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'Joe the Plumber' !
Economic crisis dominates final Obama-McCain matchup
It's all about 'Joe the Plumber'
Sheldon Alberts
Canwest News Service
Thursday, October 16, 2008
WASHINGTON - Another bad day on the stock market, another presidential debate dominated by the economic woes of the United States.
In their final head-to-head clash before the Nov. 4 election, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain clashed repeatedly over each other's plans to restore health to the country's economy.
With opinion polls showing Mr. Obama taking a healthy lead in the race, Mr. McCain immediately went on the offensive, attacking his Democratic opponent as a tax-hiking liberal who would crush the dreams of "Joe the Plumber" and millions of other small business people in the U.S.
"If nobody likes taxes, let's not raise anybody's taxes," Mr. McCain scoffed in the opening exchange of the 90-minute debate, held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.
Mr. McCain, who needed a strong performance to alter the trajectory of the presidential campaign, homed in on Mr. Obama's plans to raise taxes for people earning more than $250,000 a year.
He highlighted a much-publicized encounter that Mr. Obama had this week in Ohio, with a plumber named Joe Wurzelbacher, who was set to buy a plumbing business that earned more than $250,000 a year.
Mr. Obama told the man his tax plan would help "spread the wealth around" to lower-income people.
Mr. McCain said Mr. Obama's plan would cripple thousands of small businesses just as the U.S. economy was headed into a downturn.
"I will not stand for a tax increase on small business income," Mr. McCain said. "What you want to do to Joe the Plumber and millions more like him is have his tax increase."
Mr. Obama made no apologies for his plan, which he said would cut taxes for 95 per cent of working people in the U.S.
"If you make less than $250,000 a year, you will not see one dime (of tax increases)," he said.
The debate marked the third and final head-to-head encounter between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain before the Nov. 4 election, and several major national polls show the Democratic candidate with a double-digit lead.
Mr. McCain's campaign has been hit hard by the financial tumult on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Index plummeted 733 points yesterday, and the growing fear of a recession among voters. The daily Gallup tracking poll showed Mr. Obama with 50-per-cent support among registered voters, compared to 43 per cent for Mr. McCain, who has trailed by a statistically significant margin since late September.
Some GOP strategist say Mr. McCain's campaign has been purely a victim of circumstances, with voters punishing the candidate whose party has been in the White House for eight years. However, others have blamed his lag in the polls on a scattershot political strategy that included threats to cancel the first presidential debate until Congress passed a Wall Street bailout plan.
Several Republican strategists said yesterday's debate marked the Arizona senator's final chance to connect with U.S. voters feeling the economic pinch.
A separate CBS/New York Times poll, which showed Mr. Obama with a 14-per-cent lead, suggested voters had been turned off by the McCain campaign's recent attacks on Mr. Obama's character.
Mr. McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, have repeatedly questioned Mr. Obama's judgment and honesty over his past association with William Ayers, a former domestic terrorist from Chicago who served on two charitable organization boards with the Illinois senator in the 1990s.
Mr. Ayers' group, the Weather Underground, was responsible for bombings at the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol in the 1970s.
Heading into last night's debate, Mr. McCain said Mr. Obama had "probably ensured" Mr. Ayers would be an issue in the debate after he challenged the Republican candidate to make accusations to his face.
Mr. McCain's campaign has struggled over how aggressively to attack Mr. Obama over his past associations, sometimes changing campaign tactics on a daily basis. For the most part, Mrs. Palin has led the charge, accusing Mr. Obama of "palling around" with a domestic terrorist and not sharing traditional U.S. values.
The internal disagreement over the wisdom of attacking Mr. Obama's character has extended outside the campaign as well. The criticisms of his ties to Mr. Ayers have been welcomed among conservative activists attending McCain/Palin rallies, with audiences roaring with lusty boos whenever negative associations are made.
"I've called Obama on it, of course, because it's very reflective of, I think, judgment -- someone's truthfulness also when you try to get to the bottom of it," Mrs. Palin said yesterday on a New Hampshire talk show. "Obama either knew the guy or he didn't."
Polls have shown most people in the U.S. believe Mr. Obama won the first two debates, which each drew television audiences in excess of 50 million.
The stakes for Mr. McCain last night were incredibly, perhaps unrealistically, high. Apart from the national polls measuring the presidential horse race, he has also been battered by a series of polls showing him trailing Mr. Obama in several states that voted Republican in 2004.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
Print Story - canada.com network
Economic crisis dominates final Obama-McCain matchup
It's all about 'Joe the Plumber'
Sheldon Alberts
Canwest News Service
Thursday, October 16, 2008
WASHINGTON - Another bad day on the stock market, another presidential debate dominated by the economic woes of the United States.
In their final head-to-head clash before the Nov. 4 election, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain clashed repeatedly over each other's plans to restore health to the country's economy.
With opinion polls showing Mr. Obama taking a healthy lead in the race, Mr. McCain immediately went on the offensive, attacking his Democratic opponent as a tax-hiking liberal who would crush the dreams of "Joe the Plumber" and millions of other small business people in the U.S.
"If nobody likes taxes, let's not raise anybody's taxes," Mr. McCain scoffed in the opening exchange of the 90-minute debate, held at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.
Mr. McCain, who needed a strong performance to alter the trajectory of the presidential campaign, homed in on Mr. Obama's plans to raise taxes for people earning more than $250,000 a year.
He highlighted a much-publicized encounter that Mr. Obama had this week in Ohio, with a plumber named Joe Wurzelbacher, who was set to buy a plumbing business that earned more than $250,000 a year.
Mr. Obama told the man his tax plan would help "spread the wealth around" to lower-income people.
Mr. McCain said Mr. Obama's plan would cripple thousands of small businesses just as the U.S. economy was headed into a downturn.
"I will not stand for a tax increase on small business income," Mr. McCain said. "What you want to do to Joe the Plumber and millions more like him is have his tax increase."
Mr. Obama made no apologies for his plan, which he said would cut taxes for 95 per cent of working people in the U.S.
"If you make less than $250,000 a year, you will not see one dime (of tax increases)," he said.
The debate marked the third and final head-to-head encounter between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain before the Nov. 4 election, and several major national polls show the Democratic candidate with a double-digit lead.
Mr. McCain's campaign has been hit hard by the financial tumult on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Index plummeted 733 points yesterday, and the growing fear of a recession among voters. The daily Gallup tracking poll showed Mr. Obama with 50-per-cent support among registered voters, compared to 43 per cent for Mr. McCain, who has trailed by a statistically significant margin since late September.
Some GOP strategist say Mr. McCain's campaign has been purely a victim of circumstances, with voters punishing the candidate whose party has been in the White House for eight years. However, others have blamed his lag in the polls on a scattershot political strategy that included threats to cancel the first presidential debate until Congress passed a Wall Street bailout plan.
Several Republican strategists said yesterday's debate marked the Arizona senator's final chance to connect with U.S. voters feeling the economic pinch.
A separate CBS/New York Times poll, which showed Mr. Obama with a 14-per-cent lead, suggested voters had been turned off by the McCain campaign's recent attacks on Mr. Obama's character.
Mr. McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, have repeatedly questioned Mr. Obama's judgment and honesty over his past association with William Ayers, a former domestic terrorist from Chicago who served on two charitable organization boards with the Illinois senator in the 1990s.
Mr. Ayers' group, the Weather Underground, was responsible for bombings at the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol in the 1970s.
Heading into last night's debate, Mr. McCain said Mr. Obama had "probably ensured" Mr. Ayers would be an issue in the debate after he challenged the Republican candidate to make accusations to his face.
Mr. McCain's campaign has struggled over how aggressively to attack Mr. Obama over his past associations, sometimes changing campaign tactics on a daily basis. For the most part, Mrs. Palin has led the charge, accusing Mr. Obama of "palling around" with a domestic terrorist and not sharing traditional U.S. values.
The internal disagreement over the wisdom of attacking Mr. Obama's character has extended outside the campaign as well. The criticisms of his ties to Mr. Ayers have been welcomed among conservative activists attending McCain/Palin rallies, with audiences roaring with lusty boos whenever negative associations are made.
"I've called Obama on it, of course, because it's very reflective of, I think, judgment -- someone's truthfulness also when you try to get to the bottom of it," Mrs. Palin said yesterday on a New Hampshire talk show. "Obama either knew the guy or he didn't."
Polls have shown most people in the U.S. believe Mr. Obama won the first two debates, which each drew television audiences in excess of 50 million.
The stakes for Mr. McCain last night were incredibly, perhaps unrealistically, high. Apart from the national polls measuring the presidential horse race, he has also been battered by a series of polls showing him trailing Mr. Obama in several states that voted Republican in 2004.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
Print Story - canada.com network
