RALEIGH, N.C — . -- With Americans stressed by $4-per-gallon gasoline and a housing slump, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama launched a two-week tour Monday to focus on pocketbook issues.
Along the way, the Illinois senator will try to tie likely Republican nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona to the policies of an unpopular president.
"For all his talk about independence, the centerpiece of John McCain's economic plan amounts to a full-throated endorsement of George Bush's policies," Obama told an invitation-only audience of 900 at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds.
Obama's new emphasis follows weeks of focus by McCain on national security and foreign policy, areas where the GOP thinks Obama is vulnerable.
Obama's "Change That Works for You" tour is his first major campaign swing since he wrapped up the Democratic nomination last week.
The Republican National Committee countered by calling it the "Change We Can't Afford" tour and pointed to Obama's support for increases in income, Social Security and capital gains taxes for higher-income Americans.
McCain, in an interview with "NBC Nightly News," called Obama a spender who had "no way to pay for his programs."
In Raleigh, with former White House hopeful John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, in attendance, Obama said the Bush administration's tax cuts had hurt the nation.
"For eight long years, our president sacrificed investments in healthcare and education and energy and infrastructure on the altar of tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs -- trillions of dollars in giveaways that proved neither compassionate nor conservative," he said.
During his discussion on healthcare reform, Obama extended an arm toward Elizabeth Edwards, a Center for American Progress fellow working on healthcare issues. Edwards is battling recurrent breast cancer.
"I'm going to be partnering up with Elizabeth Edwards," he said. "We're going to be figuring all this out."
Although the electoral map has been relatively stable in the last two presidential elections, Obama's campaign thinks it can compete in more states, including North Carolina.
Obama is expected to meet with voters and visit workplaces from hospitals to factories in traditional battleground states, including stops Wednesday and Thursday in Iowa and Wisconsin.
