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Obama attacks McCain on economy

Campaigning in Ohio, he said his foe was trying to run away from the GOP's economic record.

NEW PHILADELPHIA, Ohio - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, pouncing on a top Republican aide's assertion that the campaign was not about issues, said yesterday that John McCain was trying to run away from his party's economic record.

Campaigning in eastern Ohio, Obama noted that McCain campaign manager Rick Davis had said the election would be decided largely on voters' perceptions of the candidates' personalities. "This election is not about issues," Davis told the Washington Post this week. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

Obama mentioned Davis' comment three times during a one-hour appearance at an outdoor forum on economic issues facing women. He used it to accuse speakers at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., of avoiding talk about job losses, home foreclosures and other issues.

"If you've got George Bush's track record, and John McCain voting 90 percent of the time in agreement with George Bush, then you probably don't want to talk about issues either," Obama said. "If you don't have any issues to run on, I guess you want it to be about personalities."

In response, the McCain campaign said: "Our campaign has been consistent and clear. This election is about whose judgment you can trust to move America forward." It argued that Obama lacked such judgment.

Obama has been concentrating this week on Ohio. Bush narrowly carried the state in 2004 and it could prove pivotal again this year. He said McCain, Bush and other Republicans "just don't get" the hardships many Ohioans were facing because of the long-term loss of manufacturing jobs.

Obama and McCain are running about even in Ohio, with Obama getting 47 percent and McCain 45 percent among registered voters, according to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 2.

Gabrielle Neavin, 24, a single mother working for minimum wage, introduced Obama in a college courtyard. Obama later said of McCain and his backers: "I don't think they are connecting with what ordinary folks, like Gabrielle, are going through every day."

"It wasn't hard for me to connect" with Neavin, he said, because "I was raised by a mom in similar circumstances." Obama's mother was 18 when he was born, and she briefly relied on food stamps to support her family.

Obama cited his proposals to increase the minimum wage and the earned-income-tax credit; to pump money into wind and solar power, clean-coal technology and biodiesel fuels; and to help subsidize health and tuition costs for many families.

He made a rare direct reference to Sarah Palin, McCain's choice for vice president, while discussing women's efforts to be paid the same as men in similar jobs. If elected, Obama said, "we are going to pass equal pay for equal work."

"I disagree with John McCain on this, and I disagree with Gov. Palin on this," he said. "They think that the reason women aren't getting paid the same is because of different education" achievements.

McCain and Palin say they believe in equal pay for equal work. But they oppose Obama's efforts to overturn court rulings that allow workers no more than 180 days to file complaints alleging discriminatory pay.

Obama and Biden Plan Visits to Area

Sen. Barack Obama

will return to Pennsylvania for two days of campaigning.

Today he will speak

in Lancaster at 5 p.m.

at Buchanan Park,

Race Avenue and

West Frederick Street. Gates open at 3 p.m. The event is free.

The location

of his visit tomorrow has not been announced.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden

Jr.,

Obama's running mate, tomorrow will join his

wife, Jill, in a visit to Langhorne, where he

will speak at 2 p.m.

at Maple Point Middle School, 2250 Langhorne-Yardley Rd. Doors open at 12:30 p.m. The event is free.