The presidential candidates travel to battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
DURYEA, Pa. -- The presidential campaign began in earnest today as candidates fanned out to battleground states and the economy took center stage as a critical issue in the fall election.
With the conventions behind them, Republican Sen. John McCain and Democrat Sen. Barack Obama focused on a new Labor Department report that showed an August loss of 84,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 6.1%, the highest in five years.
The Obama campaign and its allies on Capitol Hill seized on the latest negative report about jobs to redouble their criticism of McCain's economic proposals and further link him to the unpopular president. The McCain camp sought to distance itself from the Bush administration's policies and faulted Washington for failing to act.
"The economic policies of President Bush and the Republicans have delivered another blow to American families," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). "Yet John McCain told Americans who are out of work or who just lost their jobs that another four years of the same failed Bush economic policies are the right solution for them and for America."
At a forum on the economy here, Obama criticized McCain for saying the fundamentals of the U.S. economy are sound.
"What's more fundamental than having a job, seeing your income keep pace with inflation and watching your child walk off the stage with a college diploma in their hand?" asked Obama, adding that McCain "doesn't get it."
Obama said he would offer a tax cut to 95% of Americans by ending tax breaks to corporations "that don't need them" and companies that ship jobs overseas. He said McCain's plan would give $200 billion in tax breaks to corporations while leaving 100 million Americans without tax relief.
McCain, at an appearance in Cedarburg, Wis., with his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, promised to "keep taxes low and cut them where I can," while charging that Obama would raise them.
"He wants to increase your taxes," McCain said as the crowd booed. "He wants a government health care system that puts a bureaucrat between you and your doctor."
Alleging that Obama has never reached out across the aisle to work with Republicans, McCain concluded, "This is the ticket to shake up Washington and get things done."
Earlier, in a written statement, McCain said: "Unfortunately, while millions of Americans are gathering around the kitchen table and questioning how they can keep their homes, pay their medical bills and afford their children's education, Washington has failed to act."
Campaign strategists meanwhile made the rounds of the morning talk shows, digesting and spinning the events of the last two weeks.
McCain strategist Steve Schmidt said on NBC's "Today Show" that the Republican senator from Arizona is the real candidate of change. "John McCain has a record of fighting to change," he said. To Obama, he suggested, change "is a nice word, it's a campaign tactic."
Obama strategist David Axelrod replied that McCain was talking change but didn't mean it. "Last night Sen. McCain used the word 'change' but the policies that he describes were very familiar," he said on CBS' "Early Show." "This isn't change, this is more of the same."
Out on the campaign trail, McCain and Palin headed toward events later today in Michigan, another swing state.
Obama planned an economic forum with workers and community leaders in Pennsylvania, as well as fund-raising events in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
His vice presidential running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, hits the campaign trail with his wife, Jill, visiting seniors in Philadelphia before heading to Langhorne, Pa. for a discussion on the economy.
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