torsdag 27 mars 2008

Obama tycks ha klarat sig ur pastor Wright-krisen

En ny opinionsundersökning visar att Obama inte tappat nämnvärt mycket popularitet efter avslöjandena om hans pastors anti-amerikanska uttalanden. Clinton däremot är mindre populär nu än för sju år sen. Yahoo News rapporterar följande:

Obama blasts McCain on economy

by Stephen Collinson2 hours, 46 minutes ago

Barack Obama locked horns with John McCain over the economy Thursday, as a new poll suggested he escaped unscathed after remarks by his former pastor engulfed his campaign in controversy.

Fresh from a short vacation in the US Virgin Islands, Obama fired a new volley at the Republican White House candidate, in a battle sure to intensify if he beats Hillary Clinton to the Democratic presidential nomination.

"John McCain has said that he doesn't understand the economy as well as he should, and yesterday he proved it in the speech he gave about the housing crisis," Obama said in North Carolina Wednesday.

"He said that the best way for us to address the fact that millions of Americans are losing their homes is to just sit back and watch it happen.

"We've been down this road before. It's the road that George Bush has taken for the last eight years," Obama said.

"Whether the rest of America is struggling with rising tuition or skyrocketing health care costs, plant closings or crumbling schools, the answer is always the same: 'You're on your own.'"

His remarks were a taste of a full bore attack on McCain in a major speech on the economy Thursday in New York.

A new poll meanwhile showed Clinton's popularity plunging to a seven-year low while Obama's dipped only slightly despite the recent controversy over his outspoken pastor.

According to the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Clinton received a 37 percent positive rating, her lowest since March 2001, two months after she took office as New York senator.

But her opponent saw no significant change in his positive rating, down to 49 percent from 51 percent two weeks ago.

The poll was taken Monday and Tuesday, a week after Obama's landmark speech on race in America in which he criticized his former pastor Jeremiah Wright's comments on racism and US foreign policy, but declined to denounce him.

Democratic pollster Peter Hart called the survey of 700 voters with a 3.7 percent margin of error a "myth-buster" showing that the race row was "not the beginning of the end for the Obama campaign," the Wall Street Journal said.

The McCain campaign appeared keen to take up battle with Obama, accusing him of stooping to "attack and smear" tactics at odds with his vow to cleanse Washington's gridlocked politics.

"Barack Obama's diagnosis for our housing market is clearly that Barack Obama knows best -- raise taxes on hardworking Americans and give government a prescription to spend," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.

"John McCain has called for an immediate and balanced approach to provide transparency and accountability in an effort to help homeowners who are hurting, while Barack Obama has made a 10 billion dollars election-year promise that is sure to raise taxes and handcuff an already struggling economy."

In a major foreign policy address in Los Angeles Wednesday, McCain broke with President George W. Bush on disputes that frayed US global alliances, but argued America had a moral duty to stay on in Iraq.

The Arizona senator offered olive branches to Europe on global warming, said he would close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, and softened the unilateralist tone which prevailed through much of the Bush administration.

He carved out clear differences with Obama and Clinton, who have both vowed to end the unpopular Iraq war and bring US troops home if elected president in November.

"We have incurred a moral responsibility in Iraq. It would be an unconscionable act of betrayal, a stain on our character as a great nation, if we were to walk away from the Iraqi people," he said.

McCain warned withdrawal could precipitate regional chaos, boost Al-Qaeda and bolster Iran, drawing the United States into a wider, more difficult war.

His Democratic foes hit back.

"Like President Bush, Senator McCain discounts the warnings of our senior military leadership of the consequences of the Iraq war on the readiness of our armed forces, and on the need to focus on the forgotten front line in Afghanistan," Clinton said.

"Like President Bush, Senator McCain wants to keep us tied to another country's civil war," she said.

Källa: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080327/pl_afp/usvote 2008-03-27

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