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STERLING HEIGHTS, Michigan: Republican presidential hopeful John McCain attacked his Democratic rival as too weak to lead the nation as he tried to grab Barack Obama's mantle of change.
Campaigning in the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin a day after being officially crowned by their party, McCain and running mate Sarah Palin vowed to bring reform to Washington.
"This is the ticket to shake up Washington because Senator Obama doesn't have the strength to do it," the decorated war hero told an enthusiastic crowd in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
"If you want real change send the ones who have actually done it. Send a team of mavericks who aren't afraid to go to Washington and break some china."
Palin , who was elected governor of Alaska two years ago after fighting corruption in her own party, took the attack further and claimed that Barack Obama would not protect the United States if he were to win the November 4 election.
She attacked Obama's opposition to sending more troops to Iraq last year and praised McCain's willingness to "put his country first" and support the surge at a time when the war was highly unpopular.
McCain "refused to break faith with our troops in Iraq who have now brought victory within sight," even though it nearly destroyed McCain campaign last summer, Palin said.
"If the United States military had suffered defeat at the hands of Al-Qaeda in Iraq our nation would have been less safe today and millions of innocent would have been left to a violent fate.
"That tragedy would have happened if Barak Obama had gotten his way and Congress had cut off funding for the surge."
Obama on Thursday said the surge had "succeeded beyond our wildest dreams" but argued he had shown better judgment than McCain because he opposed the war from its start.
He has committed to start troop withdrawals immediately if he is inaugurated president next January, and believes he can get most American soldiers out of Iraq within 16 months.
On Friday, he lambasted Republicans for ignoring the impact of the current economic downturn and continued to cast McCain as being in lock-step with unpopular president George W. Bush.
"You would think that George Bush and his potential Republican successor John McCain would be spending a lot of time worrying about the economy," Obama told workers in Duryea, Pennsylvania.
"But if you watched the Republican National Convention over the last three days, you wouldn't know that we have the highest unemployment rate in five years because they didn't say a thing about what is going on with the middle class."
Noting that the Republican leaders had been emphasizing in recent days that the economy was fundamentally sound despite high oil prices, a weak housing market, credit squeeze and inflation pressures, Obama asked, "Now, what's more fundamental than having a job?"
US unemployment jumped to a five-year high of 6.1 percent in August as 84,000 jobs were slashed, according to a report released Friday that sparked fresh fears about recession in the world's biggest economy.
The Labour Department report - considered one of the best indicators of economic momentum - marked the eighth consecutive month of shrinking non-farm payrolls, and was worse than expected by private economists.
McCain acknowledged that the country was facing "tough times" and vowed to work to "create millions of new jobs, many in industries that will be the engine of future prosperity and jobs that will be there for your children."
The Vietnam war hero laid out his policy platform at the convention Thursday, exactly two months from election day, arguing a character forged in war gave him the judgment and vision to lead the United States.
His speech ushered in the critical phase of the US election, a frenetic cross-country marathon including three face-to-face debates, which will decide whether he or Obama moves into the White House.
- AFP/yt
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