Obama slams McCain for not mentioning middle class
By JESSE J. HOLLAND
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Saturday called Republican
rival John McCain out of touch with middle-class Americans, telling supporters
that the GOP senator never once uttered the words "middle class" during their
first debate.
"Through 90 minutes of debate, John McCain had a lot to say about me, but he
didn't have anything to say about you," Obama told a cheering crowd at the J.
Douglas Galyon Depot in downtown Greensboro. "He didn't even say the words
'middle class.' He didn't even say the words 'working people.'"
Obama debuted his post-debate attack on McCain with a campaign swing through
North Carolina and Virginia, Republican-leaning states where he thinks he can
make inroads. He also found time to speak by phone to Treasury Secretary Henry
Paulson, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.,
about the congressional negotiations surrounding the Wall Street recovery deal,
according to campaign staff.
The Illinois senator was spending most of the day trying to capitalize on his
debate performance by taking McCain to task for not talking about any plans for
helping the middle class in the midst of the country's financial and fiscal
crisis.
"Just as important as what we heard from John McCain is what we didn't hear
from John McCain," Obama said. "We talked about the economy for 40 minutes and
not once did Sen. McCain talk about the struggles of middle-class families. Not
once did he talk about what they are facing every day here in North Carolina
and across the country."
McCain's campaign suggested Saturday that the Arizona senator had referred to
the middle class during the debate when he argued that Obama had voted in favor
of higher taxes on families making $42,000 a year and proposed hundreds of
billions in new government spending that would place a crushing burden on
families and businesses. Obama disputed both of those assertions and said that
95 percent of America taxpayers would not pay more in taxes under his plan.
"If he was honest, Barack Obama knows he was unable to debate the merits of
supporting higher taxes on the middle class, and bloated government spending
during a looming economic crisis — it simply proved indefensible last night,"
McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement.
Appearing with Obama on Saturday, running mate Joe Biden called McCain's
judgment on every important issue "wrong."
"Last night, John McCain's silence on the middle class was deafening," said
Biden, a Delaware senator. "We need more than a brave soldier. We need a wise
leader."
The Obama campaign tried to back up that point in its newest ad, a spot
released Saturday that also notes McCain never mentioned the middle class
during the debate. "McCain doesn't get it," the announcer says. "Barack Obama
does."
"We need a president who will fight for the middle class every day, and that's
what I will do when I'm in the Oval Office," Obama told the cheering crowd.
Obama's wife, Michelle, and Biden's wife, Jill, visited Tallahassee, Fla.,
together to urge young people and minorities to vote in November, capping a
two-week voter registration drive.
In Michigan, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton campaigned for her ex-rival, saying
that Republicans shouldn't be rewarded "for what they have done to our country."
"We cannot turn over our country with these deep deficits, with these serious
economic problems, with the international challenges, to the same team that got
us into this mess in the first place," Clinton told more than 1,000 people
gathered at a park in Grand Ledge, Mich., about 10 miles west of Lansing, the
first of three campaign stops scheduled in the state.
"There's no doubt in anyone's mind that Sen. Obama understands the economic
challenges we face as well as the need to change the way we do business here at
home and around the world," Clinton said.
Obama advisers said they were encouraged by his performance in the foreign
policy arena at the debate at the University of Mississippi but immediately
started dampening expectations for future debates.
"This was supposed to be John McCain's turf, and Barack Obama owned it," Biden
said.
Obama adviser David Plouffe told reporters the Democrat "spoke really to people
in their homes about needing a president who is going to fight for the middle
class, who is going to work on things like education and health care."
The presidential hopefuls are scheduled to debate twice more, at Belmont
University in Nashville on Oct. 7 and at Hofstra University in Hempsted, N.Y.,
on Oct. 15.
The next debate will be a town hall format, and Plouffe called McCain the
"undisputed town hall champion."
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