Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said on Friday a mounting financial crisis required co-ordinated international action as he focused on the US economy and rejected Republican John McCain's personal attacks.
"In this global economy, financial markets have no boundaries. So the current crisis demands a global response," said Obama, ahead in opinion polls with 25 days to go until the November 4 election.
With weekend talks scheduled by world finance ministers in Washington, Obama said those officials "must take co-ordinated steps to restore confidence" but he stopped short of suggesting what those steps might include. He called on Americans to come together to help rebuild the US economy, saying "I won't pretend that this will be easy or come without cost."
"We will all need to sacrifice and we will all need to pull our weight because now more than ever, we are all in this together," Obama said, speaking to about 5,000 people in front of a courthouse in this city in southern Ohio. The economic crisis is playing to Obama's strengths, as a majority of Americans have told pollsters they trust him more than McCain to handle economic issues. McCain, addressing a rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin, argued that his experience makes him the candidate who can lead Americans through the time of economic tumult.
"The status quo is not on the ballot. We're going to see change in Washington. The question is, which direction will it go?" McCain said. "Which candidate's experience in government and in life makes him a more reliable leader for our country and commander-in-chief?" Obama accused the McCain camp of launching "a barrage of nasty insinuations and attacks" and said he expected more in the days leading up to the election.
McCain on Thursday demanded Obama explain the full extent of his ties with William Ayers, a founding member of the Weather Underground group that bombed the US Capitol and the Pentagon in the early 1970s to protest the Vietnam War.
Ayers, now a college education professor in Chicago, hosted a meeting at his house in 1995 to introduce Obama to neighbours during Obama's first run for the Illinois Senate. The two men also served on a nonprofit anti-poverty board together. Obama leads McCain 48 percent to 43 percent among likely US voters in the latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll, up slightly from a 4-point advantage for Obama on Thursday.
"Obama is benefiting from the terrible economic news and what was seen to be a relatively poor debate performance by McCain," pollster John Zogby said, referring to an Obama-McCain debate in Nashville on Tuesday. Obama called for a Small Business Rescue Plan to help small firms get the loans they need to conduct daily operating expenses and meet payrolls. McCain has accused Obama of ignoring the impact on small businesses of his pledge to increase taxes on people making more than $250,000 a year.
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