WASHINGTON: With four days to the presidential election, Republican John McCain is intensifying his underdog message in must-win Ohio, trailing in the polls but promising “we’re coming back” in the race against front-running Democrat Barack Obama.
Obama has opened his lead in the polls by relentlessly linking his opponent to the unpopular President George W. Bush, a fellow Republican who is heavily blamed for the US financial crisis, and whom voters perceive as the better choice to turn around the economy.
A new Associated Press-Yahoo News poll showed Obama leading McCain among all likely voters, 51 percent to 43 percent, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The survey found, however, that one in seven — or 14 percent — can’t decide, or back a candidate but might switch.
In a morning interview with ABC television yesterday, McCain charged that Obama’s economic policies were far to the left of average Americans.
“We’re going to fight it out on the economic grounds,” McCain said. “Sen. Obama’s economic policy is from the far left of American politics and ours is in the center. He wants to raise people’s taxes — that’s clear.”
Obama has pledged he would only increase tax rates on those earning more than $250,000 and would lower the government’s cut from families making less, a group he says makes up 95 percent of American households.
McCain was spending a second straight day touring economically ailing Ohio, a swing state with 20 electoral votes that McCain aides acknowledge is central to a victory on Tuesday. McCain was behind Obama in polls in the state.
Under the US system, the president is not elected by direct popular vote nationwide. Instead, the successful candidate must win 270 electoral votes in what amounts to a state-by-state contest. Electoral votes are allocated to each state roughly according to population. In Ohio’s hard-pressed southeast, McCain whipped up a crowd of several thousand at the county courthouse in Steubenville, telling them, “You’re going to be the battleground state again. You’re going to be the one who decides. I need Ohio and I need you.” The candidate was running about an hour behind schedule but said waiting supporters bucked him up with their “enthusiasm.” “I know momentum and we’ve got it now in Ohio,” McCain said.
Later, the Arizona senator was appearing in Columbus with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Obama drew former Vice President Al Gore onto the campaign trail yesterday in Florida, where a 36-day recount resulted in Bush winning the state by 537 votes over Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election, putting him in the White House. Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, planned two rallies in the state — in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.
Obama yesterday campaigned across the Midwest, with a quick stop to see his children in Chicago and a stop in Des Moines, Iowa, the state where he upset Hillary Clinton in the first electoral test of the year before earning the Democratic nomination. He was also headed to Indiana, a battleground state.
In the Iowa capital, Obama told a huge crowd to expect more “slash and burn, say-anything, do-anything politics” in the closing days of the race as he chided McCain for breaking his vow not to engage in negative campaigning.
“A couple of elections ago, there was a presidential candidate who decried this kind of politics and condemned these kinds of tactics,” Obama said. “And I admired him for it — we all did. He said, ‘I will not take the low road to the highest office in this land.’ Those words were spoken eight years ago by my opponent, John McCain. But the high road didn’t lead him to the White House then, so this time, he decided to take a different route.” McCain says he relishes the underdog role and has pulled off come-from-behind wins in the past.
