Obama links McCain with Bush`s economic woes

Washington, Oct 31 (PTI) In a final push ahead of next week's landmark presidential election, front-runner Democrat Barack Obama sought to expand his lead in the polls by linking his Republican rival John McCain to the economic woes afflicting the United States.

The 47-year-old Obama, who has been almost exclusively
focused on the economy in the last two weeks since the beginning of the financial crisis in the U.S., continued with the theme in the final stretch as he seeks to become the first black president of the nation.

"If you want to know where John McCain will drive this economy, just look in the rear view mirror. Because when it comes to our economic policies, John McCain has been right next to George Bush. He's been sitting there in the passenger seat, ready to take over, every step of the way," Obama said in a campaign speech in Florida.

Obama has kept the focus on the economy as grim new figures showed the world's largest economy is moving towards recession. The U.S. government said the economy had shrunk by 0.3 percent in the third quarter through September, its worst contraction since 2001.

The Obama campaign has doubled up his attack with a new commercial showing the faces of President George Bush and Senator McCain together in a car's rear view mirror with the announcer saying, "Look behind you. We can't afford more of the same."

The 72-year old McCain, has struggled to compete with Obama on economic policy as polls show the issue remains the top concern for Americans. McCain's campaign has insisted the bleak economic outlook would be made even worse by an Obama administration, saying his opponent would raise taxes stifle growth and kill employment.

The McCain campaign has not lagged far behind as it
came up with a new advertisement featuring Republican Florida
Governor Charlie Christ praising Senator McCain. "A reformer,
a maverick, he'll fight out-of-control spending and keep our
taxes down. John McCain never quits and he'll always fight for
you."

With most polls and analysts expecting a victory for
the Illinois Senator, people have already started speculation
on the top picks of an Obama administration. But the candidate
himself is focused on the election in the next four days,
knowing full well that in this high stakes political game
anything can go wrong.

Analysts and experts are sure of only one thing in
this election: that there is going to be some heavy political
bloodletting in the Congressional races with Republicans
losing perhaps as high as 30 seats in the House of
Representatives and the Democrats standing to pick up a near
cloture proof majority of sixty seats in the Senate from the
present 49.

The places where Senator Obama has chosen in the last
few days of the campaign season is clearly indicative of the
confidence that the campaign is under as also a determination
to bringing into their fold a clutch of the so-called 'Red
States' that had either for a long time been in the Republican
column or had gone with President Bush in 2000 and 2004.

Senator Obama, over the next four days, will be
swinging through Iowa, Indiana, Colorado, Missouri, Ohio and
Virginia before heading off to Chicago to watch the returns
next Tuesday. And Senator McCain and his running mate Sarah
Palin are focused on Florida and Ohio with their final
schedule yet to be known conclusively.

If the McCain campaign is exuding confident in the
final stages especially in states like Florida and Ohio, it is
probably on account of some internal polling that the campaign
is privy to that is showing either the race tightening up or
even showing the candidate with a small lead. PTI