Obama goes after McCain on economic stance

Obama Criticizes McCain on Economic Stance By Jeff Zeleny ERIE, Pa. – Three days before the Pennsylvania presidential primary, Senator Barack Obama barely mentioned his Democratic rival here today, but rather criticized Senator John McCain’s assessment of the American economy. “John McCain went on television and said that there has been great progress economically over the last seven-and-a-half year years,” Mr. Obama said. “John McCain thinks our economy has made great progress under George W. Bush? How could somebody who has been traveling across this country, somebody who came to Erie, Pennsylvania, say we’ve made great progress?” Mr. Obama, speaking on the campus of Penn State Erie, was referring to remarks that Mr. McCain made Thursday to Bloomberg Television. When asked if he believed Americans were better off now than when President Bush took office, Mr. McCain conceded that people were facing “very challenging times.” But he went on to say, “You could make an argument that there’s been great progress economically over that period of time.”To an audience of about 1,800 voters here, Mr. Obama telegraphed a general election message for Democrats. He seized upon Mr. McCain’s quotation to make a point that Americans have suffered under the administration’s stewardship of the economy. “Here’s what happened since George Bush took office, here’s what John McCain calls great progress,” Mr. Obama said. “We went through the first period of sustained economic growth since World War II that saw incomes drop; 11 million more Americans don’t have health care; 2 million more Americans are out of work; millions of families are facing foreclosure. The poverty rate has gone up. You are working harder for less.” “You’re paying more for tuition, you’re paying more for groceries, more at the pump. That’s what John McCain calls great progress,” Mr. Obama said. Later, he added: “Only somebody who spent two decades in Washington could make a statement as disconnected from the hard times that people are facing all across America.” Mr. Obama, who often criticizes the politics of parsing words, did not tell voters here that in the next sentence of Mr. McCain’s interview he said: “But that’s no comfort. That’s not comfort to families now that are facing these tremendous economic challenges.” Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Mr. McCain, called Mr. Obama’s remarks “recklessly dishonest.” “It is clear that Barack Obama is intentionally twisting John McCain’s words completely out of context,” Mr. Bounds said in a statement. “Obama is guilty of deliberately distorting John McCain’s comments for pure political gain, which is exactly what Senator Obama was complaining about just yesterday.” In addition to criticizing Mr. McCain, the remarks from Mr. Obama were intended to send another signal: He is striving to look beyond the 10 contests still to come in the Democratic primary fight. It remains an open question whether that strategy is premature, particularly when the banner headline of today’s Erie Times-News declared, “Vote of confidence,” with a photograph of former president Bill Clinton’s visit here yesterday. “If Pennsylvania says ‘Yes,’ and says it loudly to Hillary,” Mr. Clinton said, “she’ll be the nominee, she’ll be the next president.”