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CARSON, California: The war of words between rival White House camps escalated Saturday, one month from the vote, with Republican vice presidential pick Sarah Palin charging Democrat Barack Obama of "palling around with terrorists".
Speaking early Saturday at a fundraiser in Englewood, Colorado, Palin told supporters Obama "is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country."
She was referring to William Ayers, a member of the radical 1960s group the Weathermen who placed bombs at the Pentagon and the Capitol, who supported Obama's first run for public office in 1995.
The Obama campaign described Palin's guilt-by-association attack as "desperate and false."
"Governor Palin's comments, while offensive, are not surprising, given the McCain campaign's statement this morning that they would be launching Swiftboat-like attacks in hopes of deflecting attention from the nation's economic ills," said Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan.
The Illinois senator, meanwhile, charged that Republican rival John McCain's healthcare was "radical."
"He taxes health care benefits for the first time in history; millions lose the health care they have; millions pay more for the health care they get; drug and insurance companies continue to make exorbitant profits; and middle-class families watch the system they rely on begin to unravel before their eyes," Obama said.
The sharpened tone was in line with Republican promises to ramp up the rhetoric ahead of the November 4 election.
On Friday, top McCain adviser Greg Strimple promised a "very aggressive last 30 days" of campaigning to erode Obama's growing lead in the polls.
"We are looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis and getting back to discussing Mr Obama's aggressively liberal record and how he will be too risky for Americans," he told reporters.
"When are you taking off the gloves?" a McCain supporter asked at a rally Thursday in Denver, Colorado.
"How about Tuesday night?" quipped the Arizona senator referring to the second televised debate he will hold with Obama in Nashville, Tennesseee.
In pushing back against Palin's charge, Obama's camp condemned Ayers' "detestable acts," and noted that they occurred when the senator was only eight-years-old.
The Obama camp was levelling its own accusations of extremism, launching an advertising onslaught on TV and radio charging that McCain's policies would cause 20 million more Americans to lose their employer-funded health insurance.
With the economy threatened by recession and a credit crisis on Wall Street, Obama's attacks may resonate with voters fearful of losing their jobs and health care.
Addressing a sun-kissed rally of 18,000 people next to Virginia's naval shipbuilding yards, Obama noted that McCain proposed to give families a tax credit of US$5,000 towards paying for rocketing health care costs.
"But like those ads for prescription drugs, you got to read the fine print to learn the rest of the story, to find out the side-effects," said Obama, who is proposing subsidies and tax breaks to bring in near-universal health care.
McCain insists his health care plan would generate more competition and drive down costs, and that Obama's plan would deprive voters of their choice of doctor through creating a "vast new bureaucracy" run by the government.
The Republican, who has retreated to his Arizona ranch to prepare for Tuesday's debate, is meanwhile rolling out an ad blitz to portray Obama as a radical tax-and-spend liberal.
Following Friday's approval by US lawmakers of the financial rescue plan, McCain is trying to shift the narrative away from the economy.
"I guarantee you, you're going to learn a lot about who's the liberal and who's the conservative and who wants to raise your taxes and who wants to lower them," the Arizona senator told voters in Colorado on Friday.
Obama has emerged strengthened from the financial crisis, projecting an image of calm under fire that has boosted his polling lead to an average of six points over McCain, according to RealClearPolitics.com.
The latest Gallup tracking poll of registered voters put Obama on 50 per cent and McCain on 42, the eighth straight day the Democrat has enjoyed a statistically significant lead.
- AFP/yb
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