WORLD> America
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WORLD> America
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Analysis: Biden fills the role of attack dog
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-24 09:34 Biden also quoted McCain saying "no one has supported President Bush in Iraq more than I have." At the same time, Biden charged, without backing up his assertions, that McCain "signed on to Bush's scheme of privatizing Social Security" and said McCain continued to "support tax breaks for companies who ship our jobs overseas" after 3 million manufacturing jobs disappeared. Said Biden: "You can't change America when you know your first four years as president will look exactly like the last eight years of George Bush's presidency." Striking at the heart of what McCain holds most dear, his integrity and honor, Biden accused McCain of pandering to the GOP's conservative base and engaging in negative politics he has shunned before. "I've been disappointed in my friend, John McCain, who gave in to the right wing of his party and yielded to the very 'Swift Boat' politics that he once so deplored," Biden said. "Folks, campaigns for presidents are a test of character and leadership." He insinuated McCain has failed that test. Yet, Biden overlooked moves Obama has made to court the Democratic Party's liberal base and the Illinois senator's own recent flare-ups of hard-hitting politics. Biden's most direct hit came as he raised McCain's housing gaffe, which had caused the campaign to spiral to a low point on Thursday. Obama's campaign seized on the remark and used it to assail McCain as out of touch. McCain's campaign hit back by raising Obama's ties to scandal-scarred Chicago businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko and his role in Obama's Chicago property. One of the poorest members of the Senate, Biden lamented how people like him sit at the kitchen table at night worrying about how to get by in tough economic times. "That's not a worry John McCain has to worry about. It's a pretty hard experience. He will have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at." McCain spokesman Brian Rogers hit back: "Of course Senator Biden is comfortable on the attack, he spent the entire primary highlighting Barack Obama's inexperience and failed judgment on national security." But that was then. And this, call it Target McCain, is now. |
