FLINT, Mich. — Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain clashed Monday over which presidential aspirant was the best person to bring about change.
Both candidates have claimed to be the true agent for change, an idea that polls show most voters support. The latest polls also show that McCain’s standing has improved since he was nominated last week, in part, because of his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
McCain and Palin campaigned Monday in Missouri, a key battleground state, while Obama was in Michigan and his running mate, Joe Biden, campaigned in Wisconsin and Iowa. The Democrats stressed the need to fix the economy.
In Lee’s Summit, Mo., the Republican duo again portrayed themselves as the ticket of mavericks, unafraid to take on their own party on such issues as congressional earmarks and political corruption.
Energy independence, including offshore oil drilling, and the improving security situation in Iraq continue to be among their key issues.
“Change is coming, change is coming,” McCain said.
Speaking in Flint, where the unemployment rate is 12 percent, Obama said McCain was attempting a wholesale makeover after running a campaign based on his Washington experience.
“We’ve been talking about the need to change this country for 19 months,” Obama said. “I guess it must be working, because suddenly John McCain is saying, ‘I’m for change, too.’ ”
With about eight weeks to go until Election Day, the candidates concentrated on battleground states. To counter Palin’s increasing success with conservative voters, the Democrats dispatched Hillary Rodham Clinton to Florida, another swing state.
Earlier in the day, the Republicans accused Obama of requesting nearly $1 billion in earmarks for his home state of Illinois, a figure sharply contested by the Obama campaign.
Palin again said she had rejected an earmark for the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere,” but the Obama campaign immediately retorted that Palin kept the more than $230 million for the bridge and used it for other transportation purposes.
Obama accused Palin of flip-flopping on her claim to have opposed the bridge that has become a symbol of government pork.
“She was for it until everyone started raising a fuss about it,” said Obama. “You can’t just make stuff up. You can’t just re-create yourself. You can’t just reinvent yourself. The American people aren’t stupid.”
The latest polls show the general election neck and neck. A CNN/Time poll showed the race deadlocked at 48 percent, largely unchanged from the previous week, when Obama led McCain 49 percent to 48 percent.
But a poll by USA Today/Gallup gave McCain a 4-percentage-point edge among registered voters and a 10-percentage-point lead among likely voters — a big increase for McCain, who had trailed Obama by 3 percentage points among likely voters.
McCain senior aide Mark Salter said the campaign was thrilled with the numbers — but he cautioned that it was a post-convention bounce and that another milestone loomed: the upcoming debates.
Campaigning for the Democratic ticket in Kissimmee, Fla., Clinton focused on economic issues, a topic Democrats have made the centerpiece of their effort to tie McCain to the unpopular President Bush.
Clinton argued that it was Democrats in the past who were eager to create jobs and improve the economy.
“Choosing a Republican to clean up this mess is like asking the iceberg to save the Titanic. It is not going to work,” she said.
Palin’s ability to motivate the Republican base prompted Zondervan, a Christian book publisher, to rush out a biography on the governor. The book is to be published Oct. 10.
