Obama focuses on economy, GOP claimsSFlb

Los Angeles Times

DOVER, N.H. — Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, responding to gains by the McCain-Palin ticket, fought back Friday with hard-hitting ads, a refocus on the economy and a declaration that “today is the first day of the rest of the campaign.”

One week after Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin electrified the Republican base with a vice presidential acceptance speech that pilloried Obama, the Obama camp made clear that from now on they will be running against Sen. John McCain, not his running mate.

In keeping with the new focus, Obama held a town hall meeting here Friday on tax relief for the middle class to outline what the campaign called “the sharp differences between his plan to cut taxes for 95 percent of hard-working Americans and John McCain’s plan to give tax breaks to corporations.”

Faulting the Bush administration for “irresponsible fiscal policies” that have resulted in unemployment at its highest rate in five years and gas prices that are “killing family budgets,” Obama said, “We can’t afford four more years of what George Bush and John McCain consider progress.” Criticizing Republicans for their “trickle-down” approach to the economy, Obama asked, “How much has trickled down so far?”

One supporter upbraided Obama for not hitting back at McCain’s allegations hard enough. Obama responded, “Our ads have been pretty tough, but I just have a different philosophy. I’m going to respond with the truth.”

Charging that Republicans “make up lies” about the Democratic presidential candidate every four years, Obama said, “We’re going to be hitting back on issues that matter to families. We’re not going to start making up lies about John McCain.”

He added, “If they lie about us, then we will correct the record” and that he would not “just sit back and watch.” But he argued that “this election is too serious to be playing silly games.” To applause from the crowd, Obama promised not to be “distracted or dissuaded from making my case to the American people that we’ve got to fundamentally change this country.”

Campaign manager David Plouffe issued a statement calling this “the first day” of a retooled campaign and pledging that “we will respond with speed and ferocity to John McCain’s attacks, and we will take the fight to him, but we will do it on the big issues that matter to the American people.”

The McCain campaign issued its own ad on Obama on Friday, calling him a fading celebrity. “He was the world’s biggest celebrity, but his star’s fading,” says the ad. “So they lashed out at Sarah Palin.”

McCain also appeared on ABC’s “The View,” where he defended Palin’s record as a reformer and his own reputation as a maverick.

“I don’t see the old John McCain who used to buck system,” said “The View’s” Joy Behar.

Replied McCain: “I have taken on my own party, my own president, the special interests,” he said.

Reprising his campaign talking points, Mc- Cain said that Palin would help him change Washington, in part by putting a stop to lawmaker’s pet projects known as earmarks. When co-host Barbara Walters pointed out that Palin requested earmarks of her own, McCain inaccurately interjected: “Not as governor she didn’t.”

Palin submitted nearly $200 million in requests this year for earmarked projects, including $2 million to research crab productivity in the Bering Sea.

After defending McCain’s comments, the campaign later clarified his position.

“Senator McCain was in the throes of a discussion about her record of reforming government, which includes drastic cuts in wasteful spending in the Alaska state budget — if he gave viewers a mistaken impression, it certainly wasn’t intentional or without some basis in fact,” said spokesman Tucker Bounds.

Asked by Walters about his attacks on Obama for saying that McCain’s claims of change are like “putting lipstick on a pig,” McCain insisted that his Democratic rival was talking about Palin, not about change. “Senator Obama chooses his words very carefully,” said McCain. “He shouldn’t have said it.”

On abortion, McCain said he thought Roe v. Wade was “a very bad decision,” and that he would appoint and nominate justices who strictly uphold the Constitution. If the decision were overturned, he said, it would be left to the states to make their own laws on the issue.