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Obama: McCain Better Than Bush

Posted on: Tuesday, 22 April 2008, 00:00 CDT

Democrat Barack Obama, who often argues that John McCain is the same as President Bush, said Sunday that the Republican presidential candidate would be an improvement over Bush's eight-year reign.

"You have a real choice in this election. Either Democrat would be better than John McCain. And all three of us would be better than George Bush," Obama said.

"But what you have to ask yourself is, who has the chance to actually, really change things in a fundamental way?" Obama asked as he wrapped up a town-hall style event at Reading High School in central Pennsylvania.

The Illinois senator was trying to argue that he is the stronger choice over Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in Tuesday's primary in Pennsylvania. But Obama ended up mixing in praise for McCain at the same time - and giving Clinton an opening to criticize.

"We need a nominee who will take on John McCain, not cheer on John McCain," the New York senator said in Johnstown. She said the Arizona senator would follow "the same failed policies that have been so wrong for our country the last seven years."

Before the positive comment about McCain, Obama had argued anew - as he does at virtually every campaign stop - that the Republican offers a vision identical to that of the Bush administration on everything from Iraq to the economy.

In other campaign news:

-- McCain said Sunday that cutting taxes and stimulating the economy are more important than balancing the budget, and accused both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama of supporting tax hikes that would worsen the impact of a recession.

"The goal right now is to get the economy going again," the GOP presidential nominee-in-waiting said on ABC's "This Week," adding that he would put the country "on a path to a balanced budget" by attacking wasteful spending.

McCain brushed off Democratic assertions that he is out of touch on the economy and reiterated a pledge to cut taxes even if it means running up deficits. Turning the tables on Clinton and Obama, he said they are the misguided ones for proposing tax increases during a recession.

-- Clinton was endorsed Sunday by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, whose owner and publisher, billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, personally funded many of the investigations that led to President Clinton's impeachment in 1998.

It was one of a handful of endorsements the New York senator has received from Pennsylvania newspapers before the state's primary Tuesday. Most of the state's major papers have endorsed Obama.

In its endorsement, Tribune-Review editors said Obama is too inexperienced to be president and that his recent comments about bitter voters living in small towns showed a lack of respect for middle-class values.

-- New campaign finance reports show Obama entered April with $51 million in the bank to mount his campaign for the White House. His cash on hand fully equipped him to confront Clinton in Pennsylvania, which votes Tuesday.

Obama's fundraising in March led all candidates, but was still lower than the mark he set in February, when he raised more than $55 million. He has raised $235 million in his campaign.

Aides say Clinton raised about $20 million in March, but she had not filed her report with the Federal Election Commission a couple of hours before the deadline.

McCain's report showed he raised $15 million and had nearly $12 million in the bank.

Source: Telegraph - Herald

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