines and logjams that could roil Election Day.

Appearing earlier at a rally in Fort Lauderdale, where she shielded herself from rain by holding a binder above her head, Clinton exhorted Democrats to campaign in their neighborhoods. She warned that Democrats could still lose the presidential race in the sprint toward November.

"Do not get lulled into any false sense of security," Clinton said of polls showing Obama in the lead. "If people start believing this election's over, I don't need to go vote, then we might not be successful."

Following Obama's fundraising announcement, the McCain-Palin campaign released its own financial report on Sunday, showing that their campaign spent $37 million during September — $22.5 million of it on advertising and media. The campaign now has $46.9 million on hand.

McCain accepted $84 million in federal campaign funding, which now limits his spending during the remainder of the election. Obama opted out of public funding, a move that Republicans rebuked as a broken promise, and he has no such spending constraints. Stumble Upon Toolbar

No comments: