Obama turns his attention to economy

McCain reiterated his support for more drilling.

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — Back from a nine-day overseas trip, Sen. Barack Obama made a point of turning to domestic concerns, calling a meeting Monday to solicit advice on reviving the economy and lifting wages.

Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, met with a bipartisan group of economic experts and business leaders, who agreed that a second stimulus package is needed to spur consumer spending.

While Obama presided over the 21‚Ñ2-hour meeting at a Washington, D.C., hotel, his likely Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, made a stop at a California oil field, where he reiterated his support for expanded drilling.

McCain renewed his criticism of Obama as the “Dr. No of America’s energy future” — a reference to Obama’s opposition to expanded drilling and to a temporary suspension of the federal gas tax.

The two candidates also grappled with personal health issues. McCain, standing in front of a bobbing oil derrick in Bakersfield, Calif., and wearing a cap that shaded his fair complexion, told reporters that a spot of skin had been removed from his cheek earlier in the day during a routine checkup with his dermatologist in Arizona.

The Mayo clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., issued a statement later saying that a biopsy had been ordered as part of the ”routine minor procedure.”

“She said that I was doing fine,” McCain said, quoting his doctor. In an interview with CNN’s Larry King broadcast Monday night, McCain, 71, said voters needn’t worry about his health. “Melanoma, if you look at it and be careful, it’s fine,” McCain said.

The Obama campaign said the Democratic nominee-in-waiting saw a doctor at the University of Chicago Medical Center on Sunday night for a sore hip.

“His hip has been sore from basketball for a few weeks, so he’s going to see an orthopedic doctor,” Obama communications director Robert Gibbs said.

Obama regularly plays pick-up basketball, squeezing in games during stops on the campaign trail.

Obama’s economic forum, which was closed to the media, came on a day when the Bush administration announced that the next president would face a record budget deficit of $482 billion.