McCain and Obama about as far apart as possible: Florida and Hawaii
In Central Florida, John McCain continues his attacks on Barack Obama's tax plans. Obama attends a rally in Indiana, then departs for Hawaii to visit his ailing grandmother.
Reporting from Ormond Beach, Fla., and Indianapolis, Ind. — Republican John McCain took his campaign to the crucial Interstate 4 corridor in central Florida today, stressing economic issues in this vote-rich region that may help decide who wins the presidency.
While McCain kicked off what his campaign dubbed the "Joe the Plumber Tour," in tribute to the tradesman Republicans have turned into a symbol of all financially strapped Americans, Democrat Barack Obama was also concentrating on the economy and early voting in Indianapolis.
In Florida, which has lost the most jobs in the nation in the past eight years, McCain accused Obama of adding a work requirement to his tax relief policies to avoid GOP charges that he was creating a new form of welfare for the unemployed.
"He changed his tax plan because the American people learned the truth about it and they didn't like it," McCain told an enthusiastic crowd who packed a lumber yard in this suburb of Daytona Beach, his first of five stops in this pivotal state that has gone Republican in the past two presidential elections. "It's another example that he'll say anything to get elected."
Obama's campaign quickly fired back, accusing McCain of deliberately distorting Obama's proposal to provide a mortgage interest tax credit. Every refundable tax credit in the federal tax code includes a work requirement, and the Obama campaign insists their plan does as well.
"Last week, Senator McCain called Obama's tax cuts for working people 'welfare,' " Tommy Vietor, an Obama spokesman, wrote in an e-mail to reporters. "Today, he's claiming Senator Obama doesn't do enough to help the unemployed. The only thing consistent about these attacks is how dishonest they are."
Vietor said that under Obama's tax plan, tax credits "only go to workers and they always have."
The McCain tour was scheduled to make five stops in a rolling cavalcade that headed southwest along Interstate 4 from Daytona Beach to Tampa Bay. The fast-growing I-4 corridor -- home to citrus farms, DisneyWorld Orlando and stock car racing tracks -- is considered the key to Florida's 27 electoral votes, which represent one-tenth the total needed to win the White House.
As he has for days, McCain repeatedly invoked "Joe the Plumber" as an American archetype who would suffer under Obama's tax policies.
