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WASHINGTON : Barack Obama launched a counter-attack Monday after a week of pummeling by his White House rival John McCain, dismissing the Republican as "in the pocket" of profit-pumping US oil giants.
The Democratic hopeful, who turned 47 on Monday, went on the offensive as daily tracking polls showed McCain had battled back into a statistical tie in the presidential duel, exactly three months before election day.
In a hard-hitting new campaign ad, Obama accused McCain of taking campaign contributions from big oil firms as gasoline prices soar and bite deep into the budgets of American families.
"Now big oil's filling John McCain's campaign with two million dollars in contributions," the ad's narrator said.
The spot also linked McCain to Republican President George W. Bush, seeking to saddle him with the low approval ratings of the current White House resident, who Democrats say sides with former oil industry colleagues.
"After one president in the pocket of big oil ... we can't afford another," the ad said, as Obama laid out his new energy plan in Michigan, the home of the struggling US auto industry and a crucial battleground state.
McCain's campaign denied the senator had taken "Big Oil" donations, accused Obama of trawling for contributions from oil industry employees, and pressed home its claim that Obama's fame masked political liabilities.
"Barack Obama's latest negative attack ad shows his celebrity is matched only by his hypocrisy," McCain's spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement.
"After all it was Senator Obama, not John McCain, who voted for the Bush-Cheney energy bill that was a sweetheart deal for oil companies," he said, referring to Vice President Dick Cheney.
Republicans also pounced on Obama's call on Monday to sell 70 million barrels of oil from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a bid to lower prices, pointing out that he had opposed such a plan a month ago.
Obama's foes accuse him as well of backtracking for political gain on the question of expanding offshore drilling, which he has opposed but now says he would accept if it would ease political deadlock over sweeping energy reforms.
Republicans mocked Obama by delivering tire gauges to reporters, highlighting the Democrat's comment that drivers could save gas by properly inflating tires, which McCain claims is proof the Obama energy plan is shallow.
The Obama campaign noted however that the US Department of Energy and the NASCAR auto racing series advise drivers to keep tires inflated to improve gas mileage.
During his speech in Michigan, Obama vowed to launch a 150 billion dollar effort to cut America's reliance on oil from volatile regions of the globe.
"This addiction is one of the most dangerous and urgent threats this nation has ever faced," he said, blaming it for wiping out paychecks, breeding instability in the Middle East and provoking global warming.
"In 10 years, we will eliminate the need for oil from the entire Middle East and Venezuela," he said, and called for a windfall tax on oil company profits to finance a 1,000 dollar rebate for families hit by high energy costs.
Republicans have savaged Obama's plan for a windfall tax, arguing it would do nothing to cut the price of gasoline at the pump.
The row over energy coincided with a new Rasmussen daily tracking poll showing McCain and Obama locked in a tie -- 44 percent each.
When undecided voters who were "leaning" to one candidate or the other were included, McCain led by 47 to 46 percent, the first time he had posted an advantage since Obama secured the Democratic nomination in June.
The latest Gallup daily tracking poll Monday had Obama up by three points, 46 to 43, after his lead dipped to just one point late last week.
After he returned from a triumphant tour of Europe just over a week ago, Obama had led the Gallup poll by nine points.
After weeks of failing to stick to a constant attack message, McCain last week debuted a harsh new strategy, with ads portraying his rival as an empty celebrity suffering from a Messiah complex.
- AFP/vm
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