HUDSON, Wis. – Republican John McCain told a mostly female audience Friday that his plans to cut income, business and estate taxes would help women while Democrat Barack Obama's proposals would only erect new economic obstacles for them.
A day after Obama devoted a day of campaigning to women's issues, McCain did the same.
He told several hundred women in western Wisconsin that his tax cut plans would be particularly helpful to women because so many of them own or work for small businesses.
“Yesterday in New York, Sen. Obama went on at great length about how much he cares about women's issues,” McCain said at a town-hall forum in Hudson, where women vastly outnumbered men. “I believe him. But when you cut through all the smooth rhetoric, Sen. Obama's policies would make it harder for women to start new businesses, harder for women to create or find new jobs, harder for women to manage the family budget, and harder for women and their families to meet their tax burden.”
Obama disputes such claims, but they drew warm applause from McCain's audience.
Obama faults McCain on energy
DAYTON, Ohio – Democrat Barack Obama cast Republican John McCain as a Washington insider and blamed him in part for the country's dependence on foreign oil.
Obama said Friday that he couldn't agree more with McCain's recent comment that the dependence “has been 30 years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long-term.” But, Obama noted, McCain has been in Washington for 26 of those years.
In that time, Obama said, “he has achieved little to help reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”
The Illinois senator said if you talk about failure of Washington politicians on addressing the energy crisis, “understand that John McCain should look in the mirror because he has been a part of that failure.”
House Democrats set to spend $35 million on TV ads
WASHINGTON – House Democrats have reserved millions of dollars worth of television advertising in 31 congressional races in all corners of the country, according to documentation that provides an early roadmap of the party's drive to strengthen its majority in the fall elections.
The list includes 19 seats currently in Republican hands, from Connecticut to Alaska, with two each in Ohio and New Mexico. It also reflects a determination on the part of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to protect its own first-term incumbents in Kansas, New Hampshire, Florida and elsewhere.
In all, the documentation obtained by The Associated Press shows the DCCC has reserved nearly $35 million in advertising to begin in September and October.
The Democratic committee reported more than $47 million in the bank at the end of May. The Republican counterpart group had $6.7 million.
Germans say details of Obama visit being handled
BERLIN – German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has a message for Barack Obama: We can work it out.
Merkel had signaled unease over a possible Obama speech at Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate. A Merkel spokesman, Ulrich Wilhelm, said Friday that while details had not yet been worked out, “we are confident that we will reach a mutual and good solution which does justice to the interests of all involved.”
While Berlin city officials had said they were delighted with the idea, Merkel questioned whether it's appropriate to bring a foreign election campaign to a site that symbolizes Germany's Cold War division and its reunification.
City officials have said they have been contacted by Obama's Democratic presidential campaign staff about a visit. The Obama campaign has refused to provide specifics on his European trip.
The Brandenburg Gate, which once stood behind the Berlin Wall, was the backdrop for a 1987 speech in which President Reagan urged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”
DAILY TRACK
Democrat Barack Obama holds a 6-point lead nationally over Republican John McCain – 48 percent to 42 percent – among registered voters in the presidential race, according to the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update.
THE DEMOCRATS
Barack Obama discusses energy with voters in Dayton, Ohio.
THE REPUBLICANS
John McCain focuses on the economic challenges that women in business faces at a town-hall meeting in Hudson, Wis.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“I made it clear to him and everybody else, I never worked for anybody in my life. I got here when I was 29. I never had a boss. I don't know how I'd handle it.” – Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., on whether Barack Obama or his team had approached him about the No. 2 spot on the Democratic ticket.
STAT OF THE DAY:
Some 39 percent of voters called themselves Democratic, 29 percent Republican, and 32 percent independent in AP-Yahoo News poll taken last month.
Compiled by Ann Sanner.
