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WORLD> America
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McCain fights for comeback in hard-hit Ohio
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-28 14:19 Republican Sen. Ted Stevens' conviction in a corruption trial in Washington gave fresh momentum to the Democrats' drive for a 60-seat Senate majority that would strengthen their ability to overcome Republican filibusters on key legislation. McCain himself has endured numerous slights in recent days, including anonymous sniping between his aides and those of running mate Sarah Palin. That came on the heels of the disclosure that clothes and accessories totaling $150,000 had been purchased with donor funds for the Alaska governor and her family. McCain announced over the weekend that $50,000 worth of merchandise had been returned, and Palin pointedly told one crowd she was back to wearing duds from her "favorite consignment" store in Alaska.
Ohio was Monday's battleground, with McCain campaigning in Cleveland and Dayton, while Obama was in Canton. Ohio has voted with the winner each time since 1964, and Bush's victory there sealed his second White House term four years ago. But the state turned Democratic two years later when Ted Strickland was elected governor, and Sherrod Brown unseated a Republican incumbent to win his Senate seat. Now public and private polls rate Obama the favorite, and dreary monthly jobless statistics show a statewide economy in trouble. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state has lost 92,000 jobs since February, and Ohio's unemployment, 7.2 percent of its work force, is well above the national rate of 6.1 percent. In an attempt to blunt Obama in Ohio, the National Republican Trust PAC, a conservative political action committee, planned to air ads there and in Pennsylvania and Florida showing clips of controversial sermons by Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The group aimed to spend about $1 million in the final six days of the campaign, its executive director, Scott Wheeler said. McCain met with economic advisers in the morning and then said he had plans to rejuvenate the economy. "To do this, we need pro-growth and pro-jobs economic policies, not pro-government spending programs paid for with higher taxes," he said in a slap at Obama. "My approach will lead to rising stock market prices, a stabilized housing market, economic growth and millions of new jobs," he said. "Sen. Obama's plans will destroy business growth, kill jobs and lead to continued declined in the stock market and make a recession even deeper and more painful." Obama responded a short while later with what aides said was the summation of his long quest for the White House. While part of it reprised his 21-month call for change, he also took time to try and link McCain with an unpopular Bush. "We've tried it John McCain's way. We've tried it George Bush's way," he said. "Deep down, Sen. McCain knows that, which is why his campaign said that `if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose.'"
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