John McCain, Barack Obama take campaign to Pennsylvania
The two presidential candidates carve the state into red and blue, with Republican McCain visiting more conservative areas and Democrat Obama in suburban Philadelphia.
Reporting from Chester, Pa., and Los Angeles — Republican John McCain concentrated on the more conservatives areas of Pennsylvania while Democrat Barack Obama pressed his case in the suburbs of Philadelphia as the presidential campaigns brought their economic messages to the Keystone State today.
With a week to go before election day, Pennsylvania is living up to its nickname as the political keystone for both camps. It is the state where McCain is waging a vigorous campaign to capture what are usually Democratic electoral votes while the Obama camp has made a special trip back here to cement what polls show is a strong lead.
Both candidates emphasized the economy but broke no new ground in repeating familiar programs and charges as they fired up crowds at their respective rallies.
McCain, accompanied by vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, again tried to portray Obama as someone who would raise taxes, and the running mates repeated their recent theme that the Democrat was too liberal and wanted to redistribute wealth.
Obama again called for a tax increase for those earning more than $250,000 a year while saying he would cut taxes for those earning less and continued to link the GOP to the unpopular Bush administration.
"John McCain has ridden shotgun as George Bush has driven our economy toward a cliff, and now he wants to take the wheel and step on the gas," Obama told 9,000 supporters gathered on the quadrangle at Widener University in Chester, Pa. "When it comes to the issue of taxes, saying that John McCain is running for a third Bush term isn't being fair to George Bush."
Obama said McCain was proposing $300 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations and an average $700,000 in tax cuts for Fortune 500 chief executives, while providing no tax relief for middle-class families.
"That's not something even George Bush proposed," Obama said.
The weather that halted Game 5 of the baseball World Series in Philadelphia on Monday night continued to bear down on the region, so supporters were buffeted with pouring rain, whipping winds and near-freezing conditions.
"A little bit of rain never hurt anybody," Obama told the cheering crowd. "This is an unbelievable crowd for this kind of weather -- thank you so much. I just want all of you to know, if we see this kind of dedication on election day there is no way we're not going to bring change to America."
