Criticizing earmarks

Criticizing earmarks

LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo. — John McCain and Sarah Palin criticized Democrat Barack Obama over the amount of money he has requested for his home state of Illinois.

At a rally in swing state Missouri, the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate accused Obama of requesting nearly $1 billion in earmarks for his state during his time as a senator. The new line of attack came after Obama made his first direct criticism of Palin over the weekend, using the topic of earmarks, which are special projects that lawmakers try to get for their districts and constituents.

“Just the other day our opponent brought up earmarks — and frankly I was surprised that he would even raise the subject at all,” Palin said. “I thought he wouldn’t want to go there.”

Obama lashes out at rivals

FLINT, Mich. — Barack Obama broadly accused his Republican rivals of dishonesty Monday, citing former lobbyists working for John McCain, Sarah Palin’s shifting stance on the “Bridge to Nowhere” and their promise to change Washington.

With national polls finding the Democratic presidential nominee trailing or in a dead heat with McCain, Obama began the campaign’s final eight-week push by criticizing McCain’s popular running mate as much as the Arizona senator himself.

“I mean, you can’t just make stuff up,” Obama said of a new McCain ad that says Palin “stopped the Bridge to Nowhere.” “You can’t just re-create yourself. You can’t just reinvent yourself. The American people aren’t stupid.”

Defending views

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will eventually have to defend “some fairly extreme views” on climate change when she starts granting interviews as Republican presidential hopeful John McCain’s running mate, her Democratic rival Joe Biden said Monday.

“Her views on everything from global warming to a host of other things, if they are as presented, they are pretty far out there,” Biden said during a town hall-style meeting. “She’s going to have to defend those positions.”

Bush, Cheney back Palin

ROME — There’s nothing stopping Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin from serving well in the White House, according to the men who now hold the nation’s highest offices.

“She’s had executive experience, and that’s what it takes to be a capable person in here in Washington, D.C., in the executive branch,” President Bush said in an interview to air today on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends.”

“John McCain made an inspired pick,” Bush added. The former two-term Texas governor came to Washington without experience in national office — the path Palin is trying to follow.

Meanwhile, Vice President Dick Cheney told reporters in Rome on Monday that he “loved” Palin’s speech to the Republican National Convention, which he watched “with great interest.” Cheney laughed when he recounted her line about the difference between hockey moms and pit bulls being lipstick.

Associated Press