|
Obama pounces on Cheney's McCain endorsement |
|
By Sam Youngman
|
|
Posted: 11/01/08 06:46 PM [ET] |
Barack Obama seized on Dick Cheney's endorsement of John McCain Saturday, telling a Colorado crowd that the GOP candidate "earned" the unpopular vice president's endorsement by voting with President Bush.
With three days left to go until Election Day, Cheney urged supporters at a Victory rally in Wyoming to vote for McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, saying the country "cannot afford the high-tax liberalism of Barack Obama and Joe Biden."
Obama, who has tried to tie his Republican opponent to the unpopular policies of Bush administration at every turn, jumped on the endorsement while campaigning in the hotly contested state of Colorado, which Bush won in 2004.
"[McCain] served as Washington’s biggest cheerleader for going to war in Iraq, and supports economic policies that are no different from the last eight years," Obama said. "So Sen. McCain worked hard to get Dick Cheney’s support.
"But here’s my question for you, Colorado: do you think Dick Cheney is delighted to support John McCain because he thinks John McCain’s going to bring change? Do you think John McCain and Dick Cheney have been talking about how to shake things up, and get rid of the lobbyists and the old boys club in Washington?"
Obama, who is leading in almost every poll in the campaign's last weekend, including in Colorado, also brought attention to Bush's absence on the campaign trail this year. The White House has said the president, who is hounded by historically low approval numbers, has been focusing on the ongoing economic crisis, so he has curtailed his political events.
But Cheney has spent some time on the trail, raising money and doing limited campaign appearances in conservative parts of the country.
"So George Bush may be in an undisclosed location, but Dick Cheney’s out there on the campaign trail because he’d be delighted to pass the baton to John McCain," Obama said. "He knows that with John McCain you get a twofer: George Bush’s economic policy and Dick Cheney’s foreign policy – but that’s a risk we cannot afford to take."
Republicans responded by making light of the fact that Obama and Cheney are distant cousins.
“Barack Obama and Dick Cheney aren't just cousins, they’ve shared support for the Bush energy policy and the out-of-control spending that John McCain has fought to oppose," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement. |
