Obama, speaking in a pole barn where youngsters usually show off their livestock, offered a sharp critique of McCain's widely viewed convention speech, acidly noting that some of the Arizona senator's top advisors were lobbyists until they went to work for his presidential campaign.
"Suddenly he's the change agent," Obama said. "He says, 'I'm going to tell those lobbyists that their days of running Washington are over.' Who's he going to tell? Is he going to tell his campaign chairman, who's one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell his campaign manager, who was one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell all the folks who are running his campaign, who are the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Who? Who is it that he's going to tell that change is coming? I mean come on. They must think you're stupid."
Obama also criticized Palin, who has touted her opposition to federal earmarks even though she lobbied for millions of dollars of earmarks when she was mayor of a small town and, as governor, she requested $197.8 million in earmarks this year.
"When you've been taking all these earmarks when it's convenient, and then suddenly, you're the champion anti-earmark person, that's not change," Obama said.
Later in the day, Palin said she was "surprised that he raised the subject" and noted that Obama has sought almost $1 billion in earmarks in the last three years.
"Just wait until President McCain puts a stop to that," she said.
Taxpayers for Common Sense estimates that, excluding earmark requests for national programs, such as breast cancer research, Obama has asked for $853.3 million in earmarks for Illinois since he took office.
Also on Saturday, both campaigns addressed the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout.
In Colorado Springs, McCain made only passing reference to the crisis, but later in Albuquerque he talked about a possible federal bailout in the context of the everyday struggles of voters who are were trying to deal with the economic downturn.
"You're worried about keeping your job or finding a new one. You're struggling to put food on the table and stay in your home," he said. "The jobs number yesterday was another reminder of that. Today we're looking at possible failure of our home loan agencies we need to keep people in their homes, but we can't allow this to turn into a bailout of Wall Street speculators and irresponsible executives. We can't let it do that."
