Obama Accuses McCain of 'Willful Ignorance' on the Economy

Oct. 21, 2008— -- The mood was spirited at Sen. Barack Obama's various Florida campaign events today. But behind the scenes, Obama is going through a tough time as he prepares to leave the campaign trail to visit his ailing grandmother.

But that didn't stop him from continuing to challenge Sen. John McCain's reaction to the nation's economic crisis.

At a Palm Beach community college this morning, 1,700 people crammed into a small gymnasium for Obama's economic roundtable with experts and four governors of battleground states.

The panelists included Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, an Obama campaign adviser.

Obama used the roundtable to continue tying McCain to President Bush and to portray his rival as out of touch with the American people's economic woes.

"While President Bush and Sen. McCain were ready to move heaven and earth to address the crisis on Wall Street, the president has failed to address the crisis on Main Street — and Sen. McCain has failed to fully acknowledge it. Instead of common sense solutions, month after month, they've offered little more than willful ignorance, wishful thinking, and outdated ideology."

Strickland, who said that Ohio's economy was "suffering from the Bush administration policies," issued a strong vote of confidence to the Illinois senator.

"I was in the same community where Joe the Plumber lives, and I met Shawn the ironworker yesterday," Strickland said. "He said, 'you tell Sen. Obama Shawn the ironworker is building a bridge for him to the White House.'"

Obama pushed back on McCain's charge that his tax proposal is welfare or somehow socialist because some people will receive tax cuts even if they don't make enough to pay income taxes. Obama noted that his tax credits would go to people who pay payroll taxes -- something his campaign has argued costs working people more than income tax.

"What he's confusing is the fact that, even if you don't pay income tax, there are a lot of people who don't pay income tax, you're still paying a whole lot of other taxes. You're paying payroll, which is a huge burden on a lot of middle income families. You're paying sales taxes, you're paying property taxes," Obama said.

Last week McCain called Obama's tax credit plan "another government giveaway," and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has gone even further, telling the press recently that "now is not the time to experiment with socialism."