John McCain blames Congress for energy crisis
The Republican challenges the American people to demand more from lawmakers and criticizes Barack Obama's energy plan at a stop in Ohio.
LIMA, OHIO — Republican presidential candidate John McCain said today that the nation's energy crisis is a direct result of congressional failure and called on Congress, now in a five-week summer recess, to get back to work.
"This burden is being imposed on us because of our inaction," he said at a town hall meeting here.
Asked by one voter how, as president, he would ensure energy independence, McCain said, "It can't be just oil and wind and solar . . . it's got to be all of them." Calling a recently passed energy bill "a total and disgraceful failure," McCain said the only thing that will work is if "the American people demand [that lawmakers] sit down together, Democrat and Republican . . . and [tell them] 'Don't come home until you've given us a policy that works.' "
With Democratic rival Barack Obama in private meetings today in Minneapolis, McCain had the presidential campaign stage to himself, and he used it to chide Obama for being "another politician who puts expediency ahead of problem-solving."
On energy policy, McCain taunted Obama for attacking him for backing President Bush's energy policy. Noting that the Illinois senator had voted for the 2005 energy bill that Bush supported, McCain sniffed, "Sen. Obama might be a little bit confused."
And he again belittled Obama for his suggestion that Americans save gas by keeping up their tire air pressure. "That's not an energy plan, that's a public service announcement," McCain said.
Obama Wednesday criticized McCain for mocking the tire pressure idea while also acknowledging that the practice does save gasoline. "It will be interesting to watch this debate between John McCain and John McCain," Obama quipped as he campaigned in Indiana with Sen. Evan Bayh, who is said to be on Obama's short list for vice president.
Today, McCain told voters that he is the underdog but said he looked to this battleground state for support. "We can win in November if we carry Ohio," he said. One voter, without mentioning the McCain ad comparing Obama to Paris Hilton, told McCain, "You're a celebrity."
The two campaigns exchanged pointed words over a new Web ad campaign launched by McCain that quotes Obama supporters such as Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean praising McCain for being a "maverick" Republican who is willing to work across the aisle with Democrats.
Replied Dean: "The John McCain of 2000 wouldn't even consider voting for the John McCain of 2008 . . . John McCain has changed. He's taken the low road, leveling false, negative and misleading attacks against Barack Obama. John McCain is no more a maverick within the Republican Party than Dick Cheney is. He's just more of the same."
Obama meanwhile told reporters that he had spoken to former President Bill Clinton and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton this week and that both were enthusiastic about a unified convention in Denver later this month.
"As is true in all conventions, we're still working out the mechanics, the coordination," Obama said, acknowledging that there is still negotiation over whether there will be a convention roll call on Clinton's nomination.
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