Obama Las Vegas trip leads to McCain back-and-forth

Ill. Sen. Barack Obama leads a town hall meeting at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas Tuesday.: Politicker Photo.LAS VEGAS -- In his first trip back to the Silver State since losing Nevada's Jan. 19 Democratic precinct caucuses, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) continued efforts Tuesday to tie presumptive Republican nominee U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to President Bush and discussed specific proposals to address southern Nevada's mounting home foreclosure crisis.

Obama's visit with a Las Vegas family and his town hall meeting at the College of Southern Nevada coincided with a since-cancelled fundraiser for McCain in Phoenix tonight that would be hosted by Bush, something Obama referenced immediately upon taking the podium.

"Today, John McCain is having a different kind of meeting," said Obama. "He's holding a fundraiser with George Bush behind closed doors in Arizona. No cameras. No reporters. And we all know why. Senator McCain doesn't want to be seen, hat-in-hand, with the President whose failed policies he promises to continue for another four years."

"The question for the American people is: do we want to continue George Bush's policies?"

Following a week when foreign policy dominated the nation's political attention, Obama only briefly touched on the issue of the war in Iraq and made no reference to an imbroglio about meeting with the nation's international adversaries.

Instead, Obama spoke almost entirely about economic issues, slamming McCain and Bush for not doing enough to address the foreclosure crisis.

"Now I know that John McCain doesn't like to talk about the economy," said Obama. "Earlier in the campaign, he admitted that, ‘the issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should.' Apparently, that hasn't changed, since his plan amounts to little more than borrowing bad ideas from George Bush."

"And Senator McCain is so out of touch with the struggles of working people that he gave a speech laying out his economic agenda last week, and he couldn't even be bothered to talk about a foreclosure crisis that has put so many families on the brink of catastrophe, and put our economy on the brink of a recession."

"We've had enough of the can't-do, won't-do, won't-even-try approach from George Bush and John McCain."

McCain's campaign was quick to respond, disputing Obama's charges and seeking to show some separation from the unpopular Bush administration.

"Whether it's fighting wasteful government spending, addressing global climate change or advocating a more effective strategy in Iraq, John McCain has clear but respectful differences of opinions with the President," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds in an e-mail statement. "However, it isn't surprising that Barack Obama is trying to disguise his lack of depth and weak leadership on economic issues with political generalizations and partisan attacks."

"John McCain has introduced a solutions based plan targeting the mortgage crisis, and today he launched campaign advertisements in key swing-states highlighting his intentions to fight foreclosures, but that didn't stop Barack Obama from making a misinformed political attack. When Barack Obama's best ideas include nearly $50 billion of taxpayer money with no guarantee that it won't end up in the hands of speculators, and tax hikes on small businesses that provide the paying jobs Americans need, it's clear that he just isn't ready to lead our economy."

Following his prepared remarks, Obama took questions from the roughly 75 Nevadans at the town hall meeting. The questions, like the remarks, centered on housing problems and Obama repeated several of his proposals, including creating a new Federal Housing Administration program to give lenders incentives to buy or refinance mortgages and convert them into 30-year fixed mortgages, giving tax credits to homeowners to cover 10 percent of their mortgage interest yearly, standardizing loan disclosure so consumers fully understand loan agreements and eliminating income taxes for seniors making less than $50,000 per year.

Obama mentioned his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton, only once, referring to a policy difference on addressing home foreclosures. Clinton had proposed a five-year freeze on mortgage rate adjustments, which Obama said would lead lenders to raise rates, make mortgages unaffordable.

Obama's economic message represents a shift back into policy territory where Democrats are generally viewed more favorably than Republicans. In a Rasmussen Nevada poll conducted earlier this month, Obama led McCain by 25 points among those who consider the economy the most important issue. McCain, however, led Obama 90 to 10 percent among those who consider national security the most important issue.

That poll showed McCain leading Obama in Nevada, 46 to 40 percent.