TAMPA, Fla. - Capitalizing on this year's Cinderella major league baseball team, Democrat Barack Obama kicked off a two-day swing through Florida yesterday with an appearance with players from the Tampa Bay Rays.
Obama was introduced by David Price, who closed out Sunday night's victory over the Boston Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. The win propelled the team, known for its relatively small payroll, into the World Series for the first time.
The candidates on the Republican ticket pressed their economic proposals in separate campaign stops, arguing that Obama wants to increase taxes. Sen. John McCain was in Missouri, while vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin campaigned in Colorado - battleground states, along with Florida, that are crucial for the GOP.
As early presidential voting got under way, and with two weeks until Election Day, Obama pressed his economic plan and warned supporters that increasingly tough tactics could be expected from his opponents. The most recent polls showed Obama ahead but with a slightly narrowing lead. In recent days, the McCain camp has accused Obama of having a liberal agenda that focuses on redistributing wealth, and automated telephone calls have gone out in several states that link Obama to a former radical with whom the Illinois senator had a limited relationship.
"Change never comes without a fight," Obama said. "In the final days of campaigns, the say-anything, do-anything politics too often takes over. We've seen it before. And we're seeing it again: ugly phone calls; misleading mail; misleading TV ads; careless, outrageous comments. All aimed at keeping us from working together, all aimed at stopping change.
"It's getting so bad that even Senator McCain's running mate denounced his tactics last night. You know you really have to work hard to violate Governor Palin's standards on negative campaigning," he said to about 8,000 people at the Florida rally.
The Republican ticket has opposed any tax increases, and McCain has called for extending the income-tax cuts of President Bush. Obama's plan would increase taxes for those earning more than $250,000 a year, but everyone else would get a tax cut.
"It's true that I want to roll back the Bush tax cuts on the very wealthiest Americans and go back to the rate that they paid under Bill Clinton," Obama said yesterday. "John McCain calls that socialism. What he forgets, conveniently, is that just a few years ago, he himself said those Bush tax cuts were irresponsible. He said he couldn't 'in good conscience' support a tax cut where the benefits went to the wealthy at the expense of 'middle-class Americans who most need tax relief.' That's his quote."
