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WORLD> Photo
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Obama draws record crowd, links McCain to Bush
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-27 15:43 DENVER, Colorado -- Barack Obama took aim at John McCain before record crowds after his rival acknowledged sharing the same Republican party philosophy as unpopular President George W. Bush. Just nine days before the presidential election, Democratic candidate Obama again attempted to shackle McCain to Bush's shattered economic legacy and tried to rebut attacks on his own tax policy.
More than 150,000 people flocked to two Obama rallies on the campaign trail in Colorado, with a record crowd of more than 100,000 in Denver listening as the Illinois senator tore into McCain for his support of Bush. "Just this morning, Senator McCain said that actually he and President Bush 'share a common philosophy,'" Obama said. "That's right, Colorado. I guess that was John McCain finally giving us a little straight talk, owning up to the fact that he and George Bush actually have a whole lot in common," Obama said. Obama then listed what he saw as deficiencies of the McCain-Bush philosophy, which encapsulated his main campaign themes heading into the election on November 4 as America battles its deepest economic crisis since the 1930s. He said "the Bush-McCain philosophy" gave tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations and justified spending 10 billion dollars a month in Iraq "while the Iraqi government sits on a huge surplus and our economy is in crisis." "We can't have another four years that look like the last eight. It is time for change in Washington," Obama said. Obama spoke on the second day of a swing through vital western battleground states Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, after a short break from the campaign trail to visit his ailing grandmother in Hawaii who turned 86 on Sunday. If he can win all the states that Democrat John Kerry captured in his unsuccessful 2004 presidential bid and peel the three western states away from the Republicans, Obama will be assured of the White House.
In an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press,", McCain argued that he had long had major differences with Bush on issues like climate change and government spending. "Do we share a common philosophy of the Republican Party? Of course," McCain said. "But I stood up against my party, not just President Bush but others as well and I have the scars to prove it." |
