Obama, McCain spar over
economy in final push
By
Arun Kumar
Indo-Asian
News Service
Washington,
Oct 28 (IANS) With the American economy in the doldrums, Democrat
presidential nominee Barack Obama and his Republican rival
John McCain slammed each other's economic plans with both
zeroing in on the states that President George Bush won in
2004 in the closing week of a tightly fought race.
Launching
the final one-week dash to the Nov 4 election McCain appearing
with his economic advisers at a Cleveland hotel in Ohio Monday
vowed to do three things if he is elected president: protect
investments, rescue the housing market and lower taxes to
spur new job creation.
Making
what his campaign called a "closing argument," in
Canton, Ohio, Obama told a large crowd: "In one week,
we can come together as one nation, and one people, and once
more choose our better history."
"In
one week, we can choose hope over fear, unity over division,
the promise of change over the power of the status quo,"
he said offering broadly the same message with which he launched
his election campaign nearly two years ago.
Recalling
the themes he has accentuated throughout what has been the
longest presidential campaign in American history, Obama put
forth a broad and optimistic message that emphasised the economy,
downplayed partisan politics and promised this election can
"change the world."
McCain,
on the other hand, delivered a forceful restatement of his
economic proposals and hammered Obama as a tax-raising liberal.
"I
have been through tough times like this before and the American
people can trust me -based on my record and results - to take
strong action to end this crisis, restore jobs and bring security
to Americans," McCain said. "I will never be the
one who sits on the sidelines waiting for things to get better."
In
the speech, he condemned talk by congressional Democrats of
another economic stimulus package, calling it a "spending
spree" by the "dangerous threesome" of House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Leader Harry Reid and Obama.
"They
believe that $1 trillion of rescue financing is not enough
and have already proposed another $300 billion spending spree
they are calling a stimulus plan," he said. "I would
rather give the great American middle class additional tax
cuts and let you keep that money and invest it in your future."
McCain
advisers said they believe the race is tightening nationally
and in the battleground states as voters focus on McCain's
warnings about Obama's economic policies.
McCain
has been using "Joe the Plumber" on the trail to
highlight Obama's comment that he would "spread the wealth
around."
Meanwhile,
the New York Times said both McCain and Obama plan to spend
nearly all of the final week in states that President George
Bush won in 2004.
Apart
from campaigning in Pennsylvania where Democrats won in 2004,
McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, are planning to
spend most of their time in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, North
Carolina, Missouri and Indiana, all states that Republicans
had entered the campaign thinking they could bank on.
As
Obama uses his money and political organization to try to
expand the political map, McCain is being forced to shore
up support in states like Indiana and North Carolina that
have not been contested for decades, the Times said.
The
contours of these final days, it said, suggest a culmination
of a strategy that Obama's advisers put in place at the beginning:
to use his huge fund-raising edge to try to put as many states
in play as possible and overwhelm McCain in the last lap of
the race.
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