Fact check: Would Obama's tax rates be less than Reagan's?
The Statement: Speaking at a campaign event Saturday, Oct. 25, in Reno, Nevada, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama described elements of his tax plan and said, "Under my plan tax rates will actually be less than they were under Ronald Reagan." He made the same statement earlier in the week at campaign events in Richmond, Virginia, and Miami and Tampa, Florida.
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'Finish the race before starting the victory lap,' McCain says
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/25/art.macahead1025.ap.jpg caption="Sen. McCain warned Sen. Obama not to get too far ahead of himself during a campaign event Saturday."]
(CNN) - Senator John McCain attacked Sen. Barack Obama for having his inaugural address ready to go and said that Obama’s presidential preparations will be proven premature at a rally in Mesilla, Arizona on Saturday.
“We just learned from a newspaper today that Senator Obama’s inaugural address is already written.”
“You know? I’m not making it up. I’m not making it up. I’m not making it up. An awful lot of voters are still undecided, but he’s decided for them that well, why wait? It’s time to move forward with his first inaugural address,” McCain said.
“My friends, when I pull this thing, I have a request for my opponent. I want him to save that manuscript of his inaugural address, and donate it to the Smithsonian. And they can put it right next to the Chicago paper that said Dewey Defeats Truman,” he said in reference to the 1948 Chicago Tribune headline incorrectly proclaiming Dewey the winner of that presidential election.
“There’s 10 days left in this election, maybe Barack Obama will have his first state of the union address ready before you head to the polls. You know, I guess I’m just a little old fashioned about these things. I prefer to let the voters weigh in before presuming the outcome. What America needs now is someone who will finish the race before starting the victory lap.”
McCain was referring to a New York Times article published Saturday that said John Podesta (who leads Senator Obama's transition team) "has been mapping out the transition so systematically that he has already written a draft Inaugural Address for Mr. Obama, which he published this summer in a book called ‘The Power of Progress’.”
Minutes after the Republican presidential candidate finished his speech, an Obama aide clarified that the address was in a book John Podesta wrote before Obama was the nominee and was written for a generic Democratic president.
In another response, Obama-Biden spokesman Bill Burton denied McCain's claim and linked him to a very unpopular Republican president.
“While this charge is completely false and there is no draft of an inaugural address for Senator Obama, the last thing we need is a candidate like John McCain who just plans on re-reading George Bush’s,” Burton said.
CNN poll of polls: Obama's advantage at nine points nationally
(CNN) – Sen. Barack Obama’s is ahead of Sen. John McCain by nine points, according to CNN’s latest national general election poll of polls. Fifty-one percent of likely voters support Obama while 42 percent support McCain. Seven percent of those surveyed are unsure about their choice of president.
Obama was ahead of McCain by eight points – 50 percent compared to 42 percent in CNN’s previous general election poll of polls released Friday afternoon.
CNN latest national poll of polls is composed of the following eight surveys: Newsweek (October 22-23), ABC/Washington Post (October 19-22), CBS/NYT (October 19-22), Fox/Opinion Dynamics (October 20-21), Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby (October 22-24), Gallup (October 22-24), Diageo/Hotline (October 22-24), and IBD/TIPP (October 19-23).
The poll of polls does not have a sampling error.
McCain: 'I'm a fellow Westerner'
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/25/art.macmexicohills1025.gi.jpg caption="Sen. McCain got off his plane Saturday with the hills of Mexico in the background on his way to a campaign stop in New Mexico."]
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (CNN) - At a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico Saturday, Senator John McCain told the crowd that he was a neighboring Western senator who understood the Southwest and Hispanic culture and his opponent didn’t.
“My friends I’m a fellow Westerner, I understand these issues, I understand land and water and Native American issues and border issues and I understand the challenges that a great, great western states face with our growth and our needs and our challenges,” said the Arizona Senator as he courted voters key to the state’s five electoral votes.
“My friends, Senator Obama has never been south of our border, you know that? And he doesn’t know these issues. I know them, I know what the Southwest is, I know strength and the culture and our Hispanic culture and the strength of our great states."
While McCain has been dealing with southwestern issues for over 20 years as an Arizona legislator, an Obama spokesman said that in fact the Illinois Senator did visit Mexico when he was in college.
Obama again mocks McCain over ties to Bush
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/25/art.boreno1025.ap.jpg caption="Obama: McCain really stuck it to Bush - 10 percent of the time."]
RENO, Nevada (CNN) - Democrat Barack Obama levied more criticism at opponent John McCain Saturday, mocking the Arizona Republican by saying McCain is just "trying to break with his president over the last ten days after having supported him for the last eight years."
"He denounced the President for letting things get completely out of hand–that's what he said," Obama told a crowd in Reno. "In fact, John McCain is so opposed to George Bush's policies, that he voted with him 90 percent of the time for the first eight years. That's right, he decided to really stick it to George Bush – 10 percent of the time."
"So, let's be clear. John McCain attacking George Bush for his out-of-hand economic policy is like Dick Cheney attacking George Bush for his go-it-alone foreign policy. What Joe Biden says – it's like Tonto getting mad at the Lone Ranger."
Though, to be clear, Obama's running mate Joe Biden never actually said that publicly. Biden has, however, made similar references using Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The Illinois senator is spending the day out west. In addition to Reno's event, he's also holding a rally in Las Vegas, as well as one in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
New RNC ad focuses on the choppy seas ahead for the nation
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/25/art.poladstorm.rnc.jpg caption="A new RNC tv ad argues that Sen. Obama is too inexperienced to captain the nation through the rough seas that it faces right now."]
(CNN) – Like the recent gyrations of the stock market, the new television ad from the Republican National Committee is almost enough to make you feel seasick.
“Storm” is not fancy. The 30-second spot is composed of little more than images of choppy seas – with waves falling and cresting as the camera does the same – giving the viewer the feeling of being stranded at sea in the middle of bad weather.
“Some now say this storm cannot get worse,” the ad says. “But what if the storm does get worse? With someone who’s untested at the helm,” the ad says as the image of a small boat momentarily appears onscreen, buffeted by waves.
The Obama campaign responded to the “Storm” by trying to turn the ad’s basic metaphor against Sen. John McCain. "In case the McCain campaign hasn't noticed, the financial storm has already hit, and John McCain responded by erratically steering his ship in about five different directions,” Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said in a statement. “The reason that a vast majority of Americans trust Barack Obama to fix this economy is because of the steady leadership he has shown and the change he is promising in this election. No amount of predictable, last-minute fear tactics from will change the fact that John McCain is out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time," Sevugan added.
“Storm” was produced by the RNC’s independent expenditure unit. The RNC says the ad will begin to air Monday in Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Missouri.
(full script after the jump)
McCain aide: Palin 'going rogue'
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/25/art.palincrowd1025.ap.jpg caption="Tensions within the McCain-Palin campaign are spilling into the public. A McCain aide told CNN that Gov. Palin is a 'diva.'"]
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (CNN) - With 10 days to go until election day, long brewing tension between Sarah Palin and key aides to John McCain has become so intense, it is spilling out into the public.
Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin “going rogue” recently, while a Palin associate says she is simply trying to “bust free” of what she believes was a mishandled roll-out that damaged her.
McCain sources point to several incidents where Palin has gone off message, and privately wonder if they were deliberate. For example: labeling robo calls “irritating,” even as the campaign was defending the use of them and telling reporters she disagreed with the campaigns controversial decision to pull out of Michigan.
A second McCain source tells CNN she appears to now be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.
Palin warns Obama would create nanny state if elected
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/25/art.palinflag1025.gi.jpg caption="Gov. Palin said Saturday that Sen. Obama has a big government agenda."]
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (CNN) - Campaigning Saturday in Iowa, a state where polls show Barack Obama enjoying a healthy lead just 10 days before the election, Sarah Palin warned that putting Obama in the White House along with Democrats running both chambers of Congress will turn the country into a nanny state.
Palin cautioned Iowans that under Obama’s “big government agenda,” their income, property and investments would be “shared with everybody else.” She labeled Obama’s plan to provide tax credits to lower and middle-income wage-earners “the philosophy of government taking more, which is a misuse of the power to tax.”
“It leads to government moving into the role of taking care of you, and government and politicians and, kind of moving in as the other half of your family to make decisions for you,” she said. “Now they do this in other countries where the people are not free. Government as part of the family, taking care of us, making decisions for us. I don’t know what to think of having in my family Uncle Barney Frank or others to make decisions for me.”
With audience members shouting “socialist!” throughout her speech, the Alaska governor said that time is running out for Americans to realize the danger of a having a Democrat in the White House.
Polls: Obama has five-point advantage in Ohio
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/25/art.macohio1025.ap.jpg caption="Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin campaigned recently in Ohio."]
LIMA, Ohio (CNN) - It all came down to Ohio in the last presidential election, and a new average of the latest polls in this crucial battleground state indicates that the state is once again up for grabs.
George W. Bush's narrow victory in Ohio four years ago put the President over the top in his bid for re-election. This time around, Ohio could be just as crucial to the outcome of the race for the White House.
A CNN poll of polls compiled Saturday afternoon suggests that Barack Obama has a five-point lead in Ohio, 49 percent to 44 percent, with 7 percent of voters undecided in their choice for president.
This new edition of CNN's Ohio poll of polls consists of five surveys, an Ohio Newspaper poll conducted October 18-22, a Quinnipiac survey taken October 16-21, a CNN/Time/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted October 19-21, a Suffolk University survey taken October 16-19, and an NBC/Mason Dixon poll conducted October 16-17.
Senator Barack Obama, D-Illinois, was up by 7 points over Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, in the previous CNN Ohio poll of olls, which was compiled on October 23.
Both candidates, their running mates, and their surrogates, are spending a lot of time campaigning in Ohio. And Ohio voters are getting inundated with campaign television commercials. The McCain and Obama campaigns have spent a combined estimated $29 million in advertising in Ohio this election cycle.
Obama ad: Will you be better off four years from now?
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/10/25/art.obamadefiningmoment.obama.jpg caption="The Obama-Biden campaign will roll out a new ad in key states Sunday."]
(CNN) - Just a day after John McCain's campaign launched a TV ad attacking Barack Obama's readiness to lead in an international crisis, the Illinois senator unveiled a new ad Saturday that puts a new spin on the age old question: Are you better off today than you were four years ago?
The two-minute ad, "Defining Moment," will begin airing in key states on Sunday, according to the Obama campaign.
"At this defining moment in our history, the question is not, 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' We all know the answer to that," Obama narrates. "The real question is will our country be better off four years from now? How will we lift our economy and restore America's place in the world?"
In order to "build the economy of the future," Obama says there has to be a focus on "urgent national priorities: reducing the cost of health care ... breaking our dependence on foreign oil ... and making sure that every child gets the education they (sic) need to compete."
The McCain campaign has fired back at Obama's new ad. “If Barack Obama is elected President, this may be considered the first in a series of 'defining moments' more commonly called job-killing tax increases," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement.
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