McCain and Obama Turn Fire on Each Other
A day after his overwhelming victories in three eastern primaries, Senator Barack Obama hammered his economic message in Wisconsin on Wednesday, while Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton sidestepped the next round of Democratic primaries to concentrate on the delegate-rich Texas race.
Both Mr. Obama and Senator John McCain swept their parties’ primary contests on Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Mr. Obama handily won all three races and, while the margin between Mr. McCain and Mike Huckabee was not as great as that between Democratic candidates, Mr. McCain also scored clear victories across the board.
In early appearances on Wednesday, Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama both turned their fire on the opposition party, perhaps signaling a new dynamic in the presidential race.
Responding to a question about Mr. Obama’s campaign so far, Mr. McCain said that the Illinois Democrat’s speeches have been “singularly lacking in specifics” and noted that Mr. Obama was recently rated the most liberal Senator by National Journal.
“I respect him and the campaign that he has run,” Mr. McCain said of Mr. Obama, after a question about his decision to focus on Mr. Obama and his message of hope in his victory speech on Tuesday night. “But there is going to come a time when we have to get into specifics, and I’ve not observed every speech that he’s given, obviously, but they are singularly lacking in specifics.”
“It’s not an accident that he has, I think, according to National Journal, the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate,” he said. “I have one of the most conservative.”
Speaking before a crowd at a Wisconsin auto plant, Senator Obama delivered a blistering critique of his Democratic and Republican rivals on Wednesday, blaming Washington for the economic crisis that has gripped the nation.
“We are not standing on the brink of recession due to forces beyond our control,” Mr. Obama said. “The fallout from the housing crisis that’s cost jobs and wiped out savings was not an inevitable part of the business cycle, it was a failure of leadership and imagination in Washington.”
Mr. Obama opened his campaign for next week’s Wisconsin primary inside a General Motors plant in Janesville, one day after General Motors Corp. posted a $38 billion loss, the largest ever for a U.S. auto company. He criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed during the Clinton administration, and offered a series of plans to inject more jobs into the economy.
“You know, in the years after her husband signed N.A.F.T.A, Senator Clinton would go around talking about how great it was and how many benefits it would bring,” Mr. Obama said. “Now that she’s running for president, she says we need a time-out on trade. No one knows when this time-out will end. Maybe after the election.”
Mr. Obama, who has won 21 states in the Democratic presidential nominating fight, is working to add Wisconsin to his string of victories by tapping into an anti-war sentiment. As he pointed out his opposition to the war, he linked Mrs. Clinton with Senator McCain as he pointed out the failures of Washington.
“It’s a Washington where politicians like John McCain and Hillary Clinton voted for a war in Iraq that should’ve never been authorized and never been waged — a war that is costing us thousands of precious lives and billions of dollars a week,” Mr. Obama said.
In his speech in Janesville, Mr. Obama proposed creating a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to invest $60 billion over 10 years and create nearly 2 million new jobs in the construction field. He said the program would be paid for by ending the Iraq war. He also renewed his call to create an energy plan to invest $150 billion over 10 years to establish a “green energy sector” to add up to 5 million jobs in the next two decades.
“It’s time to stop spending billions of dollars a week trying to put Iraq back together and start spending the money on putting America back together instead,” Mr. Obama said. He added, “We’ll also provide funding to help manufacturers convert to green technology and help workers learn the skills they need for these jobs.”
Mrs. Clinton, speaking before an enthusiastic crowd on Wednesday morning in McAllen, Texas, also struck economic themes, saying she offered solutions for voters’ financial struggles while Mr. Obama offered “rhetoric.”
nytimes.com |
