Obama, McCain bring campaign positions to debate (11 a.m.)
NASHVILLE, Tennessee - Republican John McCain, trailing in the polls and besieged by the crumbling U.S. financial system, said in the critical second presidential debate with Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday that America’s troubled economy would require the government to scale back benefits now enjoyed by older Americans.
Both candidates agreed that U.S. government entitlement programs - social security retirement payments and medical insurance for the elderly - had to be reformed.
The opening minutes of the face-off were largely free of the rancor that marked the days leading up to the town-hall format debate. Both candidates seemed reluctant to break ground they have not covered in their campaigns.
McCain did, however, quip at one point that trying to pin down Obama’s tax plan was like “trying to nail Jell-O (gelatin) to the wall.”
Obama shot back, “Sen. McCain, I think the Straight-talk Express lost a wheel on that one,” referring to the name McCain applies to his campaign bus and jet.
The debate at Belmont University allowed voters to ask questions while NBC television’s Tom Brokaw moderated.
With the stock market plunging, retirement plans evaporating, tens of thousands of homes in foreclosure and unemployment climbing, McCain and running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spent the days leading to the debate attacking Obama’s character, hoping, as the Arizona senator’s campaign said, to “turn the page” on the devastated economic landscape.
But the pages appeared glued shut.
The Dow Jones Industrial average continued its decline, dropping more than 5 percent Tuesday, despite the $700 billion financial bailout package President George W. Bush signed into law on Friday.
The top congressional budget analyst said pension plans have lost as much as $2 trillion - or 20 percent overall - in the past 15 months.
And Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said: “The outlook for economic growth has worsened.”
Bush, whose handling of the economy has proved an enormous drag on fellow Republican McCain, was able to say only, “We’re going to come through this.”
“Have faith; this economy is going to recover over time,” said the president, whose approval rating is near a record low.
Apparently taking to heart U.S. polling that showed Obama a clear favorite on economic issues and with a growing lead overall, McCain’s campaign began attacking Obama’s character and deployed Palin to carry the message.
Over the weekend she said Obama sees America as so imperfect “that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country,” a reference to 1960s-era radical Bill Ayers.
Ayers helped found the violent Weather Underground group, whose members were blamed for several bombings when Obama was 8 years old.
Obama has denounced Ayers’ radical views and activities.
Obama and Ayers live near each other in Chicago, and once worked on the same charity board. Ayers hosted a small, meet-the-candidate event for Obama in 1995, at the start of his political career.
Multiple news accounts have said they are not close. The Obama campaign called Palin’s remarks outrageous and grossly exaggerated.
Palin, however, continued her attacks Tuesday at a campaign stop in Florida.
“This election is about the truthfulness and judgment needed in our next president,” Palin told supporters. “John McCain has it; Barack Obama doesn’t.”
Obama answered the initial attacks quickly. As if expecting the assault, his campaign fired back with a 15-minute Web “documentary” that resurrected McCain’s links to a financial scandal two decades ago.
Just months into his Senate career, in the late 1980s, McCain made what he has called “the worst mistake of my life.” He participated in two meetings with banking regulators on behalf of Charles Keating, a friend, campaign contributor and savings and loan financier who was later convicted of securities fraud.
The Senate ethics committee investigated five senators’ relationships with Keating. It cited McCain for a lesser role than the others, but faulted his “poor judgment.” <b>(AP)</b>
Leave a Reply