Morning News

September 7, 2008

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama said Saturday they will put aside partisan politics for a joint appearance at Ground Zero to mark the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, in a statement, said they will appear together at the World Trade Center site on Thursday "to honor the memory of each and every American who died" in the 2001 attacks.

The campaigns already had agreed to suspend television advertising critical of each other on Sept. 11.

… "All of us came together on 9/11 - not as Democrats or Republicans - but as Americans," they said. "We were united as one American family. On Thursday, we will put aside politics and come together to renew that unity."

From the Wall Street Journal:

Presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama offered very different visions for solving Social Security’s financial problems Saturday in separate appearances before AARP, a Washington lobby that advocates for older Americans.

… Sen. McCain has vacillated when describing his position. At times he has declared forthright that he will not raise taxes, period. Other times he has said that everything would be on the table in a bipartisan negotiation.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said today in a statement: "McCain prefers an ‘everything is on the table’ approach to urging a saving Social Security compromise."

Sen. Obama has been much more forthright about how he would bring the program into balance. He says he’ll raise taxes of those earning over $250,000 a year.

… "I’ll work with members of Congress from both parties to ask people making more than $250,000 a year to contribute a little bit more to keep the system sound," Sen. Obama said. "It’s a change that would start a decade or more from now, and it won’t burden middle-class families. In fact, 99% of Americans will see absolutely no change in their taxes — 99%."

From Bloomberg:

Obama and McCain addressed the AARP’s annual “Life@50+” conference separately, both by satellite.

… Obama criticized McCain’s proposal to create personal accounts, which would allow workers to divert a portion of their Social Security payroll tax to privately held accounts. That approach is similar to a plan President George W. Bush touted in 2005, which Congress refused to enact.

…"Privatizing Social Security was a bad idea when George Bush proposed it, and it’s a bad idea today," Obama said.

"It would take the one rock-solid, guaranteed part of your retirement income and gamble it on the stock market," the Illinois senator said. "That’s why I stood with AARP against this plan in the Senate, and that’s why I won’t stand for it as president."

Obama said under the current approach, "most middle-class families pay this tax on every dime they make, while millionaires and billionaires only pay it on a very small percentage of their income." Hence, he said, he would lift the ceiling in about "a decade or more from now."

From the Los Angeles Times:

Obama, speaking in a pole barn where youngsters usually show off their livestock, offered a sharp critique of McCain’s widely viewed convention speech, acidly noting that some of the Arizona senator’s top advisors were lobbyists until they went to work for his presidential campaign.

"Suddenly he’s the change agent," Obama said. "He says, ‘I’m going to tell those lobbyists that their days of running Washington are over.’ Who’s he going to tell? Is he going to tell his campaign chairman, who’s one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell his campaign manager, who was one of the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Is he going to tell all the folks who are running his campaign, who are the biggest corporate lobbyists in Washington? Who? Who is it that he’s going to tell that change is coming? I mean come on. They must think you’re stupid."

… "This is coming from the party that’s been in charge for eight years. They’ve been running the show," Obama told some 800 supporters here at the Wabash Valley fairgrounds.

"I guess maybe what they’re saying is, ‘Watch out, George Bush. Except for economic policies, and tax policies, and energy policies, and healthcare policies, and education policies, and Karl Rove-style politics, except for all that, we’re really going to bring change to Washington. We’re going to shake things up.’ "

From the Terre Haute Tribune-Star:

The race for president will be close in Indiana, and Democrat Barack Obama made an appeal to his supporters at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds to get involved.

"We can use volunteers," he said. "Sign up today, and we’ll put you to work."

After the event, his campaign supporters signed up new volunteers to canvass neighborhoods or make telephone calls.

"We are taking Indiana very seriously," Lauren Kelly told the crowd before Obama spoke. She is a field organizer working out of Obama’s Terre Haute campaign headquarters.

Some volunteers left the event and immediately went to neighborhoods to spread the word about their candidate.

…Jonathan Swain, Obama’s Indiana campaign spokesman, said the election is down to the final two months, and there will be a big push to make sure people are registered to vote and understand how to register.

Also, volunteers will be canvassing and doing telephone banks to spread the word about Obama and his agenda for change.

This coming week, a group called Women United for Change will be doing phone banks around the state and calling 100,000 undecided voters to talk about Obama.

… "It is going to be a close election here in Indiana. It is tight," Obama told the crowd of more than 900.

Historically, Indiana tends to vote Republican in presidential elections. The closeness of this year’s race "shows this is a change election," Obama said. "Remember what’s at stake."