DURYEA, Pa. – With their nominating conventions behind them, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain on Friday opened their march to Election Day, with a bleak economic report setting the tone for the final 60 days of the White House campaign.
Mr. Obama criticized his rivals for failing to offer economic solutions during the Republican convention. He asked voters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania to tune out the static that has consumed the presidential race and reflect upon which party would bring change to Washington.
“If you watched the Republican national convention over the last three days, you wouldn’t know that we have the highest unemployment rate in 5 years because they didn’t say a thing about what was going on in the middle class,” Mr. Obama said. “They spent a lot of time trying to run me down and not necessarily telling the truth, but what they didn’t talk about is you – what you’re going through in your lives, what your friends and neighbors are going through.”
Mr. Obama, in shirtsleeves and safety goggles, toured a glass manufacturing plant in this eastern Pennsylvania town near Scranton. He arrived at the factory hours after the latest economic report was released in Washington and his backdrop was intentionally planned to convey a message that Democrats are pushing above all else: the economy.
“This is not about personalities,” Mr. Obama said, imploring voters to weigh the issues and determine which party can bring about change. “If you want it to be about personalities, we’ll go out for a beer sometime and we’ll talk. But you don’t have time, you’re spending time with your family.”
In the final two months of the long presidential campaign, Senators Obama and McCain are grappling for the edge in claiming the mantle of change. To prevent Mr. McCain from gaining ground on a theme that Mr. Obama has sought to control all year, his advisers intensified their efforts to tie the McCain-Palin ticket to President Bush.
“Simply saying the word does not make you the agent of change,” David Axelrod, the campaign’s top political strategist, said in an interview Friday.
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