Obama, McCain campaign on economy
Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama ridiculed Republican rival John McCain and his running mate on Saturday for claiming they would bring about the changes needed to get the country back on the right track.
By Agencies |
WASHINGTON : Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama ridiculed Republican rival John McCain and his running mate on Saturday for claiming they would bring about the changes needed to get the country back on the right track.
Obama's comments came as both campaigns scrambled to react to the implications for taxpayers and the economy of a historic government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which could come as soon as this weekend.
A day earlier the government reported that the US jobless rate hit a surprising 6.1 per cent in August.
The latest economic setbacks only underscored how large a factor the troubled US economy has become in the presidential campaign, mostly eclipsing the Iraq war as voters worry about losing their jobs, homes and health insurance coverage.
Speaking to 800 people in a barn at a Terre Haute, Indiana, fairgrounds, Obama said people should not believe the claims by McCain and his vice presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, that they were the agents of change ready to shake up business as usual.
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"Don't be fooled," Obama said of the campaign's comments at the Republican National Convention last week. "John McCain's party, with the help of John McCain, has been in charge" for nearly eight years. Obama and McCain said they were both briefed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on the mortgage crisis and the Bush administration's steps toward a government takeover of the two financial companies which together hold or back half of US mortgage debt.
News of the likely government takeover Friday followed a report by the Mortgage Bankers Association that more than 4 million American homeowners with a mortgage, a record 9 percent, were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of June.
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